Michèle's Handbell Blog!

Why do I want a Masters degree?

2011-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

This post is based on an email I sent to the Handbell-L. I'm putting it here so that I can refer back to it when the doubts come on little cat feet in the middle of the night.

Now that I'm nearing the end of my undergraduate career -- yes, "nearing" is relative; I still have a year and half to go, but see my previous post as to why now is the time I have to look to the future -- I've been wrestling with the question of WHY I want a Masters in the first place. I've boiled it down to two main reasons:

1) I know that in California, you must have at least a Masters to eligible to teach at state colleges & universities (private schools are not bound by this, of course). I think many other states have this requirement, too. I would love to be able to teach Theory or History at the university level, BUT - and this is really important! - how many times have we heard of young people wanting to major in handbells and the school asks, "But who will be your teacher?" I want to be on that short-list of people who are eligible to teach handbells at the University level. I need (at least) a Masters for that.

2) I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how to word this gently, but I think perhaps it's best to just come out and say it: Women conductors have a harder time of it in the musical world. And not just in the larger world of orchestras, but also in handbells -- we've talked about that on the Handbell-L more than once or twice. It's not that there aren't any women conductors out there -- good grief! Look at how many are on the Handbell-L!! -- but rather that they seem not to get the recognition they deserve. I feel that if I want to be taken seriously as a "marquee conductor," then I need a degree in Conducting. While it's true that the Concordia degree is not specifically in conducting, see what I said in my previous post about having the time to be able to supplement it with other workshops and continuing/extended learning opportunities. I believe I have the discipline - and yes, the ambition - to do this.

I'll be honest; a degree in Church Music was not my first choice. I come from a Conservatory background in which Church Music was seen as a "lesser" degree for some reason (I don't quite understand it, but it was something "everybody knew" - just like a degree in Education was also somehow "lesser". ???), so I've spent a lot of time thinking about whether this is really something I want to do or not.

Then I realized that I've been a church musician for almost 20 years. I've worked for the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, and the Lutherans, and played in a number of other denominational churches (and some non-denominational). I have a great love for church music, and the rhythms of the church year -- and music is essential to my worship experience. From a more utilitarian perspective, my main employment opportunities are and probably always will be with the church and having a degree in church music can only help that (it certainly can't hurt). Other employment opportunities will see the Masters (and the supplemental education) on my resume and know that I have the musical background to do the job.

In short, I think pursuing a Masters is the right course of action for me. I've heard nothing but good things about the Concordia program and it has many things that appeal to me because of where I am in my life and what I want to accomplish.

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Where have all the blog posts gone? Long time passing!

2011-01-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

Wow - I haven't blogged here since June? Really? How is that possible??

A lot has happened since last June. I walked Commencement at Foothill College, I attended the Walden School Teacher Training Institute, I took American History & German 101 at Palomar College, plus Vocal Ensemble at CSUSM, I started a new ensemble, I got a church job ...

... and it was at Palomar on the first day of Fall Semester that I saw a sign that said that CSUSM was accepting applications for mid-year admissions. They don't usually do that. Usually you have to apply in fall for the NEXT year's fall semester - meaning you apply Fall 2010 for admission to Fall 2011. This application period was for admission to Spring 2011, which starts in January. They weren't 100% certain they were actually going to be able to admit anyone - it all depended on the California budget that was in process of being approved - but things looked promising.

The sign said that the application deadline was in 2 weeks! So I filled out an online application that night & frantically ordered transcripts from all the post-secondary schools I've attended (BGSU, UC, LCC, FC, DAC, and Palomar), crossed my fingers & settled down to wait.

Long story short: I was accepted as a Junior with no conditions. That means that I suddenly went from being someone who was doing General Education stuff at the local Community College to someone who is in the middle of her Junior Year in College!

... and THAT means that I have to start looking at grad schools because I have to apply for them THIS FALL! Eep!

(I've actually been thinking off-and-on about grad school since this past summer, but now that I know I have to actually DO something about it "soon" I've been thinking about it more "on" than "off"!)

I have been planning to pursue a Masters in Conducting. I have a few options for schools. San Diego State University is of course on the list. It's the obvious choice because it's so close by. However, it's a very competitive school for music: they only accept 7 conducting students per year and the application requirements are difficult to fulfill. Not impossible, but difficult enough that I can see the program is obviously intended for people with a fairly substantial amount of experience with orchestral (or other large group) conducting. Plus, the classes are mostly in the evening to accommodate the working life of most grad students. Unfortunately, I mostly work nights - did I mention I have a church job now? - because the people I direct have day jobs. So where else might I go, if not SDSU?

California Baptist University is in Riverside. That's not too far away from me, probably about 1.5 hours. I have a friend who lives in Lake Elsinore who offered to let me stay at her place during the week while I'm attending classes. They have a Conducting program PLUS the FAQ page for their Performance degree says that you can study with a teacher of your choice. That is, you're not limited to studying with one of their faculty members. Hmm, does that mean that I could study Performance with handbells as my instrument? Could I possibly do a double degree - BOTH Conducting AND Performance? Again, though, their classes are mostly at night.

Azusa Pacific University is near Pasadena. A little farther away than Riverside, and requires dealing with a bit of LA traffic, but not outside the realm of possibilities. They also offer both Conducting and Performance AND they have a handbell choir, taught by Dr. Donavon Gray, who does a lot of teaching in AGEHR Area XII.

Another possibility is Redlands University in Redlands. North of Riverside and a bit inland, this is where my friend Beth Mays is currently working on a BA in handbells. I know she plans to pursue a Masters, too, and is also in the middle of her Junior year, so perhaps we could attend together?

All of these options, though appealing, would require me to spend a lot of time away from my home and my husband. Sure, we're used to a bit of that, since I travel so much, but it would be nice to not have it be *every* week. I found the fall of 2009 - when Brian was living in San Diego & I was still in the Bay Area - to be very difficult. Darnit - we got married because we wanted to be together!!

OK, so there's still one more option and it's looking more appealing to me all the time. Concordia University in Wisconsin offers a Masters in Church Music with Handbell Emphasis that can be completed by attending 5-week summer sessions over the course of 3 consecutive years. (If you miss a year, you have to wait for those topics to come back around again in the rotation.)

One disadvantage I see is that it's NOT a degree in Conducting. I'd really like to be able to be a "marquee conductor" in the handbell world. I'm making inroads in that regard & think that getting a degree would be an important step toward that goal.

However, the advantages I see to this are:

I would very likely be able to start the same summer I get my BA, which means I could *finish* almost a year earlier than with the other programs -- Summer 2014 rather than Spring 2015.
It would leave my regular year free to do things like re-start my solo performance career, teach more workshops, and maybe even relax a little! (Nah....)
and perhaps most importantly: take other classes in Piano, Ear Training, Counterpoint, Conducting, etc., without being constrained by degree requirements.

Today I googled for conducting workshops just to see what's out there. I know the AGEHR offers a conducting master class each January, but surely others were out there, too? Not only are do a lot of different schools offer conducting workshops, they are offered nearly year-round AND there's even a website that aggregates notices about them! Bingo!

This makes me much more comfortable with the idea of NOT doing a Masters specifically in Conducting -- there's nothing stopping me from taking as many classes in conducting as I can!

Now, where did I put that Concordia application?

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Foggy-brained Forgetfulness

2010-06-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

I just *knew* as soon as I started the really long post I just sent that I would forget something. :-(

How could I possibly forget to mention the amazingly cool thing that Miss Music Nerd did for me?!?

Miss Music Nerd has started making Music Nerd Merit Badges, and asked people for suggestions for possible badges. Kathryn, The Artsy Honker and serpent player, suggested a "You Play the WHAT?" badge for players of unusual instruments.

Of course, I commented that I need one of those for the handbells -- how many times have people responded to "I play the handbells" with "handball?" argh!

Miss Music Nerd agreed & made one for handbells, THEN she went above & beyond the call of duty and made one specifically for me! YAY!!

Here it is, my own special music nerd badge:

Hope you love it as much as I do -- Thanks again, Miss Music Nerd!

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Miscellaneous Musical Musings

2010-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry this blog has been quiet lately, but things have been absolutely crazy here. Here's a rundown of what's been going on since I last posted in the middle of May:

May 15: Brian & I went to see the SD Symphony play Richard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony" and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." Both works were absolutely fabulous! It makes sense to program both works on one program because they both use an extended orchestra. By that I mean that they use more than the "standard" number of instruments. For example, the "Alpine Symphony" uses EIGHT horns instead of the standard four, plus Wagner tubas, multiple harps, and all manner of other things. Here's a review of the concert.

***

May 16: I attended an afternoon concert by the San Diego Harmony Ringers at Blessed Sacrament Church in San Diego. The stone-floored sanctuary had really nice acoustics which worked well with the bells. There were some space issues, so the Ringers had to set up in a straight line rather than their usual L-shaped configuration, but I think they worked really hard to watch their director more and overcome it because they sounded great!

That afternoon, I attended the joint concert of the Pacific Beach Crusader Bells and the Mira Costa College Chorale in Oceanside. The host church's bell choir opened the concert by playing a few numbers, then the Chorale sang -- and what beautiful voices they have, a very nice blend -- and then the Crusader Bells joined the Chorale for a couple of joint pieces, then the Bells finished out the program on their own. The program was a good mix of styles and tempos and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it all.

***

I spent the following week working on re-designing my websites. Go take a look at HandbellMusic.com, and TheGoldenDance.com, both of which have been completely re-designed.

Doing this meant that I had to move The Clearinghouse of Choreography from its former home at HandbellMusic.com over to TheGoldenDance.com, but I think that URL is more suitable for a store than for the Clearinghouse anyway, so it's all good. :-)

I finally uploaded those new designs the first week of June.

***

May 21: I flew up to San Jose for a Bronzewood Paedeia rehearsal, which went very well.

***

May 22: Sonos rehearsal 11-5, then I flew home that night & got to spend a rare Sunday at home with my husband. We went to Ikea. :-)

***

May 25: Brian's birthday! We went out to dinner at the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, along with handbell friend Laurie Sanders and her son Robbie. We took a tour of the brewery (which included sample beers, yay!), then had dinner. It was a great evening & we all had fun.

***

May 27: I got my official grades for the Spring Semester at CSUSM. Straight A's again. YAY!

***

May 28-June 1: Brian & I flew to Bellingham, WA, where we met with his sister & her husband who live in Abbotsford, BC. We spent the weekend with them in Abbotsford and in Vancouver, BC, and had a wonderful time. It was a very relaxing weekend even though I spent some time working on my websites -- Brian's sister is a professional web designer & was gracious enough to help me out with a few things.

***

June 5: Brian & I went to Ikea again (hey, we just bought a house and we've got to decorate it, y'know!). The San Diego Ikea is in a big shopping plaza and shares a parking lot with a CostCo and a Lowe's. I complained on Twitter & Facebook about the parking & found out that Laurie & Rusty Sanders (handbell friends) were at Lowe's shopping for a new barbecue grill, so we decided to have lunch together. I was supposed to attend a handbell concert in Solana Beach that night, but I was just too exhausted, so I stayed home.

***

June 8: I subbed at the San Diego Harmony Ringers rehearsal at Faith Pres in San Diego. They recently were able to purchase 5 octaves of brand new bells thanks to a donation by one of their ardent fans. They wanted to pay her back someway, so on the 8th, they played a private mini-concert for her. I could tell that she really enjoyed the concert and I was honored to be asked to play a part in the event.

***

June 11-13: Friday night was another Bronzewood Paedeia rehearsal in Palo Alto. We're hard at work on a new CD! Saturday was Sonos rehearsal in Oakland and Sunday was Sonos' 20th Anniversary Gala. We had food and wine, a mini-concert by Sonos, and a special showing of our new documentary DVD "Ringing Down: Bells and their Stories" on the big screen at the "Auctions By the Bay" Theater in Alameda. The Board members really did a great job making sure that all the attendees were well taken care of. Jim (along with Ellen & Ron) worked very hard to create several large displays of pictures from Sonos' 20 year history. I had to leave for the airport right after the movie showing, which was a bit of a bummer, but the 7:30pm flight was the last one out of Oakland for San Diego.

***

June 14-16: I was hard at work putting the final touches on my class notes for the Area XII Festival Conference at UC Davis. I was one of four clinicians teaching day-long educational tracks -- Michael Glasgow, Dr. Bill Payn, Debbie Rice, and me! I'll talk more about this in a moment.

***

June 16: Our 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by having dinner at Stone, which is rapidly turning into our favorite restaurant! :-)

***

June 17-21: On Thursday morning, I flew to Sacramento, picked up my rental car, then met my friend (and fellow Sonosian) Sunghee and her friend Grace at the airport. We waited a little while longer for Michael & Debbie to show up, then Tami Sigl showed up to take Debbie to the UC Davis campus (she also had to pick up Bill Payn & National Board Member Phil Roberts from their hotel, which is why she just took Debbie), while I took Michael.

We had to stop at Office Max on the way because I forgot my USB-to-Car charger for my TomTom (as well as my USB-to-Wall charger for my phone!), then go to Kinko's to pick up my class notes -- I had sent the order in Wednesday night from their website, which is a wonderful time-saver. Fortunately, SMF has free wi-fi, so Sunghee & I were able to google for directions and write them down so we didn't get lost.

After stopping at Kinko's, we had lunch at Bistro 33, which is in the old Davis City Hall building. Yummy food & a great atmosphere.

When we finally arrived at campus, it was time for Sunghee & I and 10 other ringers to start 6 hours of rehearsal as part of the Odyssey Ensemble, led by Dr. Payn. Even though I've known him for so many years, it was my first time playing under his baton, so it was a special experience for me.

Before I go on, let me take a moment to explain the new "Track System" we used for this Festival Conference. Instead of the usual format of having massed ringing all day every day with breaks for a few classes, the conference was set up so that Friday & Saturday were days for participants to take a whole-day "track" on a particular subject. (There was also an "All Ring" track so that people who really wanted massed ringing could choose that track.) Each track was led by one of the four main clinicians, who developed the curriculum and planned the classes. The registrants started out in a large Group Session led by the main clinician, then divided into 3 groups for Breakout Sessions, one led by the main clinician and two led by the assistant instructors. Each track had 3 Group Sessions and 3 Breakout Sessions and all the participants got all 6 classes.

On Friday, Michael Glasgow led the "All Ring" massed ringing track of Level 1-2+ music, Bill Payn led the "Performance" track, and Debbie Rice led the "Church Music" track. I was one of Debbie's assistant instructors for the day & led the class on "Using Bells in Contemporary Worship," as well as helped her with logistics for her group sessions (passing out notes & music, making sure all the registrants knew where to go when, etc.).

Friday evening was the Odyssey Ensemble concert where we played our 6 pieces for the assembled attendees. It was a lot of fun & I think the audience had a good time, too. It's always fun to play for fellow handbell ringers because there's just so much energy in the room!

On Saturday, Debbie led the "All Ring" massed ringing track of Level 3-4 music, Bill Payn led the "Directors" track, and I led the "Basics" track, along with my two lovely assistants Jason Tiller (of Sonos) and Tom Parsons (formerly of Sonos). Jason's wife Diane helped him out with his breakout session ("Dream Weaving"), which was great - that's a tough class to teach alone because it's so hands-on and I'm glad he had her help.

Saturday night, the Showcase concert was by the Opus Handbell Ensemble from Modesto. Diane Tiller & I played flute for them on one piece. We had had rehearsal about an hour before the concert, but in between rehearsal & the concert the building's air conditioning shut off and so when we got up to tune, it was so warm that our flutes had gotten really really flat -- so flat that we couldn't push our headjoints in far enough to be in tune with the bells! We both just had to lip the pitch up. Fortunately, both Diane & I have lots of experience playing with handbells (under the super-picky ears of Sonos director Jim Meredith) and so it all turned out ok. In fact, we got compliments from a couple of people who I know have really good ears! Yay!

Sunday was the final day of the conference and it was time for the "Mass Attack!" a full day of nothing but massed ringing under the wonderful batons of Michael Glasgow, Bill Payn, and Debbie Rice. I played with my good friend Ruben Mendoza's group. We played a final concert at 3:30pm, during which the Area had their "passing the bell" ceremony from current Area Chair PL Grove to the new Area Chair Rima Greer.

After the concert and loading out all the equipment from the massed ringing room, the clinicians and Area XII Board went out to dinner at Bistro 33. It's a good thing we sat outside on the patio because there were lots of smiles and laughter and we were a little loud. What a fun party, though!

I stayed overnight on Sunday night, too, so I wouldn't have to deal with packing for the airport that night. I got up in the morning, had a leisurely breakfast, then went to the airport for my flight home. Brian picked me up at the San Diego airport & we came home.

Wil Mandac, member of Bay Bells & Low Ding Zone, was the event's Official Photographer and took lots and lots of pictures. He's posted a few of them to Facebook and will post more to Flickr later. I'll post a link here once he's done that.

***

Today, I'm trying to catch up on everything and am feeling a bit stressed because I leave on Thursday night to fly up to the Bay Area again. On Friday, I will be walking in the Commencement ceremony for Foothills Community College and receiving my Associate of Arts in Music. I have to fly Thurs night because there's a rehearsal for the ceremony at 10am on Friday. After the rehearsal, I'll go pick up Brian at the airport, then the ceremony begins at 6pm. Friends will be joining us for dinner after the ceremony.

Saturday is Sonos rehearsal again -- and our last one before our July 10th concert at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church. After that, we head to Nashville for the AGEHR National event Pinnacle. Sonos will be playing the opening night concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium, one of the former homes of the Grand Ole Opry. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that after the show!

***

So that's what I've been up to lately. There's no time to slack off now, though! I've got a busy summer coming up & I need to practice. Did I mention that the entire 2nd half of the Sonos concert is done with no tables and completely memorized?

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MP3 from the Vocal Ensemble Solo Concert

2010-05-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

In addition to the link to the Dance Concert photos, today I also got the MP3 of me playing Finlandia from the May 10 Vocal Ensemble Solo Concert.

You can download it here.

It includes my spoken intro to the piece (which is not the full-length intro I usually give; I abbreviated it), plus you can hear the audience cheering at the end - AND you can hear my professor say, "Wow!"

Yay! :-)

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Pics from the April 29 & 30 Dance Concert

2010-05-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

haiti17
Originally uploaded by mfranky

The school had a photographer at the ~~May~~ April 29 & 30 [thanks, Sharon, for pointing out the error!] Dance concert. I just got a link to the set of pics on Flickr. This is really the only one I'm clearly visible in (though I am at least partially in some of the others).

Here's a link to the whole set -- my class did the ones labeled "Haiti".

Monday night's Vocal Ensemble Solo Concert

2010-05-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

This past Monday night (May 10) was the Vocal Ensemble Solo Concert. We had the main Vocal Ensemble concert the previous Monday night (May 3). Apparently last year, the solos performed during the main concert, but this year there were so many people who wanted to do solos that our professor, Bill Bradbury, decided to do a separate concert for them.

Anyway, at the beginning of the semester Bill asked if I'd be interested in playing bells on the solo concert. Of course, I said yes! I decided to play Finlandia because it's a beautiful piece, very accessible to most audiences, and has a big dramatic ending.

Knowing that I'd only have a few minutes of rehearsal time with the accompanist -- mainly because I didn't want to have to schlep my bells to school more than once (the last 2 letters in the acronym for our campus - CSUSM - are said to not be "San Marcos," but rather "Stair Master"!) -- I gave her an MP3 of me playing the piece when I gave her the sheet music. A couple of Mondays ago before Ensemble rehearsal, I sang through the piece with her, too.

So, this Monday I arrived early so I could load in & set up my equipment in the school's theater:

When she arrived, we played through the piece once and hit a couple of spots over again just to make sure we had the transitions down. Then after that, I had about 90 minutes before the concert started, so while the pianist rehearsed with the other students, Brian & I went out for pizza. Yum!

Finally the time came for the concert. Bill took all of those who would be performing over to the other room so we could figure out the concert order. Bill asked me if I would mind going first. I said no problem. After figuring out the rest of the show, we all headed back to the concert hall. Bill asked each of us to introduce ourselves before our piece, so after he did the main intro for the concert, I gave an abbreviated introduction to Finlandia.

Then I played.

I have to say that it was one of my better performances. Everything just kind of "clicked." When I hit the last chord, the audience cheered! Woo-Hoo! :-)

Bill came back on stage to help me move the bells back out of the way for the rest of the performers and as he was doing that, he looked at me and said, "Wow, that was really impressive!" I'm sure I grinned from ear-to-ear to get such a nice compliment from him. Later, he sent me an email saying "Your playing is beautiful and inspiring... I think I might have to write a piece for you (and the choir?)."

How cool is it that an Emmy Award-winning composer wants to write a piece for me? :-)

After the concert, one of the audience members told me that she had spent several years in Finland, and that she loves the song Finlandia. She said that my performance was so beautiful it brought her to tears. My classmates came up to tell me how cool the bells were - many of them had played bells in elementary or middle school, or at church, but had never seen a soloist.

Bill also came up and said, "That was crazy!" I frowned a little bit and replied, "You think I looked crazy when I played?" He said, "No! That's what was crazy about it; you made it look so effortless!" High compliments, indeed. :-)

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Last class of Spring Semester 2010

2010-05-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

This was the last week of the Spring Semester here at Cal State San Marcos. Yay! Tuesday night was the last class for Public Speaking but I still had Dance and Electronic Music today.

The semester isn't *quite* over yet, though, as I still have a concert on Monday night for Vocal Ensemble (it's the solo concert - I get to play bells!) and I have to turn in my take-home final for Dance class on Tuesday morning.

Today, I submitted my Final Project for Electronic Music. All semester, we've had lab assignments to do. The prof would lecture on the material for about an hour, then we'd have another hour to do the lab work. He designed it so that each lab built on the previous one and by the end of the semester we would accumulate a final project. We mostly used Reason software for sequencing & synthesis, working with wavetables and other samples. Toward the end of the semester, we started working in ProTools and recorded stuff to create our own electronic instrument, then combined our Reason and ProTools sessions for the final project. I really enjoyed the class & plan to take the next one in the series, too, probably next Spring.

Oh, of course I brought in a handbell (my G#4, which hardly ever gets used!) to record and transform into an electronic instrument. Honestly, by the time I was done with it, you can't tell that it's a handbell at all!

Our final project isn't being graded on the aesthetic qualities of it -- it's just an Intro class, after all -- but rather on if we actually included all the requirements of the lab assignments. This was kind of frustrating, actually, as I'd work to get it sounding the way I wanted to, then the next lab would have us add or change something and all of a sudden it wasn't so good any more! Grr! After a couple iterations of this, I decided that I would take it as a challenge to make something that I liked that still fulfilled all the requirements. (I also did some geeky things like building the piece around the whole tone scale and using Pi to determine the placement of some elements....)

My piece is not some grand masterpiece of electronic music, but I think given all the stuff we were required to do and the fact that it was my first time ever working with electronica, I think it's pretty good.

What do you think?

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Dance Journal, Week 12 (Apr 22, 2010)

2010-05-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Journal, Week 13
April 22, 2010

Stein, Bonnie Sue. "Butoh: ‘Twenty Years Ago We Were Crazy, Dirty, and Mad’." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 376-383. Print.

This paper presents an overview of the development of the Japanese contemporary dance form “butoh” as well as short artistic biographies of butoh’s important personalities. Butoh is described as “an anti-traditional tradition seeking to erase the heavy impact of Japan’s strict society and offering unprecedented freedom of artistic expression.” Butoh was developed in the late 1950’s when Japanese dancers turned away from traditional Japanese dance, but also wanted something that was still inherently and uniquely “Japanese” and not Western. (Ironically, Eiko and Koma, two New York-based butoh dancers, say that their most revered teacher is a German, Marja Chmiel, a student of Mary Wigman.)

The developers of butoh wanted to explore the things that Japanese society hides or ignores, “such as deformity and insanity.” Thus, butoh was very controversial from its beginnings. One choreographer, Hijikata, says that he created butoh dance with three principles in mind: 1) to emphasize “discontinuity, imbalance, and entropy” in direct contravention of the Western ideals of “rhythm, balance, and the flow of kinetic energy”; 2) to use traditional Japanese sources of inspiration; and 3) to recognize that Japanese bodies have different proportions from Western bodies, resulting in a dance form with movements specifically designed for the Japanese body.

"Moving Contexts." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 370-375. Print.

This reading is an introduction to the fourth and final section of our anthology textbook. The authors tell us that “readings in the final part of the book help us to see how contemporary dance is negotiating – at times resisting, and at other times stimulating – an increasingly global world view.” After discussing the new interest in multi-culturalism, its ideas and art, and warning against taking anything at face value (that is, without regard for its historic, present, and perhaps even future context), this introduction ends by giving a short overview of each paper presented in this section and why it was chosen.

PRACTICE JOURNAL

This past weekend, I presented a concert in Menlo Park (in the SF Bay Area). I stayed with friends and after the concert, in the course of our meandering discussion, I demonstrated some of the dance moves we’ve been doing in class. My friend responded, “You dance while you play [handbells], but each movement is completely controlled. But when you dance like this now, your body seems so out of control.”

My prof wrote: "I think that is okay in this context."

Upon my return home, I mentioned this conversation to my husband, who replied, “When you play bells, you do dance, but dance is not the purpose of the movements, the movement is incidental, derived from what the music requires your body to do. Whereas, when you dance, the purpose of the movement is ‘dance’. I think that’s the difference she saw.” I don’t know if that has any significance beyond “I need to learn to control my movements a little better,” but there it is. :-)

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Dance Journal, Week 12 (Apr 15, 2010)

2010-05-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Journal, Week 12
April 15, 2010

Chatterjea, Ananya. "Chandralekha: Negotiating the Female Body and Movement in Cultural/Political Signification." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 389-397. Print.

This paper takes a look at some pieces by Chandralekha, a contemporary Indian choreographer. Chandralekha was originally trained in bharata natyam, but left dance to work with the Women’s Movement for ten years. When she returned to dance, she brought with her many of the political sensibilities and aesthetics of that movement. She now incorporates these ideas into her work, as well as using dancers trained not only in bharata natyam, but also in yoga and some martial arts. Chatterjea writes that upon her return to dance, Chandralekha completely deconstructed Indian classical dance and now uses its basic elements to create works that result in a “seamless overlaying of the aesthetic and the political in movement.”

Coorlawala, Uttara. "Ananya and Chandralekha – A Response to ’Chandralekha: Negotiating the Female Body and Movement in Cultural/Political Signification’." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 398-403. Print.

In this response to Chatterjea’s paper, Coorlawala presents a different “reading” of two of Chandralekha’s pieces analyzed by Chatterjea. In presenting her different reading of the works, Coorlawala calls into question Chatterjea’s understanding of both Indian history and the “gestaltic understanding” of the cultural meaning of several historical texts. While applauding Chatterjea’s efforts to describe the political significance of Chandralekha’s work, Coorlawala opposes Chatterjea’s inclination to present Chandralekha as being completely uninfluenced by non-Indian thought and aesthetics.

PRACTICE JOURNAL

I continue to practice in front of the mirror. I keep meaning to video-tape myself, but keep forgetting to do so. I am feeling really good about the first dance and am excited about our second dance. I’m looking forward to the concert at the end of this month!

My prof wrote: "Yeah!"

Dance Journal, Week 11 (Apr 8, 2010)

2010-05-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Journal, Week11
April 8, 2010

Bull, Cynthia Jean Cohen. "Looking at movement as Culture: Contact Improvisation to Disco." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 404-413. Print.

This paper begins by talking about the mind/body dichotomy. Some people think that movement/gestures must be translated into words in order to have meaning. The author cautions that this can “subsume the reality of the body” because the ways that people feel themselves move is part of who they are and how they understand themselves to be. On the other hand, some people elevate body over mind looking only at the movement itself and ignoring the mind inside the body. This reminds me of the Jowitt paper from Week 3, “Beyond Description,” and her admonition to avoid creating a “print analogue for dance.”

Both movement systems and language are cultural activities. People in a particular culture have particular ways of moving. Foreigners to that culture can sometimes be picked out of a crowd because they move in a different way. (This part reminded me of the Sklar paper, also from Week 3, “Five Premises for a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Dance,” and her example of the movements of Episcopal versus the Pentecostal churches.) Bull reminds us that movement alone can't tell you what cultural ideas are involved.

The paper then talks about Contact Improvisation, an American dance form, and how it incorporates ideas such as gender equality (in that it's not always a male/female pairing, but could be female/female, or male/male), freedom of expression and movement, and an outward focus. Disco dancing, by contrast, was much more controlled and used exclusively male/female pairings. Aerobics is also discussed, even though it is neither a social dance nor a theatrical dance, because of the self-control aspects.

I think the author sums up the paper best when she writes, “Movement systems in any culture are not monolithic and static, nor is their relationship to social contexts always direct.”

Ryan, Peter. "10,000 Jams Later: Contact Improvisation in Canada, 1974-95." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 414-420. Print.

The opening paragraph of this paper made me chuckle. Phrases such as “a group of itinerant dancers initiated forays across Canada's borders” filled my mind's eye with images of scruffy unshaven dancers in camouflage jackets and berets, looking like Che Guevara! I think that image may actually be appropriate, in a way, because those dancers really were revolutionary in that their first “forays” brought contact improvisation to Canada, where it blossomed and spread.

The paper describes the “contact jam” as “an open event to which people come, warm up, and dance.” Jams are slightly different from one to the next and depend on the participants to “create their own format.”

Contact improvisation has faced some problems of acceptance within the larger dance community, whether due to fear or ignorance, or a perception that it is “non-professional,” but the author believes that it is an essential set of skills for any dancer to have in their artistic toolkit.

Paxton, Steve. "Improvisation Is a Word for Something That Can't Keep a Name." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 421-426. Print.

This paper is about perception, how we perceive the world around ourselves, in general, and how we perceive art such as film, music, art, and dance, specifically. Paxton delves into a philosophical discussion bringing in bits from Freud and Jung, neurology and history, as well as music and art. He opines that art can be understood only after our minds learn to create concepts that can “hold” the art in our minds. He gives the example of Duchamp's Dada art and how it took many years for ordinary people to develop a perceptual framework to where they could begin to think about the work, much less to “understand” it. He feels that improvisation is part and parcel of this perceptual framework, that it is because our minds naturally improvise all the time that we're able to create these new understandings and concepts. All in all, a very interesting paper and one I'm going to have to keep thinking about for a while. Thanks for assigning it!

My prof wrote: "Yes, some slippery ideas to chew on. You're welcome!"

PRACTICE JOURNAL

I feel like I'm finally starting to feel comfortable about dancing.

My prof wrote: "Yeah!"

I've figured out the pelvic isolation thing, even though it's easiest to do lying down, and if it must be done standing up, is easier when I'm not also trying to move my legs! I feel like I know where to go when in our first dance and am looking forward to performing it. I also feel very comfortable with the initial bits of the second dance we've done so far, the trying out of new steps to see what works and what doesn't. I like the faster pace and the “happy” sounding music.

My prof wrote: "Me, too!"

I really feel like all the time we spent on the first dance is paying off now as these moves seem so much easier now that I have a “perceptual framework” within which to think about them (thank you, Steve Paxton!)

My prof wrote: "Hah! Love it!"

AGEHR Area XII eNewsletter "The Twelfth Tone" - May 2010

2010-05-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

For the past 2 months, I've been the Southern California Regional Coordinator for AGEHR Area XII. One of the things I do is write up a short column about handbell happenings in my Region. The Southern California Region is: all of Imperial & San Diego Counties, and most of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties (there are just a few ZIP codes in them that belong to the LA Metro Region).

Each month, our Communication Coordinator gathers columns from all of the Area's Regional Coordinators, plus columns from our Chair (and sometimes the Chair-Elect, too) and other items of interest and publishes "The Twelfth Tone," Area XII's eNewsletter.

Here's this month's edition -- and the archives are here. If you know of any handbell happenings in the SoCal area, please let me know about them so I can make sure to put them in the eNews and the Calendar. The deadline for inclusion in each month's eNews is the 28th.

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Dance concerts are done!

2010-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last night was the 2nd and final Dance Department concert at school. There were a lot of really cool pieces on the concert, most of which were choreographed (and danced) by students in the dance program. Some of the pieces were insightful or moving (like the one about breast cancer) and others were just fun or silly (like the Hip Hop one).

My class danced 3 Haitian numbers. The first was a solo dance by one of the class members to a vocal solo song asking for God's help for the poverty in the country. The second piece was a group dance to funerary music, which we dedicated to the victims of the Jan 12 earthquake. The 3rd dance was a happy festival dance to celebrate life.

I think we danced better on Thursday night than Friday night. On Friday, there was so much applause after the solo piece that we couldn't hear the beginning of our music, and so we started 3 beats late. All of us stayed together as a group and somehow managed to all skip one step at the same time to get us back on track by the end of the piece. The Festival piece went well both nights.

Here's a pic of me in my dance costume:

All in all, it was a lot of fun! I'm proud of myself for doing this. I have plenty of performance experience, so I wasn't nervous or anything, but I was uncomfortable because I know I'm a just barely competent dancer & it's always embarrassing to do something you're not very good at in public. It was a learning experience and I'm glad I did it.

During our dress rehearsal on Wednesday night, I found out there's a Theater Arts class on lighting and sound and I think I'm going to take that class either next semester or the one after. I think it'll be good to me to be able to communicate with sound & lighting people for my future concerts! :-)

Today is a rare weekend at home. Brian and I are going to go visit the beach & then tonight we'll attend a CD Release party for my Vocal Ensemble teacher Bill Bradbury. Check out his CD!

** P.S. Don't forget to help me get on The Ellen Show!

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Help me get on The Ellen Show!

2010-04-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

I follow Ellen DeGeneres on Twitter. Yesterday, she posted a tweet:

Apparently people have been sending her a lot of YouTube videos and other things, so I thought I'd try it myself. Today, I posted:

Almost immediately, my blogger-buddy Miss Music Nerd helped me out:

I'd appreciate it if any of you could help me out and tweet a link to my YouTube video to @TheEllenshow!

Many thanks in advance!!

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Four on the Floor!

2010-04-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

This week concludes Solo Ringing Month at the Handbell Podcast. My fourth and final (for now!) appearance was Tuesday night. (I was also on the show Apr 6, Apr 13, and Apr 20.)

We did a review of solo music. We looked at "Peace" by Matthew Compton, "A Hope" by Daniel Reck, and "Danza Espinola - Orientale" arr. by Larry Sue, and we talked a bit about my Clearinghouse of Choreography website.

Here's a link to the show:
Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 29 – Solo Music – Recorded 4/27/2010 and uploaded 4/29/2010

and here are links to the other 3 shows this month:

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 23 – Solo Ringing (Michele Sharik Guest) – Recorded 4/6/2010 and uploaded on 4/8/2010

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 25 – Questions and Concerts – Recorded 04/13/2010 and uploaded 04/15/2010

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 27 – Techiques for Solo Ringers – Recorded 04/20/2010 and Uploaded 4/22/2010

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Oh yes, the Monkey Mind. I know it well....

2010-04-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Miss Music Nerd's blog for a few years now, ever since my good friend Paul Kinney mentioned her on the old Handbell-L. I follow her on Twitter, too.

Anyway, she's preparing for an upcoming recital & today blogged about her preparations for it, specifically, about her Musical Monkey Mind! She says:

One issue is what goes through my mind while I’m actually playing the piano. You’d think my mind has enough to do just looking at notes and sending the signals to my fingers to play them, but random thoughts do creep in, from whether it’s too hot or cold in the room, to that thing that guy said the other day that annoyed me. Or, if I feel I’m playing well, I’ll start thinking, “This is going really well!” or, “Dang, I’m good!” which basically guarantees that I’m about to go splat. Chiding myself doesn’t work any better — no point in thinking, “That bit didn’t go quite how I wanted” when that bit is in the rearview mirror.

I *totally* understand what she's talking about in this post. There have been SO MANY TIMES that my mind just seems to wander while I play, and to random things as she says. And she's absolutely right that when your brain starts into the "Wow, that went well! I am so good!" you're 99.44% certain to mess up within the next 5 measures!

She then goes on to say something that I wish I could print out on fancy paper & hang on my practice room wall, especially that last sentence:

Performing music is a very Zen activity. The only thing that really works is just to take it moment by moment, not worrying about what just happened or what’s going to happen in a few minutes. And if something goes less than perfectly, you have to instantly forgive yourself and move on.

How many times do we hang on to our mistakes, not forgiving, but rather kicking ourselves over and over again? And then we seem surprised that we keep making mistakes! I know I've been guilty of this myself, but I'm working on it & maybe someday I can overcome it. (Not soon enough, though! LOL!)

BTW, I finally got to meet Miss Music Nerd when I was in Boston! We met at a coffee shop for a few minutes before David, Ruthie, & I had dinner with Griff Gall. Here's a pic of the two of us together!

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Big day today!

2010-04-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day!

First was a Tech Rehearsal 10am-11am at school for the upcoming Dance Department concert. We all showed up in costume at the theater and stepped through the dances bit by bit while our professor and the tech people figured out the lighting. Then we ran both dances in real time while they did lights, etc. It was alternatively exciting and boring, but definitely a good thing to do. We have our regularly-scheduled class times this Tuesday & Thursday. Wednesday night is Dress Rehearsal for the whole department, with concerts both Thursday & Friday night. I'm looking forward to seeing the other dances on the program!

After Tech Rehearsal was over, I hopped in my car & drove up to California Baptist University in Riverside for "Ring Out California," a handbell festival put on by Desert Bells International from Phoenix, AZ. Kay Cook was the main clinician for the event & I got to play along with Scottsdale Handbell Ensemble in the massed pieces as well as their solo number. After the festival, we got a group picture of me with the groups from Desert Bells International (Scottsdale Handbell Ensemble, Bronzeworks, and Palo Verde Bells):

When I got home after the festival, what was waiting for me? My diploma!

Back in December, I finished the requirements for an Associate of Arts degree in Music from Foothill Community College. I'll be walking in the Commencement ceremony in June and I wasn't expecting to get the diploma until some time after that.

I know that an AA degree is really No Big Deal, but it does represent one milestone finished on my way to getting my Master's. Yay, me! :-)

Tomorrow morning, I will fly up to Oakland for Sonos rehearsal 2pm-7pm, then fly home again tomorrow night. We were supposed to have memorized Dale Wood's arrangement of "Shall We Gather by the River?" for tomorrow's rehearsal, but I don't have it yet. To be honest, I probably won't have it until after my finals are over the 2nd week in May. There are only so many hours in the day, unfortunately.

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Third Time's the Charm!

2010-04-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

As I believe I've mentioned once or twice, April is Solo Ringing Month on the Handbell Podcast, so they'll be interviewing me every Tuesday night.

Here's the third of four shows, in which I answer more listener questions & talk about various solo/ensemble techniques:

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 27 – Techiques for Solo Ringers – Recorded 04/20/2010 and Uploaded 4/22/2010

And here are the other episodes from this month, too:

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 23 – Solo Ringing (Michele Sharik Guest) – Recorded 4/6/2010 and uploaded on 4/8/2010.

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 25 – Questions and Concerts – Recorded 04/13/2010 and uploaded 04/15/2010.

UPDATE: Here's the fourth & final episode for April:
Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 29 – Solo Music – Recorded 4/27/2010 and uploaded 4/29/2010

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Dance Paper, Liam Clancy

2010-04-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
{underconstruction}: Liam Clancy
April 6, 2010

On Wednesday, March 24, the “Homegrown Dance Series” presented Liam Clancy in “{underconstruction},” described as “an evening of works in process/progress.” The printed program lists three works to be performed, but there were actually two videos shown, one at the beginning of the program, and one in the place indicated on the printed program.

Both videos were part of a project by Liam Clancy and Eric Geiger called “site-influence improvised dances,” in which they go to a public place, such as a park or building, and dance for an indeterminate length of time. In the first such video shown, the two men were dancing in what appeared to be the inside corner of a building, perhaps even a balcony. There was a closed door there and some sort of gas or electric meter. The camera was very close to the dancers so that most of what I could see was just their torsos, their faces and legs only coming into view if they bent over or kneeled down. One or the other of the dancers moved out of the view of the camera fairly frequently, then I'd see just an arm or a leg peek into view from the side until eventually the dancer's torso re-appeared. The two dancers weren't dancing with each other in the sense of a duet, but neither did they ignore each other. When their independent movements brought them into contact with each other, they acknowledged and interacted with each other, sometimes touching each other, and other times just looking at each other in a way that let me know that they consciously saw the other person. This actually gave a sense of intimacy to the dance and reminded me, of all things, of walking down a crowded street and choosing to either acknowledge or ignore the other people I encounter along the way.

Another thing that was interesting to me about this video was the fact that the dancers were not dancing to music. I could hear the traffic sounds and the rustle of their clothing as they moved. There was music to the video, a soulful slow jazz trio with vocal solo, but it was obviously overlayed during post-production. As a result, their movements had no conscious synchronicity to the music, which created for me a sense of surrealism as the soulfulness of the music combined with the intimacy of the dance. I wondered why they chose that particular piece of music to play over their video?

In the second video, the two dancers were in a park. The camera was lying on the ground, on its side, so that the sky was a vertical swatch of blue along the right side of the screen. The camera was resting on mulch, then there was a very low concrete barrier some distance out dividing the mulch from a green grass lawn which had a sidewalk along the far side, next to a tree-lined road (so the tableau was: mulch, barrier, lawn, sidewalk, road, trees, sky, all vertical rather than horizontal).

Once again, there was no music at the site, I could hear the traffic noises and the sound of the dancers' movements, but there was music overlayed in post-production. This music didn't seem as relevant to me as did the music for the first dance, since I can't even remember what the music was like! I'm actually surprised by that, as music is usually a focal point for me in any environment or experience. I suspect it's because I was lost in thought during this video.

At the beginning of this video, one dancer was very close to the camera and someone walked by along the sidewalk. At first I thought that was just a passer-by, but it turned out to be the other dancer. However, this made me start thinking about passers-by to these dances. What do they think when they see two men dancing in the park (or at a building or wherever)? There's no music, so do they recognize it as dance? Do they just see two men cavorting in the mulch and grass? Do they see the camera or do they just see the men? Do they think the men are homosexuals? I wonder if the passers-by ever interact with the dancers (they didn't in either of the videos shown), and if they do, what do they say or do? Do they harass the dancers?

In the days since the performance, I've been wondering what I would do if I saw two men “cavorting” in the park. Would I recognize it as dance? Would I make assumptions about their motives, their intentions, their sexuality? Or would I recognize it as dance? Would I attempt to join in or interact in some way? Would my reaction be different if it were two women or a man and a woman, rather than two men? Why or why not? I don't have answers to these questions, but I'm very glad the video prompted me to ask them.

In between the two videos was a solo piece entitled “the dirty solo.” The program says that this piece was “created with Leslie Seiters as director, witness, shaper, editor, map maker, question-asker and friend.” In the question and answer period after the concert, this was explained a bit. It turns out that for each performance, Leslie takes some potatoes and places them in a formation around some objects found at the venue, plus a few at the front of the stage area. For our venue, the objects were a work lamp (that is, a stand with three work lights clamped onto it) and a chair. She aimed each light in a different direction, then the house lights were lowered, leaving the lamp as the only source of light.

Liam then entered the stage, dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans, and barefoot. He picked up a potato and delivered a speech to the audience, excerpts from “Lightness” by Italo Calvino. After the speech, he turned around to face the potatoes and props. This is the first time he has seen them as they are arranged on this stage. He stood there for a moment, looking at them. He later told us that this is when he is formulating in his mind how he might move among them and what he might do to and with them. Then he began to move, slow movements with angular arms and bent knees, and circled around the potatoes toward the back of the stage. He picked up some potatoes, rolled them across the floor, into and out of the circles of light.

The music during this piece was a “phase piece” played on high notes of the piano. In a phase piece, the same short musical motive is played over and over again by at least two “voices,” but at similar but not exact tempi. The result is that the motive moves in and out of phase with itself, similarly to how your car's turn signal will move in and out of phase with the car in front or behind it as you wait to turn a corner on the street.

All the while, he danced in liquid movements, his own shadow mirroring his movements, but on a much grander scale, on the white walls of the theater. I watched his shadow more than I watched his body. It fascinated me how the two-dimensionality of the shadow obscured the three-dimensionality of the dance. From just watching the shadow, I couldn't tell if he was facing toward the light or away from the light, I couldn't tell if his arms were in front of his body or behind, I couldn't tell if he was holding potatoes or not, unless he held them out for their shadow to fall upon the wall, too. I realized that only by looking directly at him could I see clearly what he was doing, and that made me think again about how we interact with the people around us. Do we look at them directly so we can see them clearly, or do we instead watch their shadows and try to figure out what they are doing without knowing their true direction? Do we ourselves move in or out of phase with them?

By the end of the dance, he gathered the potatoes into a group, then sat down as if to tell the potatoes a story, and quoted from a piece by Gertrude Stein about trees with no roots. When he finished talking, he sat perfectly still for a moment, then broke character and stood up to indicate the piece was over. As Liam left the stage, the lights dimmed again and the screen was lowered for the second video. Meanwhile, Leslie returned to remove the props, but she apparently forgot some of the potatoes up near the front of the stage area.

After the second video was over, the screen was raised again and some people came onto the stage carrying what looked like sound equipment. It was indeed sound equipment, as a man came out with a violin and attached it to the equipment, then began to play. As he played, he recorded bits of what he was doing and played them back in loops and sometimes with some electronic processing, and played other things along with them. This way, he built up many layers of sound from just one instrument. Over the course of the piece, he varied this in a number of ways, so that it was not static, but constantly changing.

Nine people appeared on stage from various directions, entering at different times. Some stayed near the back of the stage, and it appeared as if they were trying to climb the wall. Others walked quickly back and forth across the stage. Still others jumped up and down or came into the audience seating area. As the piece progressed, the dancers interacted with each other, creating various vignettes around the stage that had little or nothing to do with each other. My attention was constantly drawn this way and that as I wanted to watch everything at the same time!

It seemed to be completely random, and made me think of College Hour on the quad at school. There were groups of people scattered about the area, all aware of the others' presence, interacting with them if they came within their sphere of influence, or sometimes seeking the others out so they could be interacted with, but at the same time each group separate, doing their own thing to their own schedule (or none at all), sharing space, but not necessarily sharing themselves.

At 30 minutes, this was the longest piece on the program. At the question and answer session, they said that the piece is usually an entire hour, but they were under time restraints this time. I think 30 minutes was the perfect length of time and I wonder if the effect would be diminished over the course of an hour, if the various vignettes and tableaux would become tedious to watch rather than a fascinating look into the interactions between groups and individuals.

My prof wrote: "Wow - 7 pages of train of thought, description, and analogy, meandering through a post-modern piece. Thank you for taking me along."

That mental toolkit -- recovering from errors

2010-04-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

I played a solo concert at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Menlo Park, CA, this past Sat, Apr 17, 2010. I'll write up a post about it soon - but in a nutshell: I am VERY satisfied with that concert. I feel like I played really well and had a great connection with my audience.

However, one part of the concert didn't go as well as I would like -- BUT, unless you are a soloist and are familiar with the piece, you wouldn't know it.

Last week, when I was being interviewed on the Handbell Podcast, we talked a bit about having a "toolkit" so that you can recover from errors. I think this is an excellent example of what happens when you spend the time practicing how to recover from mistakes!

Here's what happened: The beginning of this piece ("Be Still My Soul," arr by Christine Anderson & Anna Laura Page, AKA "Finlandia") has a fairly complex setup. I always set up while I'm doing the spoken intro to the piece. I've been playing this piece for years & years and have gotten the setup down pat.

Except for this time! I don't know what happened, but I mixed up some of the 4ih ("four-in-hand") setups this time.

The setup is supposed to be this:

1) Remove D#6 & F#6 and set aside (you will use the space they normally live in for something else)
2) Set B6\C7 (rh 4iH C7 over B6)
3) A6\G6 (rh 4iH G6 over A6)
4) E6/F6 (lh 4iH E6 over F6)
5) C6\D6 (rh 4ih D6 over C6)
6) Switch B-flat 5 & B5 (that is, put B-flat between A & C and put the B-natural up where the flat usually lives)
7) Set A5/B-flat5 (lh 4ih A5 over B-flat5)
8) F5\G5 (rh 4ih G5 over F5)

Here's what I actually did:

1) forgot to remove them
2) set up correctly
3) set up correctly
4) nope, set up F6/E6 (lh 4ih F6 over E6) -- wrong bell is on top!
5) set up correctly
6) ok
7) nope, set up A5\B-flat5 (rh 4ih B-flat5 over A5) -- wrong bell is on top AND set up for the wrong hand!
8) nope, set up G5/F5 (lh 4ih G5 over F5) -- set up for the wrong hand!

Here's a video of me playing the beginning of this piece (it stops just before the main tune enters):

(If this video is too small, you can go directly to YouTube and watch it there.)

I noticed the problem with #4 during the piano intro & fixed it before I started playing. I noticed the others just before I was supposed to play them, so you can see me switch the "hand" of the set up just before I need them. After the run, I'm supposed to end up with A5 in my left hand & D6 in my right. I had the D6, but because of #7, I had to disassemble that 4ih cluster & pick up the A5.

I am actually very proud of myself for this. Not only did I not panic, but I didn't let it affect the musicality of the piece. If you close your eyes and just listen to it instead of watching the clip, you can't tell that anything went wrong!

If you watch my face closely, you can see my frown at one point -- I'm thinking, "What the ...? Why are these set up wrong?!?"

I did fix #1 during the piano interlude between verses, but that's an easy fix, so I didn't include it in the video clip.

ADDENDUM: My good friend and fellow soloist Linda Krantz was at the concert. I talked to her about this after the show & she said that she immediately saw that I had set it up incorrectly, but didn't know what to do. She said, "I wanted to interrupt you and say, 'No! Stop! It's not set up right!'" LOL!

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Dance Journal, Week 10 (Mar 25, 2010)

2010-04-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Journal, Week10
March 25, 2010

Gates, Jr., Henry L. "The Body Politic." The New Yorker 28 Nov. 1994: 112-24. Print.

This is a biographical piece about dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones. He is an artist who is very aware of his audience's "gaze" -- he not only knows *who* is looking, but one also gets the sense from this article that he is also acutely aware of *why* they are looking, even if they-who-look are not themselves fully aware. As an avant-garde artist, Jones "embraces the controversy," challenging his audiences with images of a strong and virile black male body, but one who is homosexual, and thus plays upon the dichotomy of masculine vs. feminine (as many people imagine homosexual men to be), black vs. white (in his choice of dance partners and lovers), and now in his HIV-positive status, also of healthy vs. terminally ill. It is no surprise that his work "Still/Here" also embraces the controversy by taking death as its subject -- and not just "death," but the impending death of still-living terminally ill people. In this way, even though Jones calls himself "an artist first -- a black person second," he still embodies one of the main Africanist aesthetics that influences dance -- and all art -- today.

Croce, Arlene. "Discussing the Undiscussable." The New Yorker 26 Dec. 1994: 55-57. Print.

I have to say that by opening her article by declaring that she not only has not seen "Still/Here," but has no plans to review it, Croce made me wonder why she was even bothering to write about it at all. The author seems to be making a case against the type of art that "Still/Here" represents, yet admits to not seeing the work in question -- so how does she *really* know what type of art it is? Because someone told her? She asserts, "No one goes to 'Still/Here' for the dancing."

Here my prof wrote, "FYI, I did!"

That's a mighty bold statement coming from one who seems proud of never having seen it! It makes me wonder why she believes she's even remotely qualified to discuss it. Since when did hearsay become a legitimate basis for critical analysis? This entire piece strikes me as coming from a place of unexamined privilege. I was entirely unsurprised to read that Croce served on an NEA panel in the late 1970s, a time of which she waxes nostalgic: "in those years, art and art appreciation were unquestioned good things to support, and 'community outreach' had its own program." She laments the demise of these Good Old Days: "private funders soon knuckled under to the community- and minority-minded lobbies." Oh my stars and garters! Is she upset that Western art has turned in a direction away from its Eurocentric heritage and is now even encompassing *gasp* the community! and *double gasp* minorities!? Let us all clutch our pearls in alarm! Of "Still/Here," Croce claims that "by working dying people into his act [sic], Jones is putting himself beyond the reach of criticism." I beg to differ. Art is, by its very nature, voyeuristic.

Here my prof wrote, "I agree."

Artists, no matter their medium, perform and invite their audiences to *feel* something as a result of their performance. Is that not what Jones' work does? Jones is himself dying. If he were to dance now, would his work be "beyond criticism?" If so, why? Is it only because he incorporates the words and experiences of others into "Still/Here" that Croce labels him as "the most extreme case among the distressingly many now representing themselves to the public not as artists but as victims and martyrs." How does this work preclude Jones representing himself as an artist? How does a work which examines people's approaching death -- and their reaction to it -- a "spectacle" of "victimhood?"

Here my prof wrote, "Isn't dealing with mortality - imminent or otherwise - a very human topic?"

Croce never tells us *why* this must be so, she merely asserts that it is. She asks of modern dance, "what happened to politicize it?" This makes me wonder if, despite being an art critic, she does not truly understand the distinction between "art" and "entertainment."

"In the Mail: Who's the Victim?" The New Yorker 30 Jan. 1995: 10-13. Print.

This was mix of pro and con responses to Croce's article. Some of my own responses to these letters:

Brustein -- says Croce is being "embraced by the morally vigilant and assailed by the politically correct." Can one not be both? Why is it not "morally vigilant" to be "politically correct?"

Hooks -- Croce's article "merely mirrors the ruling political mood of our time." I would have to agree with this. 1994 was still somewhat early in the mainstream's awareness of post-colonialism. Croce's article seems to be a reaction against post-colonialist art.

Bell -- writes about Croce's mention of Mapplethorpe, rather than about Jones. It just so happens that I was living in Cincinnati when Mapplethorpe's art was exhibited there, in the Contemporary Art Museum. In fact, I attended a concert put on by the Cincinnati Composers Guild (I was a member) at the museum while the exhibit was there. I remember that the museum refused admission to one composer's 16-year-old daughter, and not just to the closed room holding the controversial "XYZ" exhibit, but to the *entire museum*, even though she was there with her parents to hear a performance of her father's music. Bell claims that the exhibit was "sold to the public as a victim of censorship." His use of the loaded phrase "sold to the public" shows that he believes that the exhibit was in fact not the victim of censorship, but was merely advertised as such, but I have to say that my own experiences at the time belie that claim. In addition to the refusal of admission to the composer's minor daughter, there were protests and rallies with people waving signs declaring the exhibit to be amoral and a waste of taxpayers' money. I remember that the people yelling the loudest and waving their signs most energetically were those who had never even seen the exhibit. Sound familiar? (I'm looking at you, Ms. Croce!)

Kushner -- supports my idea that Croce's piece was a reaction to post-colonialist art. "The people Ms. Croce assaults for milking their victim status are in fact fighting for freedom, equality, survival."

Lichtenstein -- believes that Croce discredits herself as a critic by not seeing the work, but writing about it anyway. I agree.

Kramer -- pro-Croce, full of loaded words, dismissive. Calls such art an "intellectual swindle that has consigned aesthetic standards in the arts to the sidelines -- if not, indeed to oblivion -- while pressing the ideology of victimhood into service as the only permissible basis on which works of art are to be experienced and judged." Claims disagreement amounts only to "ritualistic charges of racism, sexism, homophobia and the like."

Decter -- also pro-Croce and full of loaded words. Calls such art "self-congratulatory camaraderie of jeering at ordinary decency."

Withers -- encourages Croce to actually see the work and then respond. Makes the case that it is her freedom and, indeed, her obligation as a critic. I agree.

Paglia -- She admits to not having seen "Still/Here," either, yet claims to "totally agree with Ms. Croce that Victorian sentimentalization of disease and death has become a mawkish substitute for artistic vision." While I understand that Paglia (and Croce) are trying to address what they see as a larger problem, their continued use as an example of a work they admit to not even seeing makes me wonder if they've actually seen *any* work which exemplifies the "problem" they see. It's more than merely "a tactical error", in the words of the first letter-writer (Brustein). When combined with my own experiences during the Mapplethorpe exhibit, it makes me wonder if there really is a "problem" at all, or if the "problem" exists only in the minds of people like Paglia and Croce. Interestingly, Paglia then goes on to defend Jones and his work.

MacVey -- a participant in Jones' workshops for "Still/Here," she finds it "ironic" that Croce talks about the people portrayed in the work as if they are not "still here," even though many are still alive (at the time of her writing). Croce thus "talks past" the people involved in the creation of the work, as if they were invisible, a common complaint from those who are disabled or ill in some way, and perhaps indicative of an ablist attitude on Croce's part.

Costin -- In my opinion, the best letter of the bunch. Having attended a performance of "Still/Here," and being HIV-positive himself, he seems in a position to give a meaningful critique of the work. While he did not particularly like the music or the way the videos and live dancing mixed, he says the dancing itself was "beautiful" and made him weep. He also asks a very provocative question, "is it really so hard to find continuity between the ballet about the princess who was pricked by a poison spindle [Sleeping Beauty] and the one about the urbanite who was infected by a syringe?"

Here my prof wrote, "A powerful analogy."

Practice Journal

Even though I was traveling this weekend, I made sure to download the MP3 file to my laptop so I could listen to it and visualize the dance while on the plane. I even performed the dance for some friends on Monday afternoon! I need to work on the ending; I'm not confident about what happens after the three “chicken jumps” – which way do we lean/turn first?

My prof wrote, "Turn right - lean left.

Michele - I so enjoy your exchange of ideas, and found myself chuckling at parts (ahh, sarcasm) and "hear hear"-ing at the obvious and ridiculous irony."

Dance Journal, Week 9 (Mar 16, 2010)

2010-04-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Journal, Week 9
March 16, 2010

Note: there was no journal for Week 8, which was our Midterm exam

Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. "Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 332-3341. Print.

The author of this paper has identified five characteristics of Africanist dance that have influenced American concert dance, including ballet. The author asserts that many people may not even be aware that these processes, tendencies, and attitudes are Africanist in nature. The five characteristics are:

1) Embracing the Conflict. This is described as "an aesthetic of contrariety." Instead of trying to avoid or resolve conflict, this aesthetic instead emphasizes and examines the conflict.

2) Polycentrism/Polyrhythm. This is described as movement emanating from two or more parts or “centers” of the body simultaneously.

3) High-Affect Juxtaposition. "Mood, attitude, or movement breaks that omit transitions and connective links valued in European academic aesthetic." In other words, going from one type of movement or mood to another, contrasting type without necessarily having something in between.

4) Ephebism. From the Greek for "youth," this means a flexibility or vitality that exudes a youthful exuberance, no matter the age of the performer.

5) The Aesthetics of the Cool. This is an attitude combining composure with vitality.

The author then goes on to examine how American ballet differs from classic European ballet, largely through the influence of George Balanchine, a Georgian immigrant. Many examples are given of African influences in Balanchine's choreography such as the articulated torso, non-traditional (to ballet) timing, etc.

De Franz, Thomas. "Simmering Passivity: The Black Male Body in Concert." Moving History / Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Ed. Ann Dills and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 342-249. Print.

This paper is an overview of black male concert dancers of the 20th century, beginning with Hemsley Winfield in the 1920s, who organized the Negro Art Theater and choreographed in the style of St Denis and other modern dancers. The work of this company is described as “modern dance by a large group of men which didn't trade on minstrel stereotypes” and which, subsequently, “stood well outside performance norms of the time.”

The dances of the Creative Dance Group, founded at Virginia's Hampton Institute by Charles Williams, are described as “exploit[ing] the physical dynamism of Hampton's male dancers in traditionally masculine settings.” The success of this group led to the founding of many other companies in southern black schools.

In New York, Asadata Dafora, who was influenced by West African dance, “defined successful black concert performance as serious, ritual-based exotica, unimaginably complex and distinct from mainstream modern dance.” Unfortunately, because was seen as so complex and outside the mainstream, this led to an “Othering” of black male dancers. They were seen as being only able to dance this way and not able to integrate, as it were, into the mainstream.

In the 1930s, perhaps as a result of Dafora's work, the American Negro Ballet and Negro Dance Theater were formed with the “racialist purpose of proving the ability of the black body to inhabit classical ballet technique.” However, both companies were forced – due to pressures of funding and audience interest – to “capitulate to stereotypical negro themes” which “obscured issues of the body, black dancers, and western classicism.”

In the 1950s, Alvin Ailey, who was heavily influenced by Gene Kelley (who he described as a “man dancer,” a male who danced in a masculine fashion with “no tights”), worked to “redefine popular stereotypes of the black male body on the concert stage to include the erotic.” Black Suite is given as an example of his work in which he explored political themes of gender, race, despair, and rage, within the black community.

Practice Journal
I'm actually feeling pretty good about the dance right now.

Here my prof wrote, "Hurray!"

I think that spending a lot of time in class going over the quality of the movements and repeating the dance over and over has been very helpful to me. It's hard to practice on my own. I am a visual learner (with a strong dose of kinesthetic learning thrown in, too) and not having anything in front of me to use as a reference while practicing makes it difficult to remember what's supposed to happen next. So, the repetition is good for me.

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On the Podcast again

2010-04-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

As I wrote before, April is Solo Ringing Month on the Podcast, so they'll be interviewing me every Tuesday night.

Here's the second of four shows, in which I answer listener questions & talk about putting on a concert:

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 25 – Questions and Concerts – Recorded 04/13/2010 and uploaded 04/15/2010.

UPDATE: and here are the other shows from this month, too:

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 23 – Solo Ringing (Michele Sharik Guest) – Recorded 4/6/2010 and uploaded on 4/8/2010.

Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 27 – Techiques for Solo Ringers – Recorded 04/20/2010 and Uploaded 4/22/2010

UPDATE: Here's the fourth & final episode for April:
Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 29 – Solo Music – Recorded 4/27/2010 and uploaded 4/29/2010

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Dance Paper, The Akram Khan Company

2010-04-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

DNCE 320
Bahok: the Akram Khan Company
February 18, 2010

The ArtPower! Series of UCSD presented Bahok by the UK-based Akram Khan Company on Friday, February 12, 2010. The work was choreographed by company founder and Artistic Director Akram Khan and was presented without intermission.

As the audience entered the theater, the stage was bare except for a hanging electronic sign like the ones at airports and train stations, center stage and blank. After the opening announcements, the lights went out, plunging the audience into pitch blackness. The music began, pounding drums and insistent guitars. Suddenly the music stopped and the lights returned to reveal a tableau of four women and four men arranged about the stage, barefoot and dressed in casual clothes such as jeans and t-shirts. Some sat on plain ladder-back chairs, a few stood, their backs to the audience, looking at the hanging sign, and one sat on a suitcase, his head in his hands. All looked bored and/or frustrated.

In the silence, one woman pulled a piece of paper out of her jacket pocket and read it. She frowned and put it down on the vacant chair beside her, then pulled another paper out, then another, then another. She ruffled through the pages, and seemed to silently panic. Meanwhile, one of the men who was standing and looking at the sign dropped his hand luggage. The noise it made falling to the floor caught the woman's attention and distracted her from her papers. She softly padded across the stage, looked at the man, and then silently picked up the bag and put it back into his hand. While she still stood there, he let the bag drop again. She seemed not to know what to do. Suddenly the sign came alive, and the dancers all jumped up to look at it. The letters clicked and whirred as they jumbled through the alphabet stopping one by one until a phrase emerged: "PLEASE WAIT."

It was then that the music began again, a low electronic hum soon joined by other softly pulsing electronic sounds. The woman began to move, her feet sliding across the floor, her arms encircling her head. One by one, the other people on stage began to move, too. As the tempo of the music increased, the pace of the movements increased, until everybody was dancing and tumbling around, about, and across the stage, arms flailing and bodies sliding across the floor in frenzied moves that reminded me of 1980s break-dancing. It was as if they were venting all of their frustrations in their movements.

The sign came alive again and the dancers stopped to watch the changing letters, their hope and anticipation almost palpable. A single word emerged from the chaos: "DELAYED." The dancers all seemed to deflate and moped back to their chairs.

Many scenes played out over the course of the show. There seemed to be as much acting as there was dancing, sometimes with dialogue, sometimes with gestures. Always the sign would interrupt with messages such as "RESCHEDULED," and "GATE CHANGE."

As the work progressed, relationships emerged. In one period of silence, a man tried to sit on the chair holding the woman's papers, but the woman pushed him away. He tried again and she pushed again. He tried one last time and she pushed again, shaking her fist and shouting at him. Giving up, he ended up sitting on a chair next to a sleeping woman, who, disturbed by his movement, slid down until her head was resting on his shoulder. He tried to push her off, but she was limp and couldn't be pushed. He stood up, she stood, still leaning on him. Every time he tried to stand her up by herself, she fell onto him again, wrapping her arms (and even legs) about him. He appealed to another man for help, but the man thought they were lovers and just laughed as he walked away. As the man tried to free himself, the music began again, a beautiful melody played on the cello. The couple ended up on the floor bathed in a spotlight while the rest of the stage was dark. The man lay on his back while the woman straddled him, facing the audience. From this position they began to move their arms sinuously, looking like a single creature with four arms. Their arms played about the woman's face and body, caressing her as tenderly as the cello seemed to caress its notes. At the conclusion of this dance, the man lifted the woman and placed her back in her chair and sat down beside her. He put his arm around her shoulder and that's when she woke up, realized where she was and what he was doing and pushed him away. I had to wonder, was the beautiful romantic dance only his fantasy?

In another scene, a man and a woman were apparently called in to the Immigration Office. They sat in their chairs downstage left, facing the audience. The woman, speaking English, answered questions from an Immigration Officer (unseen and unheard by the audience). Based on her answers, the Officer was asking standard questions such as why they were traveling together (were they married? No, she said, they work together), why did the man want to visit London, does he have a return ticket, and what's in their suitcases? The woman said the man doesn't speak English very well and she tried to relay the questions to him, but the Officer apparently accused her of "giving him the answers," because she grew more defensive as the questioning continued. When she was asked what was in her suitcase, she said, "Only my father's shoes" and pulled them out of her bag, then said, "I'm not going to answer any more questions." She leaned back in her chair, silently clutching the shoes, as the man looked at her. Then the spotlight focused on him and the woman stood up and walked away, taking the shoes with her.

The man turned to face the Officer (that is, the audience) and started to speak as soft music began to play. I'm not sure what language he was speaking, but as he spoke, the sign translated his words into English. As the others on stage began to move in time to the music, the man told a story of old men spitting into a river near his home. He said that the men looked at him, as if they wanted him to spit, too, but he didn't want to spit, he just wanted to disappear, like he wanted to disappear now. He asked, "You don't understand me, do you? I am a foreigner. So are you. Can I go now?" The spotlight faded on him and came up on the other dancers. They danced together and apart, individual dancers joining first one group and then another, until finally everyone was dancing together.

This seemed to me to be portraying a desire of the individuals to be a part of a group, any group, and we want to lose ourselves, to disappear in the comfort of that group. Or maybe which group doesn't matter really, because we're all ultimately part of the same big group, anyway, and our petty differences don't matter.

Then, the woman who had been in the Immigration Office entered, but I didn't recognize her at first, until I saw the shoes. She was wearing a large jacket over a hooded shirt, the hood pulled up over her head. As she entered with her back to the audience and slowly moved across the stage, I saw that she was wearing "her father's shoes." She stood in one position for a long time until the other dancers noticed her and backed off. She began to ... "vibrate" is the only way I can describe it. The vibrations seemed to rise out of the shoes until her entire body was shaking, then she seemed to break free and danced wildly around the stage, the big jacket giving her torso a sense of blocky solidity in contrast to the fluid motions of her arms and legs. Finally she shed first one shoe and then the other, then removed the jacket and the hood. She picked up the shoes and returned to the Immigration Office and repeated her last lines, "Only my father's shoes" and, "I'm not going to answer any more questions."

In the final scene, the woman with the papers ended up with another man's cell phone (he had dropped it during the previous dance). She held the phone to her ear and asked, "Mama? Mama?" She lowered the phone from her ear and clicked it like a remote control. The sign came to life again and read, "ARE YOU LOST?" She looked at the sign, pointed the phone at it, and clicked. The sign responded with, "YOU SEEM LOST." The man whose cell phone it was noticed her actions and tried to take it back from her saying, "It's not a remote control!" but she kept the phone, pointed it at the sign again and clicked. The sign said, "IS IT IN YOUR PAPERS?" The man and the others now noticed that the sign was responding to her clicks. She clicked again. The sign said, "DO YOU REMEMBER?" Click. "HOME." Click. "HOME." Click. "HOME." Then the stage faded to black.

This performance was very different from what I expected. I expected it to be mostly dancing, a story told without words. But there were words, some spoken, some written, intermixed with the dancing and the acting. It's interesting as I was gathering my thoughts to write this paper, I searched the web for a reminder of what the sign had said in various sections of the show. I found what purported to be a transcript, but it included many more things for the sign than I saw in the show last Friday, interspersed throughout the show. Maybe they were having technical difficulties with the sign, or maybe Khan changed the show to remove some elements, but as an example, in the transcript, the last three words of the sign, instead of being "HOME" three times, were "HOME," then "HOPE," then "HOME." Does that transcript change my perception of the show? Not really. I think the show told a convincing story of human nature in a stressful, yet still boring situation (that is, waiting in a travel center) and how we might communicate when we can't understand each others' word, how we deal with the misunderstandings that arise from that effort, and how we find a common ground.

My professor wrote, "Thank you for the telling. Though there is less 'Michèle' here than in your previous work, I enjoyed the almost objective, disjointed account. It sounds like the program, though unified by "place," was surreal. A dreamlike experience where the unexpected arises from nowhere and makes sense on a psychological level."

April is Solo Ringing Month on the Podcast!

2010-04-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

That's right! April is Solo Ringing Month on the Handbell Podcast, and so podcast hosts Dean Jensen & Paul Weller are interviewing me each Tuesday night.

Last Tuesday, we talked about beginning solo ringing. You know, stuff like how to get started, what you need, and where to start. They invited listeners to submit questions for this week's show, and there were some very good questions from the Handbell Community site.

This week, in addition to answering questions, we also talked about preparing for a concert. Next week, we'll tackle some more detailed technique issues, such as the difference between "four-in-hand" and "traveling four-in-hand" as well as some "six-in-hand".

Each week, Dean & Paul upload two podcasts. Tuesday's upload is a general interest show and Thursday's upload is all about me! ;-)

I'll try to remember to come back to this post and update this list with links to all of "my" shows, just so they're all in one place, but I'll also create a separate post for each, too.

So without further ado, here's the Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 23 – Solo Ringing (Michele Sharik Guest) – Recorded 4/6/2010 and uploaded on 4/8/2010.

UPDATE: here's the Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 25 – Questions and Concerts – Recorded 04/13/2010 and uploaded 04/15/2010.

UPDATE: here's the
Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 27 – Techiques for Solo Ringers – Recorded 04/20/2010 and Uploaded 4/22/2010

UPDATE: Here's the fourth & final episode for April:
Handbell Podcast Season 5 Show 29 – Solo Music – Recorded 4/27/2010 and uploaded 4/29/2010

Enjoy!

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