I can talk for hours about how music is the voice of the
soul, the helpmate of intelligence, the pulse of the feeling heart and the
connecting tissue between people, but now I have a new take on it: music as
survival! Today I danced because I had
to to stay warm. Body percussion took on a new dimension to get the blood
flowing and help raise the inner temperature. Carrying Orff instruments up six
flights of stairs became a welcome way to generate a bit of heat.
The fact is that Hong Kong is freezing! And worse than
Finland, Iceland or Alaska in mid-winter because there is no structure for
heating rooms! Everyone is taken by surprise. My host did bring me a stylish
black winter coat that has me feeling pretty upscale— with a red scarf to boot!
But most importantly— I felt warm for the ten minutes I had it on in the
car back to the hotel! Oh, joy of joys!
Then I got to strut my stuff walking to the restaurant with my
newly-found elegant self and
enjoyed a lovely meal with my Orff friends Kalms and Manchi (and her husband
and baby to be). While eating mango pudding shaped like a fish and fried
banana, I took out the camera to take a picture of my plate for my kids at the
SF School. A silly in-house joke— everytime I ask them to take off F and B from
the xylophones, I say “Remove the fish and bananas.” Now I can just show them
the photo.
Now back in the hotel planning tomorrow’s classes. If this
weather keeps up, I think we’ll be doing a lot of jumping dances, contact
improv., vigorous drumming, body percussion with gloves and mittens—whatever it
takes to survive the cold.
Or maybe I’ll just keep my borrowed coat on and give a
lecture on the elegance of Orff Schulwerk.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.