Meredith Monk and her ensemble are at Bryn Mawr all week doing workshops and giving talks and performances. Today Meredith led an open workshop, and got to go to it! I was particularly excited about the opportunity because I had actually heard Meredith's music and seen her videos before (unlike previous performers at Bryn Mawr). Come to think of it, back in my synchronized swimming days, I even swam a solo to Meredith's music. I was... how old? Twelve maybe? 'Traveller's 1, 2, 3' followed by 'Eva's Song,' both from the Book of Days.
Bryn Mawr advertising tends to publicize using pictures from artists' "prime," but today Meredith Monk is (I checked wikipedia) 68 years old. My knees were aching a bit in class today (presumably it's the Pennsylvania cold), and it was great, encouraging really, to see someone who has had an outstanding artistic career and still retains her bodily grace, presence and sense of awareness (they all go together), not to mention her amazing voice.
The group had a friendly open feeling. It seemed to be mostly dancers, some college students and some professionals from Philly, with a few singers, including members of Meredith's ensemble, mixed in. Luckily every vocalization had a movement to go along with it, so that we movers were able to catch on to the quick changes of timing... almost. Meredith told us when we were off, which seemed most of the time, but she was also encouraging and quick to smile.
A few concepts/techniques that were new to me...
- stretching the tongue to warm up vocal chords: stick out your tongue and press it down your chin with your forefinger (a strange sensation and much more of a stretch than I expected)
- moving your gaze along a horizon line: in a wide stance, shift weight right and left, arms outstretched, twisting the upper body as you go. The challenge I experienced was trying to quickly and smoothly shift my gaze across this horizon line - usually we look around by jumping our gaze from one place to the next.
- directing your voice through space: sing one note as "ma" while walking across the room, directing your steady sound to the one point that you fix your eyes on
- singing a phrase in a round while walking around amidst the moving group: just a cool experience
From the cover of Book of Days. Such an enchanting image.
This website seems to have a good bio as well as some good sound and video clips... http://www.digitalinberlin.de/meredith-monk-documentary/
what a great opportunity to study with meredith monk for a week! she has been creating through many years, and developing and deepening her understanding of the body and sound. her work is beautiful and bypasses the left brain, speaking directly to the audience with gesture and tone. fantastic! so good to hear that she has a supportive presence. should all great artists be willing teachers....!
ReplyDeleteShould all great artists be willing teachers... It's great when they are, though it's not really in the job description is it? It seems to me that many great artists are teachers whether they think of themselves that way or not, though to varying degrees depending on their art form. Choreographers, conductors, people who work with others to create their work often seem to teach without fully realizing their impact.
ReplyDeleteThis is particularly true in the dance world. The implications and values of a choreographer's creative process and power structure within that process can easily be internalized by the dancers they work with. In making art with other people's body's, voices, etc teaching is part of the work.
What are the differences between choreography and teaching? It seems the two intersect or diverge depending on different styles of creation.