aTi 7/7/08 creative movement workshop minor

This workshop was captivating from start to finish! The way the teacher, Candace K. taught, it was extremely unique & contrasted from any "dance' lessons I'd ever had. Instead of a top-down approach, it was very student-centered & I felt this every day. She added her own original touch to everything, giving us journals to write in; cameras for our growth process and pictures of wht "moved" us; having us create a wall mural acronym of our names, drawing a chalk picture to go with it, along with a collage of what "moved" us...Candace just did a phenomenol job of drawing the creativity out of all of us in her class, giving each of us equal attention in turn.

teacher's journal questions:
(Q):What is creative movement?
(my A): moving your body in any choreographed way to a silent or
audible beat which can also be used to tell a story

(Q): How do you feel while doing it?
(my A): When I move, I feel exhiliarated, free, & in control. I feel sexy, alive, & in
tune with my spirit.

When I asked Candace why the course was not just called "dance," she gave a great explanation. It was something to the effect of: the word dance has certain connotations & expectations; it's more rigid & less organic; scaring people off who didn't feel they could do it...

In hindsight, I must add to my 2nd answer above: I feel "JOYFUL" while expressing creative movement!

We did warm ups to very beautiful, soothing, and out of the box music as our teacher made statements of this sort: "Close your eyes & sway like the wind," "Reach up & grab the sun," "Bring your arms down & grab a part of the earth..." (She really touched the naturalist in me [a very big part of who I am]).

Then, on this 1st day, one after another, she had each of us, say "No" through movement. Each student's physical expression of that word became the next step in a wonderful impromptu dance routine that we were then creating. She added a step last and then had each of us add another step and so on to what could have gone on to Alvin Ailey if you ask me. She said we were all so good at it, we made her job very easy unlike many prior students. How cool is that?

Reflections: Dancing was once my life. I took dance lessons in ballet, jazz, & tap for 7 years during primary & secondary school and I was also in the dance ensemble at the latter. Until I graduated from college, throughout my life, I often danced around the house to R&B or club music on the radio or some tape (even while doing chores) & I constantly choreographed solo, duo, or group dances in my head to music I loved. I won 1st runner up for a choreographed dance at a talent contest in my 2nd high school (Science High) and the same at a dance contest in the Bahamas. This also brings to mind a poem I wrote during the 1st semester my freshman year of college when I was dancing at at least 1 party between Thursday & Saturday each week. It's called "Dancing Is Me" (& when I find it, I'll share it...)

During the summer before graduating college, I made the bulk of a business plan to start my own dance school but that dream was put on a back burner along with the rest of my talent-related dreams once my career began. Other than taking a few African dance lessons at a school during one year in my late 20s, this aTi minor is my 1st time actively practicing some semblence of formal creative movement since graduating high school.

We have performances & exhibits for friends, family, & special guests the entire last day at aTi. Not only did I receive great compliments on my choreographed dance each day once we started preparing for it, I was also told by various ones that I kept getting better each rehearsal. One of the aTi students from the drama workshop told me that the ending production put on by members of our workshop that summer was by far the best one he'd ever seen and he and a number of others raved about how good I was. On top of that, one of my creative movement classmates was so impressed with my final performance, she asked if I was trying to audition for Alvin Ailey!

Since I started taking my painting dream off the shelf in summer 07' & dusting it off thanks to aTi, who knows; maybe I'll start looking into my own dance school stuff again too at some point! One of the dance teachers at my school has her own, the French teacher has a beautiful, upscale restaurant, an art teacher owns his own horse training ranch, and a TV production teacher at my school has his own production company... Given the time, I will be doing something about my own entrepreneurial aspirations. So stay posted!

aTi 7/9/08 oil painting workshop major

I had already finished my 1st of 3 paintings made at aTi this summer when these journal notes began. As I said, unlike last summer at aTi which was my 1st time painting since I was a 15 year art major at a school of the arts where I now teach, I was not exuberant the whole time I painted this summer. Instead, I was much harder on myself, partially because the bar was raised.
(My attempts to save gas money by finding shorter routes for what began as a 50 minute commute were not as sucessful as hoped [until the day before the program ended of course--though I did get it down to 30 min]). As much as I still loved the program & was dying to do even better & more than last year, I painted the same amount and only loved the outcome with one of my paintings.

I would feed my growling stomach with those aTi breakfasts & my caffeine fix before feeding my soul. That would be before rushing in only to spend way too much time sorting through magazines and photos or otherwise trying to decide on my subject matter which I would have had ready had I not spent so much time at home trying to fulfill so many other priorities that I never find time to do during the school year... My nerves were in frays the whole time because I so desperately wanted to do a great job. I've heard of writer's block before but painter's block was a new one.

To make matters worse, our teacher, Kit, makes us spend a maximum of 2 days on the 1st painting which in reality amounted to about 3 hours in my case this time. I never fully understood the rationale for this 2-days-only-for-1st-painting-thing beyond motivating & impressing people with how much can be done in little time. However, that could be because I was having a senior moment while Kit was explaining it.

The painting of a meadow that I unwittingly settled on for that one turned out "alright" but I still plan to do more to my "Meadow Medley"--along with all 7 other paintings I've made in the last year. I have yet to find a moment to paint outside of aTi despite buying all this equipment to do so but it's thanks only to aTi that I could accomplish that many.

The 2nd one this summer was my 1st attempt at abstract painting & because the only colors in it are some version of black, white, or some shade of grey, I've actually named it "Shades of Grey." It was created for my hairstylist who requested one for "the white room" in his new club after viewing the others I'd made. He even offered to let me give art shows there!!!

The last one, "Sister Butterfly," is the 2nd most special one of them all. I LOVE the 3 made last summer but it is really only this last of these 3 made 7/7-18/08 that I feel this way about. Yet ironically, the teacher & April Armstrong--1 of the other painters from both summers who I became good friends with & whose paintings I most admired when she was also there last summer-- said they saw a lot of growth in these 3 compared to the work I did back then! Go figure. You can see a not-so-good-photo of this 1st & last painting of the summer in my art exhibit entry.

7/6/08 Intro.- Living the Life at aTi (ArtistTeacher Institute) 2008

Well, here goes my 1st real attempt at blogging! I've been interested in learning how to create this type of website (an online journal/personal website/personal broadcast) since 1st reading about it many years ago. I took a computer workshop in Jan. which included blogging & setting up this account but then I was so busy with schoolwork and other priorities, I forgot I even started this. That is, until aTi (the Artist/Teacher Institute) gave a lunchtime seminar on it so that those of us winning Victoria scholarships (http://www.victoriafoundation.org/) would consider using the aTi blog for our required aTi journals. So, I'm starting by thanking aTi for making me do this journal thing that I've also longed to get back to doing since my teens anyway and I especially thank it for giving me this very easy means which is bringing me more into the Information Age as well.

I L-O-V-E aTi! I honestly believe it was the best decision of my life to become a part of it because I had 2 straight weeks of boundless joy, fun, creativity, and just plain glee! I just spent two weeks there for the 2nd summer in a row after initially fighting with myself over the need to save gas money and have more time to earn a 2nd income plus focus on school preparation during my vacation instead. In the end, I convinced myself to go with the argument that through aTi, the arts just might eventually become one of the multiple streams of income I need most and one of its main purposes is to provide teachers with ways to infuse the arts across the curriculum. If you're an artist (or would-be -one) and/or a school administrator or teacher "of any subject" looking for ways to include the arts in your lessons, or just "play" through the arts to replenish yourself, I can't encourage you enough to check out aTi and its main sponsors at http://www.artshorizons.org/ where you will discover more about this great opportunity and others.

What a fabulous & challenging 2 weeks it was! I again majored in oil painting (which followed the great breakfasts they provided) but this time, I minored in creative movement (following the good-but-not-great lunches).

I thought I'd died & went to heaven while painting same time last year there. Throughout elementary school, I recall drawing pictures & designs all around my class notes whenever I found the chance and I loved my art classes so much, my mother enrolled us in art classes at our local museum which my sister Lynn & I looked forward to walking to each weekend. Yet, other than 3 sketches drawn during my freshman year of college (which my cousin Gia still raves about [the one of her]), last summer's aTi experience was my 1st time being an active participant in visual art since age 15 while majoring in it at a high school of the arts. The amount of gratification I felt at aTi last summer left me wondering how I'd stayed away from painting (and creative writing) for so long. The only problem left then was how to get funding and find the time to apply it to the history classes I teach. However, though I still loved painting at aTi this summer, I actually felt tremendous anxiety during my oil painting major this go round. More about that later...

Last summer, I tried my hand at playwriting for the 1st time; another long time goal. It was my minor but though I really enjoyed it too, I not only found myself exhausted after lunch which made it hard to stay focused if I wasn't active, it was actually difficult to take my mind off of painting because I was so into it. By the 2nd week, I could not wait until the end of the day so I could get back to painting after hours and stayed there later and later each time with a couple of others from the class. I loved my products from the playwriting although the poet in me was more exposed than my playrighting self with at least a couple of exercises. I also had a hard time seeing how to apply this particular workshop to my own teaching given the time constraints. But, at least I got to try something else different yet fun!

My aTi minor this year was another rekindling of a long lost old flame; dance. But it was called "creative movement" and I soon found out this was appropiately so...This workshop was nothing short of enchanting!