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WHAT DID WE DO?WHAT'S NEW AND WHAT'S CHANGED?(reflection and description of activity) |
EVIDENCE OF LEARNING (include artifacts-photos, videos, drawings, sketches) |
| During our last class of preparation before our project presentations, we spent a little time trying to find the most fitting music for the conclusion of our piece. This was a bit of a challenge at first, as we wanted to incorporate "GroundWorks" type movement while maintaining a more upbeat feeling. Yet at the same time this "upbeat" feeling couldn't be too celebratory, too cute, or too bittersweet. Needless to say, it took quite some digging before we found something we were all happy with as a group. We finally settled on The Piano Guys compilation cover entitled "Beethoven's 5 Secrets"- a hilariously clever title considering the song fuses together the band One Republic's song "Secrets", and Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The song was a fantastic hit (shout-out to Abby Cohen who suggested it!!). However, what really stuck out to me was a quote by Beethoven that The Piano Guys put in the beginning of their music video for "Beethoven's 5 secrets". The quote reads, "Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the Divine". Upon reading this I couldn't help thinking what an incredible layer of meaning this quote could add to our piece. First of all, just the phrase "don't only practice your art", out of context, is extremely reminiscent of what we are trying to portray in our piece; this is that although each individual comes with infinite moments of experience and their own style/genre of dance, we are all connected through the concept of dance itself. Because of this, it is essential that we "don't only practice [our own] art"- that we do and discover the beauty and connection of others. Secondly, Beethoven tells us to "force [our] way into [the] secrets" of our art. When putting together our piece there was of course a huge amount of digging into thought. It took some hard looking at what makes each of our genres of dance unique and individual for us to determine how they all fit together. Our piece shows a single, bonding connection through all the dancers of different worlds; This is that essence of dancing, that "ball of energy" that moves of all of us. This is the secret we all share, and that we've searched our way to through the creative process. Finally, although I don't know much about being raised to the Divine, there is one thing for sure. As a group we've built a connection, and human connection, human understanding, in my mind, is the most "divine" moment of everyday life. In fact, true human connection is not a feature of everyday life, but a product of shared experiences and common love. I know I'm getting mushy here, but through this project I believe we have achieved something Beethoven might approve of. We haven't only practiced our art, but we've revised and dug through it to our satisfaction. We haven't only practiced our own art, but instead expanded ourselves to discovery so many more genres and techniques. We have certainly forced our way into the secrets of our art, where we've discovered and broken down what dance and art is to each of us. Our art and our knowledge is pushed to its highest potential through the creative process, and it has brought us our own kind of divine. Our own human connection. And our own product of hard work, which I hope we're all incredibly proud of. Thanks for a divine semester guys; love you all. |  Above is a snip of the Beethoven quote from The Piano Guys' music video for "Beethoven's 5 Secrets". Below is a link to the music video itself! (Youtube won't allow it to play through other websites) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_fkw5j-t0 |
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