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Volume 38, Number 1 Fall/Winter 2011ISBN 1535-7724

In This Issue

The DSA Moving Forward

•

The OngoingDiscussion

FRO

M C

RA

DLE

TO CONCERT STAGE

National Conference

2012Updates

Interviews

•Articles

Workshops & Courses

Research Corner

The Dalcroze Society of America is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the purpose of promoting the artistic and pedagogical principles of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze through educational workshops, publications, financial and consultative assistance, and the encouragement of local chapters throughout the United States. The Dalcroze Society welcomes musicians, dancers, actors, therapists, and artist-educators who study and promote the Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach to music learning and performance.

Included in membership is a subscription to the American Dalcroze Journal. The Society is affiliated with the Féderation Internationale des Enseignants de Rythmique (FIER), a worldwide association of Dalcroze teachers, headquartered at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland.

PresidentKathy ThomsenHamline University, Box 2291536 Hewitt AvenueSt. Paul, MN [email protected]

Vice PresidentYukiko KonishiHoff-Barthelson Music School25 School Lane Scarsdale, NY 10583914.723.1169 [email protected]

Secretary and ScholarshipsErika M. HongLongy School of Music1 Follen StreetCambridge, MA [email protected]

TreasurerKathy Jones74 Lincoln Ave.Ardsley, NY [email protected]

Submission deadlines for each volume year are September 15, November 15, and February 15.

The Journal accepts B&W advertisements Cost for 1/4 page, $25; 1/2 page, $50; Full page, $100. Sizes below. Contact the editor for placement availability, file preparation specs and delivery instructions. • 1/4 Page Vertical:

3.375" x 4.375"• 1/4 Page Horizontal:

7" x 2.25"

• 1/2 Page Vertical: 3.375" x 9"

• 1/2 Page Horizontal: 7" x 4.375"

• Full Page Vertical: 7" x 9"

Editor Kathy Thomsen Hamline University, Box 229 • 1536 Hewitt Avenue • St. Paul, MN 55104 651.523.2361 • [email protected] Design Emily Raively • [email protected] Art Photos courtesy of Yukiko Konishi

The American Dalcroze Journal is published three times a year by the Dalcroze Society of America. The ADJ seeks to include scholarly, creative, and opinion-based articles pertaining to the study or teaching of the Method Jaques-Dalcroze and related disciplines. Articles and letters of varying lengths will be considered, and may be published in print, electronically (on the DSA website), or both. Submissions may be edited for style, content, or length. While timely submission of articles may allow for consultation with contributors, the Journal Editor reserves the right of final editorial decisions.

Articles should be submitted electronically to Kathy Thomsen ([email protected]). All submissions should be double-spaced and prepared according to MLA style guidelines, where appropriate. Contributors may include photographs and images, and are responsible for obtaining permission for photos or previously published material.

The views expressed in articles and letters do not necessarily represent those of the Dalcroze Society of America.

Visit our web site!www.dalcrozeusa.org

REGIONAL CHAPTERSNew EnglandContact: Adriana Ausch-Simmel333R Otis Street West Newton, MA [email protected]: Julia Schnebly-Black6548 Parkpoint Lane NESeattle, WA [email protected]: Marla Butke8181 Balloch Ct.Dublin, OH [email protected] (NY, NJ, CT)Contact: Michael Joviala206 St. Marks, 1RBrooklyn, NY [email protected] Rivers (OH, PA, WV)Contact: Stephen Neely525 South Braddock AvenuePittsburgh, PA [email protected]

Welcome to the 2011-12 DSA year. This is a National Conference year and I hope you are planning a trip to Seattle in June 2012. Conference updates appear throughout this issue. Most importantly, set aside the dates, June 20-22, 2012, for what is sure to be a memorable and significant gathering of the DSA: Dalcroze – from Cradle to Concert Stage.

We are grateful to Seattle Pacific University, their staff, faculty, and music department chair, Dr. Ramona Holmes, for hosting and co-sponsoring our 2012 National Conference. We also want to thank Dalcroze Northwest Chapter leaders, Julia Schnebly-Black and Margaret Brink, for their valuable assistance. As I write this, vice president, Yukiko Konishi, is on a plane to Seattle for a scouting trip. Just as she did for the Longy Conference, Yukiko is spending many hours planning

Seattle 2012, ensuring that the rest of us will have smooth sailing.

The Conference will run three full days and evenings, beginning bright and early the morning of June 20th and finishing with our banquet, Friday evening June 22nd. Most people from outside Seattle will arrive June 19th and leave the 23rd. If you want to make a weekend of it, our Seattle hosts have lots of suggestions for sight seeing and touring the area, following the Conference. Or arrive a few days early, see the sights, and tell the rest of us all about Seattle when we arrive.

We have important conversations and DSA business to conduct in Seattle, and we have the opportunity to see the Dalcroze work in action with all sorts of students. We’ll get to participate in eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation classes with master teachers from all over the US. Make plans to attend Seattle 2012: Dalcroze – from Cradle to Concert Stage. See you in June.

Kathy ThomsenPresident and [email protected]

P.S. Welcome to our newest chapter, Ohio!

President’s Letter

Donations and BequestsThe Dalcroze Society of America accepts monetary donations and bequests on an ongoing basis. Wishes as to how the money will be used (e.g., scholarships, operating expenses, American Dalcroze Journal) will be honored by the Society.

For more information, please contact:Kathy Jones74 Lincoln Ave.Ardsley, NY [email protected]

Dalcroze Research Center at the Ohio State UniversityProfessor Nena [email protected]

Performing Arts Library at Lincoln CenterKathryn Arizmendi220 Manhattan Ave. #8GNew York, New York 10025646.698.5044

Books, music, other Dalcroze-related or financial contributions may be donated at any time to the Dalcroze Collection at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, New York, NY, or to the Dalcroze Research Center at the Ohio State University. For more information, please contact:

Volume 38, Number 1 — Fall/Winter 2011

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My Lesson Plan Seemed Perfect . . .Why Did It Fall Apart?

Supportive Learning Group Joy Yelin, Facilitator. Dalcroze LicenseMTNA certified Master Teacher of Eurhythmics

Three 2012 Workshops in Florida

Piano Improvisation . . .Classroom Management ExplorationsJanuary 4-7, March 28-31, August 22-25

Schedule Wednesday: 7:00 p.m Dinner Chez YelinThursday and Friday: 9:00 am-12:00 noon; break, 1:00-3:00 pmSaturday: 9:00 am-1:00 pm

Cost per Workshop $300.00The workshops are tailored to the participants’ needs.Keyboards available for practice. Materials provided to take home for continued study.

JoyYelinStudio.com for events and attractions in Sarasota, FL.941-751-9426

Table of Contents

5 NATIONAL CONFERENCE UPDATE

6 FROM THE DSA PRESIDENT • Moving Forward

8 THE ON-GOING CONVERSATION • Letter to the Editor, Peter Mose • The DSA President Responds

10 INTERVIEWS • Ruth Gianadda and Gabi Chrisman • Anne Farber • Lisa Parker

26 SCHOLARSHIPS • Recipients, Donors, Information • Essay – Dana Zenobi

28 REGIONAL CHAPTERS • Ohio • TriState: 2011-12 Workshops Workshop Summary By Tracy Philips • New England • Northwest

33 ARTICLES • David Frego – Playing in the Music

Education Sandbox • Daisy Lu – Dalcroze Pedagogy:

A Pathway to Lifelong Learning

38 RESEARCH CORNER – MARLA BUTKE • Announcing Research Grant

40 CALL FOR DSA BOARD NOMINATIONS • Stephen Neely,

Elections Committee Chair

41 IN MEMORIAM • Susan Zahira T. Miller

42 WORKSHOPS AND COURSES

2012 Institute for JAQUES-DALCROZE

Education

Week One: July 16-20Week Two: July 22-27

Daily classes in


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FROM CRADLE TO CONCERT STAGE

• Continuing Education Credits (5000 level, 2 graduate credits) and Clock Hours (20 CEU) available through SPU.

• Registration begins March, 2012 at www.dalcrozeusa.org• Eurhythmics, Solfège, and Improvisation with Diplomates Ruth Alperson, Jeremy Dittus,

Anne Farber, Herb Henke, Annabelle Joseph, Lisa Parker, Jack Stevenson, and other master teachers from all over the US.

• Dalcroze in action: Babies and Toddlers with Ted Rosenberger, Elementary School Children with Ruth Alperson, Teenagers with Jeremy Dittus, String Quartet master class with Norman and Jeanne Fischer.

• Music Therapy Video Presentation – Twila Miller, The Arts Meet Autism• Kodály Demonstration with children – Kelly Foster-Griffin, president elect, OAKE• Music, The Universal Language – Patricia Shehan Campbell• Movement classes with George Lewis• In Recital: Norman Fischer, cello and Jeanne Kierman Fischer, piano• Research Session with Marla Butke, DSA Research Chair• DSA Members’ Presentations – Charles Aschbrenner, Adjunct Professor Emeritus of

Music, Hope College, Holland, Michigan: “Intractable Tension and Rhythmic Incoordination: Chicken or the Egg?”

• Caron Daley, Vice President – Dalcroze Society of Canada, St. Michael’s Choir School, University of Toronto: Dalcroze techniques in choral music and conducting.

• DSA General Membership Meeting – Election of officers for 2012-14 and discussions about the future of the Society

• Banquet Friday evening, including grilled Alaskan King Salmon and wild mushroom risotto• Lively discussions, picnic supper• Dormitory housing, convenient campus dining

JUNE 20 -22, 2012

UPDATE

SEATTLE, WASHINGTONCO-SPONSORED BY THE DSA AND SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY


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The DSA Moving Forward September 2011 Kathy Thomsen, president

This is my fourth and final year as DSA president. By June 2012, both Yukiko Konishi, vice president, and I will have served two consecutive terms in our respective offices, the maximum allowed by our by-laws. Preparations for new leadership are on-going and you will elect new officers at the 2012 National Conference in Seattle. Until then we are on the job, and there is plenty to do.

The year 2010-11 was, in a large sense, anacrusic. The ground work was laid for significant change. The next few years afford us the opportunity to create a clarified and unified approach to certification. We can re-imagine the role of the DSA, as well as our relationship to Geneva, creating a uniquely American system of Dalcroze teacher-training and peer review that will be recognized by academic institutions in this country, and we hope, by Geneva. We can do this if we talk to one another openly, remain flexible in our positions, and find a balance between where we are – a highly individualized “system” lacking coordination or cohesion – and the other extreme – an overly prescriptive set of standards that attempts to regulate every detail.

Our goals, to my mind, are to increase our numbers, getting Dalcroze into every level of the American education system, while maintaining the integrity of the approach and high standards for teachers. Becoming a Dalcroze teacher will never be quick and easy; we are not a get-certified-in-a-weekend-workshop profession. Nor can we survive, much less thrive, with forty-seven certified Dalcroze teachers in the entire US. Certification must not remain a murky, seemingly endless process, with an “on-ramp” that doesn’t touch the ground, an endpoint meaning different things to different people, and credentials recognized neither by public school administrators nor promotion and tenure committees. Our current decentralized and often fractious condition does not serve us well. The Dalcroze work is too good to be relegated to this state of affairs. We need to come together as a strong, national organization for the sake of the future and the honor of our profession. How do we get there from here?

The role of the DSA needs to change, and we hope to work with current Diplomates and other DSA members to bring about this change. If the DSA is to be a national, professional association rather than a social club, there should be professional advantages to membership.

I agree with Bill Bauer’s assertion in his letter to the editor (ADJ Spring 2011) “that the most productive area in which to focus our energies is accreditation, primarily of the centers for training.”


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I think that the DSA should become the accrediting body for Dalcroze training programs throughout the US, giving its stamp of approval to those complying with national accreditation guidelines agreed upon by current Diplomates and the DSA Board. Training programs would undergo an initial accreditation, followed by periodic review. Such a peer review system would align the DSA with other professional associations and accreditation systems in the US, giving us the professional recognition we believe we deserve but have thus far been unable to attain.

Following is a proposed set of criteria for Program Accreditation:

Courses in the Dalcroze core subjects, eurhythmics, solfège, improvisation, as well as pedagogy, will be offered at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.• Eurhythmics will include quick reaction, follow, canon, choreography.• Solfège will include Do-to-Do scales, scale segments, modes, harmony.• Improvisation will include playing for movement, harmonizing melodies.

Both improvisation and theoretical understanding will figure significantly in each of these subjects

Pedagogy will include strategies for applying Dalcroze principles in music classrooms and private lessons for students of various ages and ability levels.

Accredited training programs will participate in the individual certification process in accordance with DSA standards and practices.

Developing accreditation guidelines for training programs will be a cooperative effort, no doubt involving much discussion. It certainly will be work, and we haven’t even begun tackling individual certification standards. But what is the alternative? We do not have a functioning national system of Dalcroze education and as a result, we have never come close to realizing the potential of this truly remarkable method. The DSA is virtually invisible as an organization; it is also powerless. Our numbers are dwindling. Our Diplomates are highly regarded – for good reason – but they are not immortal. We have the unprecedented chance, at this moment, to chart a new course, opening up our profession by moving it to its rightful place in the 21st century American musical landscape. We can do it together.


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The On-Going Discussion

To The Editor April 16, 2011 | Peter Mose | Toronto

There are so many problems with the Dalcroze community that it’s hard to know where to start. But I would say that it would be far more interesting for DSA board members to speak to those musicians or music educators who took a Eurhythmics class or workshop sometime or other and then never pursued any of the certification hoops, or perhaps never paid membership dues, than to solicit advice from current dues-paying members of this organization about its difficulties.

My guess is that most of the former had a favorable experience with this methodology. If they didn’t, that would also be interesting to hear about. But most likely those favorably disposed towards Eurhythmics absorbed some helpful ideas, and moved on. One would hope we as an organization would spend more effort in encouraging these people by offering many more one or two-day workshops than the longer courses typically offered.

Another observation: children are always welcome to take Dalcroze classes for fun, while for adults, the classes are almost always aimed not toward fun or enrichment, but toward certification. I consider this a mistake, especially since certification can take years, and indeed it is extremely unclear how long it might take, never mind what one might actually do with such a piece of paper once one has framed it.

I remain astonished by the DSA’s obsession with certification. Just as I remain astonished that a European-trained Dalcroze educator named Barbara

Wirz Ellsworth should find doors closed to her in the US. Just as I remain sorry and yet fascinated that the American Dalcroze educator Monica Dale should have basically set up camp a few feet away from the US Dalcroze campsite under the invigorating new monicker “Musikinesis.” Obviously she found the official Dalcroze training apparatus too confining, lengthy, and old-fashioned.

Random thoughts....

1. The DSA’s obsession with the founder Jaques-Dalcroze and with a no-doubt-dying little mother church in Geneva, Switzerland is clearly heading the US outfit into oblivion.

2. The Kodaly movement is a denomination, not a religion. The Orff movement is a denomination, not a religion. The Edward Gordon movement is a denomination, not a religion. The Suzuki movement is a denomination, not a religion. The Dalcroze movement is a denomination, not a religion. One studies such things at a seminary. Conversely, at a university, one tends to avoid doctrinal pursuits, in favor of the more general subject, which is music, one of the liberal arts.

3. Celebrate what is good about Dalcroze work, and encourage everyone to promote it, not just the few priests, whose numbers are shrinking.


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Peter Mose’s opening and closing sentences: “There are so many problems with the Dalcroze community that it’s hard to know where to start. ….. Celebrate what is good about Dalcroze work, and encourage everyone to promote it, not just the few priests, whose numbers are shrinking.”

I agree with Mr. Mose on almost everything in these two sentences, save his choice of the word “priests,” (I’d prefer “certified teachers”), and his uncertainty about where to begin his critique. We knew exactly where to begin. We acknowledged our long-standing problems, then did what serious people do: we began talking with one another, in public, in private, online, and in print. To wit, we publish letters to the editor from all perspectives. Our conversations are pointing us toward new possibilities, including perhaps a restructuring of the DSA as well as our relationship to Geneva. We don’t know where this will end, but we knew where and how to begin.

He suggests talking with people other than current DSA members. I agree this is a good idea. At the conclusion of most Dalcroze classes and workshops, students are offered the opportunity to complete evaluation forms, anonymously if they wish. These evaluations provide valuable information to the teachers and workshop planners. On a larger scale, the DSA keeps an e-mail list of over 400 people, including current and lapsed members. Also on this list are people who have taken a Dalcroze class or attended a workshop but have never joined the DSA. We sent my ‘DSA at the Crossroads’ piece to this list of 400+ people, and it yielded commentary from a handful of lapsed members.

Mr. Mose mentions closed doors and adjacent campsites. I am not judging the work of either teacher he mentions, but the DSA needs to think about what should be included under our tent. Do we open it up to anything that combines movement and music? Do we want to break from Geneva, giving up the name Dalcroze? Do we want to try to work with Geneva to craft a different relationship? Answers to these questions will come as we continue to talk, and as guidelines for accreditation and certification standards are created. Which brings us to our alleged obsession with certification.

During the 2010 National Conference, and in subsequent issues of the Journal, certification has most assuredly been discussed. No surprise. Certification is a hot, indeed flammable, issue facing us as a profession just now. If talking about it – sometimes wrangling – is obsessing, then so be it. We’re wrestling with it for the benefit of all.

In the demonstration class for seniors at the 2010 Conference taught by Lisa Parker, an exceptional class in so many ways, there was no analysis, no notation. There was full engagement and sheer joy. Perhaps this is the sort of thing Mr. Mose wishes for – eurhythmics without a defined musical goal. Maybe it’s the analysis that bugs him. Perhaps instead of eurhythmics as taught in the conservatory, he’d prefer eurhythmics as a community ed class. Fair enough. Some people would choose to attend a music appreciation talk, before they’d sign up for a “Discover How Music Works” workshop.

Dalcroze for adults tends to be taught as an alternative or supplement to traditional university and conservatory courses which approach music study through cognition only. The unique feature of Dalcroze courses is that they connect the body, mind and sensibility. We hear repeatedly, “Why didn’t they teach us this way in music theory class?” While that sort of response is one thing that keeps Dalcroze teachers going, we may be failing to reach a segment of the population interested in enjoyment only, rather than in an alternative to traditional music theory courses. This is something to think about, to clarify in our own minds as Dalcroze teachers, and in our descriptions of classes. It is well worth discovering if our aims as teachers, and those of the people in our classes, are at cross purposes. I think it’s safe to say that Dalcroze teachers do their best to balance two pedagogical intentions in their work: 1. To provide to all students pleasure along with musical knowledge, and 2. To help those students on a certification track achieve their goals.

I am grateful to Peter Mose for his contributions to our on-going conversations in the DSA. We take his, and all other voices, seriously. He has moved the conversation forward, adding a dimension that I, for one, had not previously considered. Thanks Peter. I hope the conversations continue.

DSA President’s Response


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Interview with Ruth Gianadda and Gabi ChrismanBy Kathy Thomsen

Editor’s Note: Two studies involving the Dalcroze work with seniors were completed in Geneva. Results showed that the participants in the studies gained considerable improvement in gait, balance, and avoidance of falls. The principal Dalcroze teacher for these classes was Ruth Gianadda. In the more recent study, Ruth shared the teaching with Gabi Chrisman. Ruth and Gabi kindly agreed to an e-mail interview with me about their work.

Kathy Thomsen: Who were these seniors in this more recent study? Had they participated in eurhythmics before?

Ruth Gianadda: The seniors were just Mr. and Mrs. everybody; most of them had no eurhythmics experience (or maybe in their childhood, in school), some had practiced music once upon a time, only a few are still playing.

KT: In planning classes, were you guid-ed by Dalcroze subjects such as beat, meter, phrase, etc. or were there other guiding principles?

RG: Of course, the principles are always the same musical ones. What is quite different is “the way to go there,” how to formulate what you feel and hear when you don’t know anything about solfège.

KT: What sort of exercises and activities did you do?

[Ruth referred me to the DVD, “Eurhythmics and the Golden Age.” which the DSA has purchased. We will show it during the National Conference in Seattle.]

KT: Did the medical doctors doing the research ever come to class to watch? Did the doctors ever participate in a eurhythmics class? Did the doctors observe the seniors in non-clinical settings?

RG: This is a very important question! It depends on what doctor, I am afraid. Professor Kressig did, several times, in different classes and situations, participating himself. Dr. Trombetti very little; Dr.

Gold (Alzheimer’s) only saw photos and a DVD that has been made during the research study.

KT: Did the doctors ask you to do any particular exercises or types of activi-ties, or were you free to teach as you wanted?

RG: I was more or less free to do it my own way. We regularly consulted with Prof. Kressig, the social worker, Anne Winkelmann, who coordinated all the practical aspects, and the ergotherapist (physical therapist), Hedi Baba, who gave me much practical advice. Sometimes the doctor attended the “lesson” and afterward made comments: “more of this, why don’t you try that?” etc. It was a real collaboration. KT: Did either of you get to see, or try, the devices mentioned in the study that measured gait and balance? They refer to an “electronic pressure sensitive walkway” and an “angular velocity transducer.” If you tried these things, what were they like?

RG: Yes I did; I walked on it, I have been tested with the seniors, at the same time. It is like a carpet, smooth, like rubber, with the “receptors” inside. Your steps are transcribed on the doctor’s screen with a great deal of information delivered by your walking.

Gabi Chrisman: No, not yet. I would like to soon.

KT: In addition to the medical findings, how do you think the seniors benefit from participating in eurhythmics classes?

RG: Several things: Better mood, better quality of sleep, less irritability, better orientation in space, etc.

GC: Better mobility, balance, increased confidence in daily activities such as being a pedestrian, concentration, and attentiveness. Some seniors are clearly a bit happier thanks to this weekly social gathering. A senior lady in Geneva once said to me, “You’re keeping us alive!”


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KT: What do you think are the next steps in research? Should other Dalcroze teachers in other places try to replicate your results?

GC: Why replicate? Why not just work and teach and let seniors benefit from the established results? Spread the word and the work!

KT: Do you have advice for other Dalcroze teachers wishing to begin seniors classes?

GC: Go watch classes that are already being taught!

KT: What were some of the benefits to you as musicians and Dalcroze teachers from these classes and this research?

RG: More consciousness about what we do, and why we do it this way. Our usual activity needs to be adapted for this particular situation: speed; calm repetition, more repetition; not as many changes and reactions as usual. Clear organization of the work; fine observation of what is going on and react to what we observe – adapt. Voilà. All this is a bit short. I could speak about the seniors for hours. But to be efficient, I would suggest you watch the DVD “Eurhythmics and the Golden Age” where Prof. Kressig explains a lot and you can see pictures from the “lessons.”

GC: One of the seniors once told me, “This stuff is for humanity’s sake.”

KT: Thank you both very much. Congratulations on this marvelous work.

For further information:The earlier study is described in a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), April 2005, Vol. 53, No. 4: ‘Long-Term Practice of Jaques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics Prevents Age-Related Increase of Gait Variability Under a Dual Task.’ “These results are the first to show that long-term practice of Jaques-Dalcroze eurhythmics was able to favorably affect dual-task related stride-to-stride variability of older adults.”

The more recent study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, November 22, 2010: ‘Effect of Music-Based Multitask Training on Gait, Balance, and Fall Risk in Elderly People.’ “In community-dwelling older people at increased risk of falling, a 6-month music-based multi-task exercise program improved gait under dual-task condition, improved balance, and reduced both the rate of falls and the risk of falling.”

Ruth GianaddaRuth Gianadda earned the License and Diploma from the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva. She taught children in primary schools, and for several years taught children with special needs. Ruth taught eurhythmics, solfège, impro-visation, and therapy to music students at the Bienne Conservatory. Since 1983 she has been teaching at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, most recently coordinating the Geneva Certificate. She has given several courses abroad, and has participated in conferences in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the US, and Japan. Since 2004 Ruth has been developing the Dalcroze work with seniors.

Gabi ChrismanGabriela Chrisman Maziarski studied Eurhythmics at the Institut Jaques Dalcroze in Geneva (Licence 1977, Diplôme 1984) and at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York City. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music and Theatre from Ohio University, U.S.A.

Since 1980 she has been teaching classes and workshops in Eurhythmics, Solfège and Improvisation from pre-kin-dergarten to conservatory in the United States, Germany and Switzerland, specializing in teacher training. She has also worked as a dance accompanist in ballet schoolsand at the Modern Dance Studio Akar in Bem.

Since 1999 she has taught the three Dalcroze subjects at the Institut in Geneva (Continuing Education) and at Zurich’s Hochschule.für Musik und Theater. She is fluent in English, German, French and can manage in Italian.


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Interview with Anne FarberBy Michael Joviala, TriState Chapter President, January 19, 2011

[This interview was conducted just prior to a TriState workshop]

Michael Joviala: The title of the upcom-ing workshop is “Dalcroze and Your Inner Child.” What does Dalcroze have to do with the inner child?

Anne Farber: Well, that was a little joke. We knew that we were going to make a workshop for children and grown-ups, so we thought we would make a little joke about the fact that there is something that appeals to the child in everyone. It appeals to the child in the child, and appeals to that spontaneous creature that exists, presumably, in the grown-up.

M: But I think the Dalcroze work does have something for a grown-up’s inner child.

A: That’s what the inner child is. It’s that playful, adventurous, curious, feeling-full but not necessarily rule-bound person who exists in the grown-up, and feels like an adventurous child.

M: Right, and what does that have to do with music, exactly? I notice in your title it says, “A Workshop For Musicians.”

A: Yes, well, of course I could join the researchers and say that we are musical from birth.

M: Do you think we are?

A: Yes. I think music belongs to us in our natures just as language does in some way. Although we have to learn it from others. I think responsiveness is critical to learning music.

M: Do people lose a feeling for music if it’s not nurtured in a certain way?

A: Possibly. More dangerously, their feeling for music can be thwarted with pressures of various kinds. Let’s not go there… the Tiger Mom…

M: I actually just read that article on the Tiger Mom on the way over here. Do you have any comments?

A: Well, yes, I and the rest of the world have many comments… I have seen plenty of ‘tiger-mom-ing.” Even the sweetest little old mom in the world ‘tigers’ it up every now and then, but I think there is a way of training children musically that is so doctrinaire, so didactic, so rule-bound, that their natural musical responses take second place to the necessity to adhere to the rules, and that’s too bad. What we want to do is to elicit, encourage and train our natural musical responses. Now, when I said that it is dependent on response to other people, no, the baby makes all kinds of sounds. I don’t know whether they are musical, yet. I don’t know. But the baby’s sounds then elicit sounds from others. I love to talk to babies in elevators. You know, the baby goes, “goo gah goo,” and I go, “goo gah goo,” and we’re off!

M: Well, they say that babies make all the sounds of all the languages before the necessary ones get selected.

A: Yes, all of the clicks and so on. But the baby sings! He’s not really talking when he goes [sings baby’s squeal].

M: Well, I’m wondering if a similar thing happens with music. Do some parts of music get selected in the same way that language does?

A: Oh, what an interesting question. Yes, as the baby matures and keeps hearing certain kinds of scales, rhythms and sounds, then, yes, he is raised in the music of the culture as he is raised in the language of the culture. And, we’re leaping ahead to another question, but I think one of the dangers today is what the kids listen to. We want them to listen to Schubert and Bartok, and maybe some Miles Davis. We want to give them a repertoire that we consider musically valid. And there’s a lot of music that’s streaming over the internet, and at the supermarket…

Anne Farber


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M: There’s music everywhere.

A: Music everywhere if we broaden the definition of music. There is an awful lot of stuff out there that invades their ears that is not what we want to build on. And we don’t have – I could get political about this – we don’t have a folk music culture anymore. Spirituals, cowboy songs, Elizabethan songs that came over into Appalachia, even songs of America. When I was at the University of Wisconsin in 1953 and I was playing for the Sunday night sing, all these people would arrive and they knew 150 songs into the fourth and fifth verse. We didn’t even need a lyrics sheet.

M: It’s so interesting that there’s so much available, and yet, where is it?

A: Well, the kids don’t sing in the house anymore. They’re not clustered around the piano. That’s some generations ago. I’m thinking about my own grandparents who came from the Isle of Man across America to the state of Washington, and they carried their piano, and their violin. Those pioneers went across the country in their Conestoga wagons and they had their instruments.

M: That’s amazing.

A: It’s phenomenal. This was really an important part of what they had to carry with them. But we have dropped it along the way somewhere.

M: Can you envision a way to get that back?

A: I consider it one of my jobs to sing the American songbook to them. When I say the American songbook, I don’t mean only popular song, although I love popular song. I think the popular songs of the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s are rivals to Schubert.

M: You’re speaking beyond Gershwin and Porter…

A: Yes. I’m speaking of them, but I’m also speaking of folk song, spirituals, and play-party songs. I use these songs from the repertoire in my classes.

M: And do you find that kids respond to that?

A: Sure.

M: Once they hear it seems they like it.

A: The songs that have lasted are the ones that make sense. By and large. I love to teach them ‘Down In the Valley.’ It’s about the guy who’s in jail and wants a ladder to see her as she walks by the jail. And they get very interested in the story.

M: Right, well, we are hunting around for stories all the time, and they are right in the songs. Maybe we could talk a little about your own involve-ment with Dalcroze. Your teacher was the great Hilda Schuster. Can you talk about your relationship with her?

A: It started out really nicely. I had met Joy Kane, who was teaching my children. I went to a Dalcroze demonstration class. I had never seen anything like it. And I talked with her afterwards. We were in a room with two pianos, and just started noodling at the pianos together. One thing led to another. She told me she was doing Dalcroze, and I had never heard of it. She had just graduated from the Dalcroze School and invited me down to meet her teacher, Loma Lombardo. And I did, and then met Hilda Schuster. I walked through a room, and there were grown-ups sitting on the floor and clapping a rhythm that was written on the board. They were clapping with such musicality, I was absolutely stunned. I thought, What are they doing? They’re making music by clapping! I was very intrigued and Hilda said that I could come for an interview to join the school. We played a ‘cello concerto’ on the black keys. I was at one piano, she at the other, our backs to each other. I was the ‘cello’ and she was the ‘orchestra’. I guess she probably asked me to sing back some pitches or whatever. At the end of the interview she asked if I was interested in the Dalcroze work. I said I was new to it, and she said, “You were made to do this.” I said okay. Case closed. I was there the next day. It just simply put together everything that I had always done in music. I was an improviser from a very early


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age, though that was off the program. And then when I got to the University of Wisconsin, they liked what I did in the dance department. So when I came to New York I was a dance accompanist for Jose Limon, and the Graham school.

M: How is it different to play for a Dalcroze class than for a dance class. Obviously you are teaching in a Dalcroze class, but is it different to play for a dance class?

A: Well, yes and no. I can talk about the similarities. You are making it up and it had better get them moving. It had better get those legs out, and those toes pointed, and the arms in the right position. On the other hand, you are playing to a very specific exercise or piece of choreography. You are working for the teacher.

M: Yes, but you are also playing for a very specific thing in a Dalcroze class.

A: Yes, absolutely. But, when I am playing for a class, I know what I’ve asked them to do, and I am watching them and ‘playing’ them. I don’t ‘play’ the students in a ballet class. Both are collaborative, but much more so in a Dalcroze class. I expect them to move what I am playing, and I try to play what they are moving. I am not only playing what I ordered them to do. I am trying to influence them as I am playing.

M: If something different breaks out, you follow it.

A: Oh, yeah.

M: I suppose if you are playing for dance and something different breaks out, the teacher is going to put a stop to it.

A: Yes. It’s much more organized in a dance class. I enjoy playing for dance.

M: Have you done it since?

A: No. I haven’t. Playing for ballet was quite different from playing for modern. I actually tried to sound like ballet music, and then sometimes didn’t, and I could see their reactions.

M: You were completely making it up.

A: Yes. Sometimes I had a score to work from, and of course that was a bit of a problem because I am not much of a sight reader. My ear always led, and nobody dealt with me severely and sensibly when I was a child. I should be a much better sight reader than I am, and that’s something that I think about a lot in my own teaching. Because the ear triumphs over everything. If your ear is fast, it’s much more fun to play from the ear than from the hand. It’s laborious to do the hand.

M: And so how do you get your students to do that?

A: I’m not so sure I’m successful because I do want them to improvise. But I definitely do sight reading. I do simple duets where they have to sight read and keep going. I have them notate the outcomes of improvisations.

M: Were you teaching piano before you became a Dalcroze teacher?

A: Yes. I had students when I was a teenager. But since I’ve become a Dalcroze person, I’m sure that I’m a different piano teacher.

M: How so?

A: Well, I take improvisation seriously. I take it seriously in its opportunity for musical freedom, but also in its opportunity to interest the student in form, in musical logic, in sequence, in those things which are so obvious when we enjoy a piece of music that we don’t think of naming them. Repetition and sequence and contrast…


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M: Those things are in written music, so why is it that improvisation brings them out?

A: Because you have to invent them. You have to do it with what you’ve got.

M: And how did your Dalcroze work make that important for you?

A: Well, there is so much about Dalcroze that is about form. I have to interest myself in form when asking people to move, because it only makes sense if you’re moving and there are phrases. I guess the ultimate word is phrase. Phrase. Form. I think before Dalcroze I had form when I improvised, but I didn’t isolate it as an issue to think about.

M: Did Hilda bring that up a lot, or is that something that came naturally to you?

A: I think it came naturally, as it does to everyone. Dalcroze is about handling form, physically, vocally and pianistically. We ask for a lot of improvisation, both solo and group.

M: I think a lot of improvisers will tend to just kind of rattle on though…

A: Well, that’s what gives improvisation a bad name. Improvisation is not just letting go. It’s freedom but it’s freedom that carries responsibility.

M: Right, and I guess when you are playing for a class you can’t just go on forever, because they’ll fall over.

A: Oh, I’m very aware of the necessity to phrase, and I look for a response to my phrasing in my students. And this is something that I am draconian about in my improvisation classes.

M: I remember.

A: I was working with a young student today on tuning in to phrase by making it very clear that the music is coming to a cadence. That is, we want them to experience anticipatory listening. And so, we have to give them anticipatory phrasing. So that it’s not just V – I, stopping on the tonic, but letting the music telegraph its intentions.

M: And perhaps thwart them.

A: Oh, and perhaps thwart them. If there is a musical surprise, it better be something that makes us say, “Oh, okay. That works.”

M: Not just the rug being pulled out from under us.

A: Yes. I want to expand the present moment – the acoustic knife-edge of the present – to include what I have already heard and what I think I’m going to hear. That’s anticipatory listening.

M: Yes, I love that idea.

A: Well, that’s certainly what Dalcroze is about.

M: In the workshop, Orff, Kodaly and Dalcroze folks all come together. How do the three work together? Are they complementary in your opinion?

A: I would say that Orff and Dalcroze are complementary enough, and nicely so. They are both very interested in movement and song. Orff pays more attention to the instrumentarium, but as you know, I love to use the xylophone a lot. So, I think that people trained in either one will not find conflict in the other. Kodaly is much more exclusive to the voice, and is more interested in, I think, training voices. It is, I would say, less interested in the larger musical picture.


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M: Perhaps in that sense they are all three pieces of the puzzle.

A: Yes. But there’s no movement in Kodaly except the hand signals. I don’t consider moveable and fixed doh to be a conflict. Orff and Kodaly use moveable doh and we use fixed, but you have to know both of those things anyway.

M: Do you think there are any misun-derstandings about what Dalcroze is?

A: Oh, yes. For one thing, there is such a freedom in Dalcroze that it can be very badly taught. There are no rules. There is no curriculum. You have to make it up yourself. There’s no instrumentarium. There are no hand signals. There is no literature. There are no Hungarian folksongs. You are at liberty.

M: Do you think there should be a curriculum?

A: No. I like it the way that it is. It’s useful for one to feel free to use the philosophy, the strategies. There are a lot of things that are common to all Dalcroze teachers: the subjects – although everyone has a different list; the necessity of moving; the doh to doh scales; the scale segments; the understanding of tonality. I think all this is wonderful, and we have to join that to our own instincts, and to our own capacities and incapacities.

M: It’s almost as if its strength is inside of its allowed weakness.

A: Yes, exactly. Virginia Mead once said that everybody does it his or her own way, but you should be able, in looking at a Dalcroze class, to say, “Yes, that’s a Dalcroze class.” There should be some ground that we stand on.

M: Many public music school teachers are faced with a set of challenges: they might have 25 kids in a class, they have to adhere to a state curriculum, they don’t have room to move… Why should they take a Dalcroze class?

A: Because we will give them strategies to use at the desk. To use standing up beside the desk. We will give them ideas about how children learn. Yes, I know that they have to adapt to all kinds of conditions and circumstances that they do, and we would, find very frustrating. Yes, I definitely think that Dalcroze has much to offer them. Don’t you?

M: Absolutely. Even just what Dalcroze does best, which is connect people deep-ly to music, I think can give you inspira-tion and ideas. I think it’s important to know that they can walk out with strat-egies that they can apply on the ground running in a less than ideal world.

A: Yes.

M: What do you see as the future of Dalcroze in America?

A: It depends on what I’m looking at. I think there are some very good people in the pipeline. You know, people like Lisa, Ruth, Annabelle, Julia and me, we’re all the old girls that are hanging on and hoping that we will pass it on to people who will honor it, and figure out how to do it in this new culture that is seeping into our lives in ways whose outcome we cannot predict.

M: Do you have any advice?

A: Advice? No. Just be careful. Be careful and be adventurous. Be careful and reckless! Deal with it. I think that the philosophy of Dalcroze is profound and valid. That we are going to move ourselves, find the movement in the music and the meaning in the music. It’s difficult to summarize what the point is. Is it to feel the music? Well, yes. It’s to feel it, to understand it, to deliver it, to live it, to share it, to give it. I want to be sort of general. To respond to musical meaning and to learn the skills to convey it to others.

M: That is what music is, anyway.

A: Yes.


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M: Do you think that he would recognize what we do?

A: Oh, I think there are times when he would be delighted. I like to think so. Don’t you?

M: I do. I think there are times when he’d be horrified.

A: Yes, well there are times when we are horrified. Anything can be badly taught, and Dalcroze gives a lot of room.

M: I think if we worry about making it foolproof…

A: Oh, there’s no such thing! That’s not it.

M: Thanks for talking with me.

A: My pleasure.

Anne FarberAnne Farber is Director of the Dalcroze School of Music at the Lucy Moses School in New York City, offer-ing classes for adults and children, as well as Dalcroze teacher training. She teaches at the Special Music School of America, a public school in New York City for musically gifted children. In addition, Anne main-tains a private piano studio and serves on the summer faculty at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. Anne, B.A.Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin, earned the Dalcroze Certificate and License at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York under Dr. Hilda Schuster, and the Diplôme Supérieur at L’Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva. As an active clinician, Anne presents workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan in Dalcroze studies: Eurhythmics, Solfège, Improvisation, and Pedagogy. She has performed two-piano improvisation recitals with colleagues, Joy Kane and Lisa Parker. Her articles have appeared in The American Dalcroze Journal, Le Rythme, Music Educators Journal, Keyboard Companion, National Music Council Newsletter, The Bennington Review, and Dissent.

Michael JovialaMichael Joviala is a pianist, clarinetist and composer who also teaches Dalcroze Eurhythmics, musicianship, and improvisation in New York City. Training: BA, Jazz Performance, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Dalcroze Certification, Julliard School of Music. Dalcroze License, Longy School of Music, Boston. President, TriState Chapter of the Dalcroze Society of America.


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Interview with Lisa ParkerBy Melissa Tucker, March 14, 2011

Melissa Tucker: Lisa, I imagine you were a musically curious child and I was won-dering if you could tell us something about your upbringing and your early connections with music.

Lisa Parker: Yes, I fell in love with music listening to my mother play the piano. She played the piano really quite well. She played all the time and I spent a long time underneath the piano looking at her feet on the pedals, just feeling all the vibrations, and then going to the piano and trying to play everything that she played, just by ear. That’s what music was for me. I found the whole thing fascinating. It bypassed the written page entirely. It was stories and characters, and just playing by what I could remember. When I started piano lessons at age six, all of a sudden I had this written page of notes and I developed a block against reading music. I sort of had a love/ hate relationship with playing the piano because it meant that I had to do all of these exercises, read notes, and learn to sight- read. I didn’t like it, I must admit. That is one reason why I think I love Dalcroze so much, because that bridge was finally created for me.

I did go to The Dalcroze School [in New York] when I was about eighteen. By that time, I had learned a lot of music theory, had studied music, and was playing a lot, but I wasn’t really a functional sight-reader. It was my piano teacher at The Dalcroze School who said, “Okay, you’re going to learn to do it this summer.” She started me on Mikrokosmos I [Bartok] and by the end of six weeks I could sight-read. She had a wonderful method. She said you can play every piece three times. The first time, you try to play all the right notes, never mind the rhythm. Well, with Mikrokosmos I, I could pretty much do that, so it was very good psychologically and then, of course, it got much harder. The second time through, you got all the rhythm, no matter what the notes were. The third time through, you tried to do as much of both as you could, but if you had to make a choice, you chose rhythm. So, it built my confidence a lot and I was having such a good time at the school taking lessons with Hilda Schuster and all of it. It was just a thrilling, thrilling summer. It opened my life, basically, and I started to write and play. It just began to bring everything together.

MT: That’s terrific. So your first encoun-ter with Dalcroze was at the Dalcroze School in New York with Hilda Schuster? How is it that you found out about it?

LP: Yes, it was just by chance, if there is such a thing. I was part of the Chamber Singers at Smith College. We took a trip to Europe and the soloist and I got to be friends and she said, “You know I spent this wonderful summer at the Dalcroze School in New York. I think I learned as much there as I learned getting a Masters degree in Music at Smith.” She also had a Masters degree in Library Science from Columbia, and we talked a lot about music-making. I was taking a Music Ed course at Smith and it just wasn’t adding up. I just didn’t feel as if this was me. I didn’t recognize the things that had liberated me, particularly improvisation, and that sense of what role the ear plays. It was all very typical musically. So this person said, “Why don’t you take a look at the Dalcroze School?” So, I did. I auditioned and it was love at first sight!

I’ll never forget my audition. Hilda sat down and played the accompaniment to a Schubert song and just expected me to come in on the right note and sing the song from what I heard. It was the most exciting musical experience I had ever had. The fact that I had always been able to sight-sing was lucky as well. I fell in love with it at that point. Then she sat at one piano and I sat at the other piano and she said, “Well, we’ll just have a little conversation.” It started out with a single line. This was sort of where I lived musically, so I just thought, “This is the place for me.” That’s how I got started. It still is the place for me. I’m still growing.

MT: Definitely. You loved it, and continued on, and did a training there? Was this after you finished your program at Smith?

Lisa Parker


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LP: I went for two summers, my junior summer and senior summer. Then I stayed on after my senior summer for one winter and worked in the office and worked on my Certificate. I got it at the end of that year and I always thought it was too fast because I ended up with what we now call the License. It took me years to figure out what this is all about and how to teach it.

MT: Yes, there’s all the on-the-job training.

LP: Yes, that’s right. It really didn’t mean that I knew much at all.

MT: I know this is hard to do, but if you could distill the Dalcroze Training, what would you say is its essence?

LP: That’s always the question. The Dalcroze work, itself? Well, to me, I think at the essence is a type of learning in which the student discovers something within. They make a connection, because the situation has been set up so that they experience the music through their own response to it, in such a way that they are allowed to discover. I think that is why it is so incredibly powerful. It’s playful while you’re doing it. It’s fun to do, but then all of a sudden, you make a connection that’s yours. It’s very personal. You feel as if this was inside you all the time, and it’s that wonderful sense of awakening. It’s also a craft, of course; there’s a lot to learn. To me, responding and discovering are somehow the essentials of it.

MT: Well, in a way, it’s what you loved about improvisation, being right in the midst of music. This is a way of learning in that vein.

LP: Right, letting the music talk to you. But I think that this is the skill of the teacher; the teacher is actually guiding you, heading you to discover a particular thing. That’s the artistry of setting up the exercises, so that you’re all set to come and experience, which will feed you in a certain way, and that’s the thing you’re going to learn, whether it’s a subject or something improvisational or whatever it is. You’re set up in a certain way so that your encounter with music is direct and, through that, you discover something that’s inside you, but that you can also learn. I mean, it’s certainly not all inside. You have to learn a lot of stuff, but there is a certain, I don’t know, a certain

instinctive response to music which is very alluring and keeps people coming back because there is pleasure in the sense that, “Innately, I am musical.”

I remember an experience as a child of discovering that I was, in some mysterious way, musical. We used to listen to, my mother always listened to, the symphony and the opera coming from New York. I’ll never forget one afternoon. I was listening with her to a Mozart Symphony, and I had this feeling that I knew what was coming next. It was such an exciting feeling. I could have been maybe six or seven years old. I was not educated musically, but I had this feeling that I knew what was coming next, and it did. Sometimes there were total surprises, but that sense of somehow having a musical logic that was inside me, plus all of the music I’d heard, set me up for certain expectations that Mozart fulfilled or surprised. It was an absolutely unforgettable experience and it was very mysterious to me. I think music learning is very mysterious.

MT: Sounds like a real awakening.

LP: Yes, it was.

MT: Great story. At what point did you realize that the Dalcroze work would be your life work?

LP: Well, that’s interesting because I spent the two summers and one winter there [The Dalcroze School in New York] and absolutely loved it, but really my agenda was to be a choral conductor. I had studied at Smith with Iva Dee Hiatt. Then, I got my first job. Actually, I was hired as a conductor in a private school in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. I had to teach classes and I had three choruses that I conducted. I said, “Well, I’d like to teach a eurhythmics course too.” I did set one up, but most of my time was spent conducting and working with voices, and I loved it. I studied with Elaine Brown who was a great conductor. I thought of eurhythmics as something that had helped me, and I did a little teaching of it, but I didn’t think of it as my career.

Then I got this invitation to come up to NEC [New England Conservatory in Boston] and started teaching eurhythmics there at the graduate level. The person who came from the Conservatory was James Aliferis. He was interested in choral conducting and he came


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to visit me. He came to all my rehearsals and to the Dalcroze class that I taught, and a few other things. He hired me, but he said, “You better get a Masters degree because you’re going to be teaching at the college level.” So, I got a Masters in Conducting. That was still where I was headed and I began teaching eurhythmics to people who could play circles around me. It was really quite terrifying. Those conservatory students were wonderful and I had never been to a conservatory, so it was scary, very scary, but somehow I survived.

I got my Masters and that gave me a credential which has been useful in my life. I kept the two things going. I did a lot of conducting and then decided that if I was going to teach eurhythmics, I needed to know more. That’s when I decided to go to Geneva because I felt I had done what I could do with what I knew at the time. That sense of having done it all very fast came back to me at that point. When I came back from Geneva the whole thing began to explode. I had my Diplome, I began training teachers, I began giving lots and lots of workshops. Then I got married, had two kids and I just couldn’t keep everything going. I decided the thing to give up was the thing I could give up. I would need to give up conducting, because you can’t drop in and out of any kind of serious career, but teaching I could do at home, I could do wherever. So, that’s what I did. I’ve never conducted a concert since. I’ve done a lot of eurhythmics teaching.

MT: Fascinating, that’s a good story. You’ve talked a little bit about how you began your Dalcroze work at NEC. You must have shown quite a spark that you were invited to start a program. That says a lot right there. How would you describe the evolution of your teaching style? It’s something that comes over time.

LP: Oh, absolutely. I think it takes years to really figure out who you are because you start out trying to be your teacher. At least I started out trying to be Hilda Schuster. She was my teacher, and I adored her, and I tried to be just like her. It took me a long time to figure out that I’m really not like her. One definite way that I’m not is that I love to move, and she never did move.

MT: Oh really?

LP: No. She would talk about what she wanted, but she never got out there and moved. That was a big shift for me because I do love to move. One of the things I discovered, actually, through this work, was how much of a kinesthetic learner and person I am. After going to Geneva, I realized there are lots and lots of ways of teaching this work. I saw so many different people working and then we had this big Centenaire, the 100th anniversary of his birth [Emile Jaques-Dalcroze]. That was an eye opening experience. I saw a lot of things that were totally new to me, new applications. Gisela Jaenicke, who worked with opera students and opera singers, worked with us. It was absolutely revelatory. I met Marta Sanchez then. We’re all so different. It was very liberating actually, because I found that I needed to find myself. I don’t think that had yet happened, because I was then trying to do what I had to do for Geneva. When I came back, I decided to visit a lot of different people. I visited Bob Abramson and we ended up doing some teaching together. I visited Inda Howland and saw what she was doing. Did you have a chance to work with her?

MT: She was before my time at Oberlin, unfortunately.

LP: She was an amazing person. I just visited as many people as I could and began to explore my own ways of doing things. I feel that continues through your lifetime; you know more and more, and you keep exploring. As you get older, eventually, you just become more of who you are and less of an imitator, but it’s a natural stage to go through. I think for every student that’s the ground you’re standing on – who taught you this work. Of course [you think] that’s the way it should be, but you have to let go of that and figure it out. That happens rather naturally.

MT: I would imagine that is very lib-erating, to really ground in your own unique way of approaching this work.

LP: Yes, but I’ve always felt that’s why it’s so important for people to have as many teachers as possible. You see, I came out of my training, which was very short, basically with one teacher. We did have classes with Johanna Gjerulff, whom I loved a lot, but we didn’t


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work with her very much. It was really Hilda Schuster and, because of who Hilda was, we really didn’t have other influences: other writings, or books, or anything. It was really her. I vowed when I decided to start this program at Longy, that I wanted people to really work with lots of different people just to realize that this is a big and wonderful idea that can come through so many different vehicles and ways of thinking and working. I’m proud of what we have at Longy because I think the students do learn from lots of different people. That’s the whole idea behind the summer [The Longy Dalcroze Summer Institute], inviting master teachers from everywhere, giving students a chance to participate in classes with them. I think it’s very enriching and very necessary, because otherwise you do just become a clone, although it might not fit.

MT: Well, I had the good fortune to do my Certificate Training at Longy when Anne Farber was also teaching with you [during the academic year]. Could you say a little bit about how that collaboration began?

LP: Oh, absolutely. When I first started the Longy program, I had worked it out with Melinda Hass who was living up here at the time. Then, Melinda got a job in Florida as a composer for Dance. I called Anne up. I had met Anne the summer before out at Kent State, and we had hit it off in a wonderful way. I called her up and said, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. Melinda’s leaving and I can’t do this all myself. Would you consider coming?” And she said, “Yes, I’ll come!” She came, first for just one day. She would take the train up from New York and take it back the next day. Then it gradually evolved to three days. After about five years we had to discontinue the weekly visits, but she has been a central part of the summer institute, of course, from the beginning. It’s been 28 years now for the summer program.

MT: You’ve been a great team.

LP: Yes, we are a good team.

MT: Lisa, there is such an artistry to the shape and development of your lessons. I was wondering if you could share a few of your secrets of lesson planning; how you go about it?

LP: Well, actually, I go back to Hilda on lesson planning. Her lessons were so inspiring because she would plant a seed of some sort and then it would begin to grow in the lesson. The lesson was through-composed and it would end up somewhere. It was not a buffet where you sample a little bit of this and then a little bit of that. It was all based on the idea of development; one thing that begins to develop and take on more and more meaning and more and more depth and a larger and larger context. That is still my model. I really see development as essential. It’s like a piece of music, because you’re trying to deepen a person’s artistic perception, their physical perception, and their intellectual understanding and that takes place over time. Otherwise, you begin feeling a little bit like a trained seal or a trained circus horse or something. “Yes, you can do that, now let’s do a little bit of this.” It’s just doing, doing, doing and I don’t think that’s what Dalcroze is all about. We do a lot of doing, but for what? It has a deeper purpose; an artistic, musical purpose and unless you have a chance to develop and deepen during the course of the lesson, I don’t think it really takes on much meaning. That’s really my model. It doesn’t always succeed, but that’s what I think about.

The other thing is, I used to imagine that I had to sit at a table and create a lesson plan, and I just found it so difficult, at the beginning, to cough up a lesson. Then, I realized if I took a walk, my brain would start to go. This was a revelatory experience. I don’t make lesson plans sitting down anymore, and I haven’t for years. It’s just not my way. For other people that might work beautifully, but I need some physical motion. Either I’ll try to do the exercise, or I’ll walk around the house, or I’ll go out for a walk, OR I’ll lie down!

This I discovered in Geneva one time when I was teaching at my first International. I was nervous as a witch. I had to teach a lot of things and sometimes I was just so incredibly tired and I thought, “I’m brain dead, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” I would go into the teacher’s room and lie down. As soon as I would lie down, get into the horizontal position, all of a sudden my imagination would just start to feed me again. So for me, my way of functioning is that I start with an idea, or an image will come to me. It’s a more intuitive way of working. It can be very logical and very developmental, but I think that the inspiration for a lesson comes in a more mysterious way than that.


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I don’t say that I sit down and have a thought; it just doesn’t come like that. It will all of a sudden come into my mind how I want to approach something.

MT: That’s fascinating.

LP: I do think we’re all different. I mean somebody else might work in a very different way. If I get really stuck, or I’m trying to plan the next five weeks, like for the professional course, I might do a mind map. Or if I’m trying to plan a subject over five or six classes, I’ll do a mind map. I just plunk the subject in the middle of the page and write down whatever comes into my mind. I don’t try to organize it. That’s the second step, but I get it all out there, all the ideas. Then they begin to connect. “Oh, this connects to that or I’ll do this before I do that.” Then all of a sudden it begins to take shape. That’s a way for me to get ideas out if I’m stuck and don’t exactly know what to do, or if I want to see the overview. In our program, you have to see the whole semester or half semester to the mid-term. It’s a different type of planning. I do think planning is different according to what you have to plan for.

MT: Would you start with a theme, a subject, or a rhythm pattern? Would you start with that, so on your walk you would have that on your mind, or would you start with a piece of music?

LP: You know, it could be any of those things, absolutely. It could be a movement idea or “I want to work with balls today.” Or it could be a pattern, subject, or piece of music. If I’m going to give a workshop, the first thing I do is imagine who the people are. I do think that you’re teaching students, you’re teaching people. Who they are is what guides the teaching. Who they are, and what their needs are. I always start with that, just trying to imagine that.

MT: Of course, one of the beauties of the Dalcroze work is how it can be adapted to so many different settings.

LP: It’s so flexible. It’s so deep. It’s just the most amazing work. I think that’s been something for me, as I’m now in my seventies, to realize that I have essentially spent a lifetime with this work and it continues to interest me, to feel fresh, and to be a vehicle for me to think about music, to learn about music, and confront my own challenges.

MT: Looking back over your teaching career, what would you say were some high points? What were your challenges? What surprised you?

LP: Well, I think that the biggest challenge for me has been always to be a pioneer. You never have that luxury as a Dalcroze teacher of having everyone understand what you do and say, “Oh yes, I’ve done that,” and then you are starting from the same place. You always have to explain yourself.

When I first started teaching at NEC [New England Conservatory], the doorman met me and didn’t want to let me in because I was wearing a leotard. He said, “We don’t allow that here.” Well this is Boston back in 1959. I had to call the President and he talked to Jimmy the doorman. Then he, very begrudgingly, let me in the door. I might have even been carrying some scarves or a telltale tennis ball or something like that. He thought, “This doesn’t belong here.” You are forever having to justify what you do, explain what you do, convince people of what you do, and I find this very challenging. It’s the way it is, but I think that has been a big challenge for me.

Let’s see, some high points. Well, there certainly have been many, many wonderful experiences. I love where I am now. Longy has been my home since 1977. I was at NEC for 12 years.

Going back to the original challenge, so many eurhythmics departments face the same questions: “What is it you’re doing? Is it theory? Chamber music? Music Ed? We don’t know what department to put you in; nobody can pay for your courses.” They don’t know what to do with you. What happened to me at the [New England] Conservatory is they decided to withdraw credit for the courses. The students wrote a petition and all this stuff, but it didn’t really do any good. I ended up with a graduate course which was an elective, but that was the end of the undergraduate eurhythmics program. It was a requirement for two years. Whatever Marta [Sanchez] did at Carnegie Mellon is what should be done, because she got in. Actually maybe it was before her, Brunhilda Dorsch or Henrietta Rosenstrauch. I don’t know, but Carnegie Mellon is just about the only institution that has a eurhythmics requirement. Oberlin used to, but


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then the same thing happened at Oberlin after Inda [Howland] left. It ceased to be. People tried to keep it alive, but it ceased to be. It’s ephemeral in some way, although very actual and physical. People don’t know how to evaluate it and that’s been a big challenge; to always feel that I have to describe and convince. That’s tiresome after a while. It really is, but given that, I’ve really loved all my students and I’ve loved teaching. That’s the high part of it; knowing that you have made a difference for people and that you have opened some doors for people.

MT: It must have been a pleasure, also, to bring your teaching to other coun-tries, as well. You have done a lot of international teaching.

LP: Oh yes, absolutely, and to feel that you are part of a very big family and to have those connections around the world and wonderful colleagues. My partnership with Anne [Farber] has been very special through the years. I have learned a great deal from Anne and we have enjoyed working together and playing together. It’s been great. I have other special colleagues as well. That’s been a very wonderful thing, my friendship with colleagues. I could go on and on…

MT: Moving on to the Dalcroze teachers in training, what kind of advice would you give to the students who are really trying to own this work and become Dalcroze teachers? I know you have lots to offer, perhaps a few pearls of encouragement for them? It really is a challenging work.

LP: It is. I think that to be a teacher you have to find the part of yourself that wants to communicate with the students, and stay present in the moment. Whether it is a bunch of children, or adults, or a private student, you need first of all to make that connection. I think sometimes we get so involved in trying to create the perfect lesson plan. All of our attention is on what we are going to do next, how to play for it, and all the stuff that we have practiced in the practice room. But the essential magic of any classroom is in the connection that is made between teacher and student through this marvelous medium.

I would encourage students to begin to be aware of themselves in a deep way, to know what their own reactions are and how they are feeling at a certain moment, and not to feel they have to know everything. None of us knows everything. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being present and trying to really feel [and ask], whether the students are 85 years old or 2 years old, “Who are these students and what do they need?” Regardless of age, they are all human beings. It does take a certain reach to try to put yourself in the place of the students and know what the language is that will be meaningful to them. What are the activities that are going to be interesting to them? Gratifying? It means being very open and sorting that out with your own feelings. We’re all going to feel anxious at times and feel fearful. Somehow, what helped me was to just acknowledge that and say, “You know, I really goofed at that moment,” or, “I don’t know the answer to that. That’s a great question!” Let’s not pretend that I know everything. I don’t and I could let that go. That was one thing Hilda Schuster did. She tended to make you feel as if you had to be perfect and it took me a long time to shed that. I do think it’s a good thing to shed, because it’s unrealistic and burdensome. So, every class is fresh and new, and you are always just who you are, bringing what you can and learning what you can.

That’s a very long answer to a really good question. Practice, of course, is the big thing. The students have to practice. There is no magic button to turn you into an improviser or a teacher. You have to get all your skills, your ducks in a row, and that you do by yourself in a practice room. And you work with your colleagues. But once you are in the classroom, it’s really much more of a fluid environment in which lots of things can happen. You need to stay focused, stay present, stay open and know where it is you want to go. I think that is really important. Know what your goals are. Don’t go into a classroom with just a set of activities. You have to ask “Why am I doing this?” “What’s this all leading to?” If you know your goals, then you can say, “Oh, I think this path isn’t working, I think I will come at it another way,” because you know where you are going. I think that is really essential. You need to keep asking yourself, “Why? What is this about? What are students learning here? Why do I do it?” If you keep asking yourself that, it’s bound to get some answers, or confront some more questions.


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MT: You really do learn a lot as a teacher. It’s inspiring for me to hear how much you continue to learn as a teacher, and as a teacher who is so well-respected.

LP: I think that is so true. We learn so much as teachers. Hopefully the students learn too! We certainly do!

MT: Just a few more questions. What, briefly, would be some of your impressions of the state of the Dalcroze work in the US in the 21st century?

LP: Well, we are lucky to have a wonderful, wonderful DSA with a really superb board of officers. I think the future looks good because there is a kind of on-swell right now. We have a lot of young people. I hope they are all going to get Diplomes because we need to keep the teacher training alive. I think there is tremendous interest and activity, and lots of wonderful, gifted people in the States. There is a kind of freshness.

We are lucky over here because I think Americans tend to look forward. In Europe, tradition plays a heavier role in thinking. The European tendency is to look to the ways things have always been done. But the American way of being always “on the cutting edge” is both a fault and a privilege that can end up feeling superficial, as if any new idea is going to fly. You always need to have balance. The teaching itself can feel fresh and new, but the idea is actually grounded in experience and a long tradition of over one hundred years; it does come from somewhere, it’s been proven.

I think in the States we are in a good position to grow. There is a lot of work to be done. It’s daunting always to have to explain what this is and why you do it. Everyone accepts this is wonderful stuff for kids, but we need to get into more and more colleges. We have to have more teachers, more adults and serious professional musicians getting interested in doing this work. I think that’s where a lot of work needs to be done. I think we’re getting very wise on the DSA. We’re using the internet now and we’re so well organized. Kathy Thomsen is really an amazing leader who is leading us into the next stage and I think it’s going to be good.

MT: Well, speaking of cutting edge, I know one of the most recent interests of yours is working with seniors. There is much to say about that, but I’m just wondering, lastly, what are some of your dreams for the future, Lisa, for yourself?

LP: Well, I think, certainly, seniors are a big part of it. I think when I retire (I don’t have any plans to retire yet, but eventually I will) I will just teach seniors. I will go around to various retirement communities. That’s what I think now. It’s an amazing population because they are very wise and very mellow. They’re very eager, motivated, and fun-loving. It turns out they are all prima donnas. They absolutely LOVE to be creative. That doesn’t die, you know, and it doesn’t ever get old. This is one of the biggest surprises to me. Getting older is not at all what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was a fading out. It’s not! It’s not at all that way. It gets richer and richer. That’s what I’m finding with these seniors. They are just the most amazing people. It’s a fragile population because they are all dealing with losses of various kinds – losses of memory, of physical ability, maybe illnesses. Things don’t function right and yet there is an innate sort of liveliness and life-force there, a humor, a desire to learn, to keep fresh. I think it is just inspiring. I do love them dearly and I like combining generations in our class at Longy, [including] young people I call the future seniors. We’re all going to be seniors. I mean, I am one now, but everyone is going that direction.

MT: There is no way around that!

LP: No, but it is something not bad to look forward to. So, I keep learning. I’m new at this really. I’ve not worked with a population with Alzheimers, for example. All of my seniors in our class at Longy are highly educated; they’re brilliant, accomplished, very self-sufficient, independent, and they’re musical. This is really a hot-shot class. It would be very different teaching a class with Alzheimer’s patients or people in wheel-chairs who were physically compromised. That’s still out there for me to learn and I hope to do it. Geneva has put out this wonderful book about seniors with beautiful photos. Both Gabi Chrisman and Ruth Gianadda are working in all kinds of situations. I would like eventually to go there and just hang out and see them working with their different groups so as to feed myself. That would be a high spot for me.


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Also, I take piano lessons from a wonderful Taubman teacher. I’m double-jointed. I had a lot of limitations on technique and decided to really confront them. Taubman is an amazing method. It’s really ergonomic playing. It’s a science really, of what your hands and arms are doing, but it’s compatible with our Dalcroze training because we bring an awful lot of physical awareness to our playing. I’m learning so much and enjoying it a lot. I hope to play more chamber music now that I’ve learned to sight-read!

MT: Lisa, thank you so much. You have been, and continue to be, such an inspi-ration to so many. We look forward to learning from you as you branch out in the future, in your teaching, and your own creative growth.

LP: Thank you so much. You’re a wonderful interviewer. This has really been fun.

Lisa ParkerLisa Parker has been a member of the Longy School of Music faculty since 1977. Longy offers the Dalcroze Certificate, Dalcroze License, and is the only school to offer a Master of Music in Dalcroze studies. Lisa began the Summer Dalcroze Institute, which is going strong twenty-nine years after its founding. In 2003 Lisa was awarded the first George Seaman award for excellence in teaching at Longy.

Lisa has given workshops in many European countries as well as Canada, Australia, Israel, Japan and Taiwan. She has taught at every International Congress at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze since 1979.

Lisa received her Dalcroze training at the New York Dalcroze School under Dr. Hilda Schuster. She earned the Diplôme Supérieur at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland. She is a graduate cum laude of Smith College and received a Master of Music from New England Conservatory of Music in Orchestral Conducting. She was conductor for six years of the New England Conservatory Youth Singers.

Lisa has created many musical shows for children: Curious George Goes To Music School; Sebastian, the story of J.S. Bach; Bartok, the story of Bela Bartok; Kipling’s How the Elephant Got His Trunk; A Musical Zoo; The Bells of Merilee with author and singer Jennifer Smith.

Lisa taught for three years at the Steans Institute at Ravinia, working with singers on rhythm as well as dra-matic expression. She has played numerous two-piano improvisation concerts with colleague, Anne Farber. New areas of interest continue to draw Lisa, and she recently started a eurhythmics class for senior citizens which is part of the Community Programs division at Longy.

Melissa TuckerMelissa Tucker teaches eurhythmics and improvisation at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. Ms Tucker earned her Dalcroze Certificate and License at Longy with Lisa Parker and Anne Farber. She studied classi-cal piano with Natasha Chances at Bates College, Lydia Frumkin at Oberlin Conservatory, and jazz piano with Charlie Banacos in Beverly, MA. Melissa has also served as secretary of the DSA.


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The DSA Memorial Scholarship Fund

Thank You DonorsWe thank the following Patron Members for their generous support in 2010-11: Ruth Alperson, Charles Aschbrenner, Julia Schnebly Black, Margaret Brink, Timothy Caldwell, Francine Evens, Anne Farber, Jeanne Kierman Fischer, Herbert Henke, Mimi Hsu, Dorothy Indenbaum, Musik Innovations, Eiko Ishizuka, Kathryn Jones, Annabelle Joseph, Michael Joviala, Yukiko Konishi, Cynthia Lilley, Virginia Hoge Mead, Selma Odom, Lisa Parker, Randall Sheets, Mindy Shieh, Adriana Ausch Simmel, Jack Stevenson, Matthew Thibeault, Kathy Thomsen, Melissa Tucker, Joy Yelin, Pamela Young.

(If you contributed to the Scholarship Fund in 2010-11 and your name does not appear here, we apologize. Please contact <[email protected]> so that we can correct our records.)

RecipientsCongratulations to scholarship recipients in 2011: Todd Anderson, Carley Anderson, Dana Zenobi, Laura Montanari, and Laura Ono. Read Dana Zenobi’s essay that follows.

Information and New DeadlineScholarship information can be found on page 46. Application information is also available on our website <www.dalcrozeusa.org/scholarships.html>

***Note the DUE DATE for scholarship applications has been

moved to MARCH 1***

Providing financial aid to students pursuing Dalcroze certification is a critically important function of the Society. Through the DSA Memorial Scholarship Fund, we are able to assist serious students with up to half the cost of tuition at a Dalcroze training center. Please consider becoming a Patron Member and/or donating to the Memorial Scholarship Fund. Donations may be sent to DSA treasurer, Kathy Jones.

Reflections on the 2011 Institute for Jaques Dalcroze EducationBy Dana Zenobi, Scholarship Recipient

The first day at this summer’s Institute for Jaques Dalcroze Education in Middletown, Maryland began with the experience of music. Before introductions were made, before teaching methods were discussed, even before logistics and guidelines for the program were laid out, there was music and movement. The music, improvised at the piano, was compelling and sophisticated,

and responding to the sounds through the body seemed both very natural and unexpectedly “new.”

I arrived at the Institute a newcomer to Dalcroze Eurythmics. I also had a somewhat atypical musical background for a Dalcroze student, as I am a singer and voice teacher who works with college level students. Although I had read descriptions of the method in preparation for the program, it was clear from the first moments of the course that the Dalcroze method was truly unique – and very exciting.

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The rest of the program was as engaging as that first Eurythmics lesson. The curriculum was challenging and comprehensive. The expertise and superb musicianship of both Jack Stevenson and Monica Dale was evident from the outset, as was their passion for their craft. Surrounded by a talented and committed group of colleagues, my time at the Institute was challenging and rewarding. I would like to share a few thoughts about the way it affected me as a voice teacher, ear training teacher, and musician.

The act of making music connects body, mind, and creative spirit. Yet within academia, our approach to training young professional musicians is heavily tilted towards the cerebral, especially when it comes to music theory and aural skills. In both the voice studio and the theory classroom, students can become disconnected from the spontaneity and expressive aspects of music as they work to analyze and understand, or endeavor to “do it right.” Dalcroze is particularly exciting to me because it allows these vital creative aspects of music making to be honed and explored while enhancing the rigor of the musicianship training we provide.

The Dalcroze method has many obvious applications in the aural skills classroom, and much of what I learned at the Institute has already been valuable this fall. Even more striking than the information I took home from the Institute was the way the material was presented: hands-on experience followed by description, discussion and analysis. Jack Stevenson described the discussion portions of each class as “maps to where we had already been.” I found this approach so effective that I now work to structure each ear training class so that the students experience and discover the musical material before it is explained. Although I got more than a few surprised looks (and eye rolls) when I began our first class with, “Let’s take a walk around the room,” after four weeks, I am happy to report that students are requesting more eurythmics activities. Dalcroze methodology has been equally valuable in the voice studio. Singers are accustomed to working with the body because our instrument lies within it. Although we focus a great deal on body awareness as we build technical skills, singers are rarely asked to develop a kinesthetic understanding of musical concepts. Since returning from the Institute, I have been working with my student singers on rhythmic, expressive and musical concepts using the Dalcroze approach. I find singers to be particularly receptive to Dalcroze methods, and as a result, they are singing with both greater musical accuracy and greater interpretive freedom.

There is no doubt that Dalcroze is a demanding method from teacher’s perspective, both in terms of the intensity of the training and the varied skill set one needs to succeed as a Dalcroze teacher. Yet, I am truly looking forward to the next steps in the journey. I have not encountered another method that engages students so thoroughly in music and musicianship. I am very grateful for the opportunity the DSA provided for me to attend this institute, for the quality of the instruction and mentorship Jack and Monica provide, and for the discovery of the Jaques-Dalcroze method.

Dana Zenobi is a soprano who has performed leading roles with companies including Lyric Opera Cleveland, Austin Lyric Opera, and Opera in the Heights. She holds MM and DMA degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, as well as a BA in Music from Duke University. Dr. Zenobi is an Assistant Professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, where she teaches applied voice and ear training. She is also founder and Executive Director of BELTA (Building Empowered Lives Through Art), a non-profit organization which supports musicians and artists as they build successful careers.


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Whether you are new to Dalcroze or are an experienced Dalcroze teacher, you will benefit greatly from attending these workshops. College students invited as well!

WORKSHOPSHeld in Redwood Hall at Ashland University, Ashland Ohio9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (8:30 a.m. registration)

October 8, 2011 Dr. David Frego, clinician, “Dalcroze for All”

January 21, 2012 Dr. Marla Butke, Dr. Ron Blackley, cliniciansSpecial focus on choral rehearsal and general music applications

April 21, 2012 Dr. Kathy Thomsen, President of Dalcroze Society of America “Dalcroze from Kindergarten to Concert Stage”

COST$25 for each workshop OR$85 for all 3 workshops and membership in the Dalcroze Society of America (Membership normally $52)For college students: $10 a workshop, or $45 for all 3 workshops and DSA membership

Complete & mail with payment to Ohio Chapter of DSA, c/o Karen Dhyanchand,7464 Angel Dr, North Canton, OH 44720No Later Than October 1

Name_______________________________________________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________________________________________

Phone #_______________________________________Email address___________________________________

School (if applicable)___________________________________________________________________________

Please list any Dalcroze training____________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Marla Butke, Ph. D., Associate Professor of Music, Ashland University

Dalcroze Society of America Ohio Chapter President • Dalcroze Certified Teacher • Dalcroze Society of America Research ChairCell 614-581-4746 • [email protected]

Be a part of the new Ohio Chapter!

Experience Eurhythmics • Improve your musicianshipLearn the applications for your classroom

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tristatedalcroze.org

2011–2012 WorkshopsWilliam R. Bauer, Ph.D.Something in the Way We Move: Dalcroze Meets the BeatlesThursday, October 20, 2011 Registration: 6:30 pm • Workshop: 7:00 – 9:00 pmPlace: The Diller-Quaille School of Music, 24 East 95th Street (between 5th Avenue and Madison), NYC

Doug GoodkinAnnual Orff/Kodaly/Dalcroze Workshop Orff Through the Ages Saturday, January 28, 2012Registration: 9:30 am • Workshop: 10:00 am – 4:30 pmPlace: Little Red Schoolhouse, 272 6th Avenue (at Bleecker Street), NYC

Jennifer Undercofler, and the Face the Music Ensemble with Michael JovialaKids and New Music: A Dalcroze Master ClassSunday, March 25, 2012Registration: 2:00 pm • Workshop: 2:30 – 5:30 pmPlace: Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance, 129 West 67th, NYC

Songshare with Sarah BonsignoreMonday, June 6, 2012 Registration: 6:30 pm • Workshop: 7:00 – 9:00 pmPlace: home of Sarah Bonsignore – 750 Columbus Avenue, #2X (between 96th and 97th street), NYC

All regular workshops are free to members. Non-members will be charged $30 per workshop. Season membership in the TriState DSA Chapter is $75 for participating members, $45 for student members, $120 or more for patron members, and $100 for institutions (20% off workshop fees for member institution’s faculty). Checks should be made out to “TriState Chapter DSA” and mailed to Kathryn Jones, 74 Lincoln Avenue, Ardsley, NY 10502. Membership in the TriState Chapter automatically includes membership in the Dalcroze Society of America.

For further information contact TriState President, Michael Joviala, [email protected] or TriState Treasurer, Kathryn Jones, [email protected].

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Notes from TriState Chapter Workshop February 5, 2011 with Ruth Alperson and Anne FarberTrevor Day School, New York, New YorkBy Tracy Phillips

Editor’s Note: Tracy Phillips has written exten-sive, detailed notes from this workshop which she would be happy to share. Contact her at <[email protected]> A summary of Tracy’s notes appears here.

Ruth Alperson Children’s Demonstration Class

Nine children, 1st and 2nd graders. All but two had taken Dalcroze classes with Ruth at Diller-Quaile.

Names “When you hear your name, I want you to make a circle.” Ruth creates a simple, yet powerful and elegant motif for each child’s name. The children often request this name exercise in their weekly Dalcroze classes. It seems they are empowered by hearing their names played, having their moment to “shine” and step onto the floor like royalty.

Move the Circle/Quick Reaction When Ruth begins counting to ten, the children are to move their circle, silently, to another location in the room. Ruth counts faster each time. The children smile, showing their sense of pride and accomplishment.

Drum Follow/Piano Follow Ruth plays rhythms on the drum for each child to walk, run, tiptoe, or stop and clap. For clapping phrases she taps the drum on the side with a stick, which makes a nice sound contrast. Between phrases Ruth says, “Other way,” and the children switch directions.

Ruth plays major, energetic, 4/4 music on the piano. One child walks, then stops and claps a pattern. Two children join. “You can clap your own ideas,” Ruth offers, which the children enjoy.

One-Two-Many Voices Listening for one or two voices in the music, Ruth asks the children to respond “by yourself” or “with a partner.” For “many voices” she has them form a big circle.

Moving Shapes Ruth says “freeze” and points out various shapes and positions. She helps the children become aware of their individual shapes. She asks them to make “strokey” or “pokey” shapes as she switches between legato and staccato. The children are uninhibited, even with so many observers, because they are caught up in the music.

Vocal Warm-up Ruth makes sounds – sighs, wow’s, high meows and low woofs. She gradually adds pitch, such as a descending minor third for “meow meow.”

Sing your Name Ruth sings to each child, usually in a high register with a descending minor third, and the child sings back to her. Ruth adjusts her register to match individual children.

Hand Levels Ruth sings various pitches on a neutral syllable – Na. The class echoes. She uses her hand to indicate relative pitch, but doesn’t analyze. She sings a motif and asks

Tracy Phillips

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for other singing sounds (Ra, Doo, Too, etc.) The various syllables help fix the motif in their heads. She asks for a “strokey” sound. One boy offers “Hmm” and Ruth uses that humming sound for the motif.

Notation The children write noteheads, then stems, then Ruth adds the “bubbles.” The children use fruit words for different patterns, such as “Pear Pear Peach” for “Beat Beat Half.”

At the end of the class, Ruth plays softly and legato while the children sing. “Clap it – let it move.” This musical team project is a great way to end the class. Ruth manages to keep the musical energy flowing throughout her classes like an unbroken thread. Her ability to follow the energy of the children is key to her success.

Anne Farber Adult Class

One-Two-Many If we hear one voice we are to move alone; if two voices, we find a partner and move around or stand still and gesture. If we hear many voices we form groups and show the music. Anne improvises music in many styles. It is a lovely exchange, and quite impressive, given the large number of participants.

Minor Free Follow/Major Pattern Follow If in minor, we show we are with the music (feel the beat, enlarge it, fill it in, step it, or stand still). We don’t have to step the pattern. If in major, we find a partner and show the pattern exactly.

Tempo/Dynamics Follow “Now you know the pattern so I don’t have to play it any more.” We keep the pattern despite her musical changes (tempo, dynamics, articulation). I always love this type of follow because Anne does such incredible variations around the original pattern.

Chalk Talk Anne’s method for notating rhythm flows logically, step by step. First we say the pattern (from the major pattern follow) on a neutral syllable. We determine the meter. Then we write noteheads (dashes left to right made in rhythm on the board), stems, clap beats and say pattern – writing beats underneath, and finally bubbles, beams, dots, flags.

Where is John? Everyone finds a partner and each pair gets a tennis ball. We pass the ball to each other in response to the music. First the music suggests bounce-catch, then later toss-catch. This discovery process evokes lots of laughter and flying balls. Anne sings the song, Where is John? The ball game includes bounce-catch and passing. We wave the ball in the air for the long note.

Pattern Follow Anne plays in 9/8 while we conduct. We clap, filling in the big beats.

Major Pattern - “Shoo Fly” Anne plays “Shoo Fly” as a mystery tune – same rhythm as original tune but with a completely different melody. She hands out a score with two voices and we each take a partner. We are to show the “missing” beat (after “Shoo fly”) and then show the long “I Feel” section. We form a long line of pairs, facing one another, singing and gesturing.

Solfège Anne plays several diatonic scales from tonic to tonic. “How many tunes did I play?” Just one. Then she plays the F major scale from do to do (same as mixolydian mode), ending on the tonic, fa. We are asked to think of songs that begin on scale degree five (Happy Birthday, Amazing Grace, We Wish You a Merry Christmas).

Keyboard Improvisation Anne sets up a Gb major pattern, and people improvise on the black keys. This is a great activity for piano students. It is a refreshing way to end Anne’s portion of the workshop.


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New England Dalcroze Chapter Workshops 2011–12

Northwest Chapter

October 16, 2011 1:30-5:00, at Longy School of Music.PLASTIQUE ANIME – the realization of a piece of music through movement.Basics; how to do it, how to teach it and whyClinicians: Adriana Ausch-Simmel and Eiko IshizukaChapter members: $15, Non-members: $20, Students:$10

January 22, 2012 1:30-5:00, at Longy School of MusicEURHYTHMICS IN THE MUSIC CLASS ROOMClinician: Sean HartleyChapter members: $15, Non-members: $20, Students: $10

March Workshop TBA

For further information contact Adriana Ausch-Simmel <[email protected]>

The Northwest Chapter of the Dalcroze Society of America will offer two workshops during this school year.

November 12, 2011 Saturday, 9:00 - 3:00. (5 clock hours, free to WMEA members) Seattle Pacific University.

Guest Clinician: Dr. Ruth Alperson, of Hoff-Barthelson Dalcroze School and the Dalcroze Program at Diller-Quaille, New York City.

Dr. Alperson will lead activities in Eurhythmics, solfège and improvisation, and will share her insights from years of teaching both children and adults.

March 11, 2012Sunday, 1:00 - 4:30 (3 clock hours, free to WMEA members) University of Washington, Dance Department.

A Pot-Pourri of Movement: Leaders: Dr. Julia Schnebly-Black (Eurhythmics); Gretta Harley (Dramatic Movement); Matt Mero (Contra-Dancing).

Go to www.dalcrozenwc.org for registration and more information.

Plan for next Summer!

June 20 - 22, 2012, Seattle Pacific University: NATIONAL CONFERENCE, DALCROZE SOCIETY OF AMERICA. A conference featuring daily classes in Euryhthmics, solfège, and improvisation given by prominent Dalcroze teachers from centers all over the country. There will also be demonstration classes with age groups ranging from toddlers to teenagers, and special presentations by Dr. Patricia Campbell, Kelly Foster Griffin, and others. Clock hours available.

Go to www.dalcrozeusa.org for registration and more information.


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Playing in the Music Education SandboxBy R.J. David Frego

I was inspired to write an article to the DSA after reading Karen Dhyanchand’s letter to the editor in the Spring, 2011 Journal. In her letter, Ms. Dhyanchand spoke of how she perceived the Dalcroze world to be insular. Since she brought up my name as someone who steps into the communities of other approaches, including Orff Schulwerk, Kodály, and

Gordon Music Learning Theory, I felt that this was an opportunity to speak about our outreach efforts and even our commonalities. Let me lead off with my suspicion that it’s not that Dalcroze instructors are insular—meaning that we own truth in our craft and prefer to share that truth with like-minded folks. Rather, I suspect that there are few qualified eurhythmics instructors who are presenting workshops or introductory sessions to music educators steeped in other approaches. True, we offer summer workshops in locations around the U.S., but in a shrinking economy, fewer music educators are being funded for travel and professional development. In order to be visible in the music education world, we need to get into their communities.

Robert Abramson was one of the early pioneers in promoting eurhythmics. In the last third of the twentieth century, Bob traveled widely and interacted with musicians, therapists, and educators in music, dance, theatre, and physical education. In addition, Bob published a video that was disseminated globally. In the music education arena, he is best known for a chapter in Lois Choksy’s book, “Teaching Music in the twentieth-century.” He structured the writing to make eurhythmics understandable to the lay person. True, you have to experience eurhythmics to comprehend it, but on an academic level, Bob did such a good job in helping people understand the work.

For the past twenty years, I’ve been happy to accept invitations to present eurhythmics workshops to groups who are interested in learning more. The bulk of these presentations have been for Orff Schulwerk chapters. The American Orff Schulwerk Association is the largest of the general music organizations in the

U.S. that focus on teacher training and education. Besides hosting an annual conference in November, AOSA has 97 local chapters that meet between three and four times every year. The chapter leaders invite specialists not only in Orff Schulwerk, but also in Eurhythmics, Kodály, and Learning Theory. Most of the participants in Orff Schulwerk are elementary music specialists, so the presenters tend to focus their instruction on connecting with the teacher/participants. As a presenter, I make a point of transferring the concepts of eurhythmics to young learners and to special needs populations.

My colleague, Terry Boyarsky, regularly presents at the national AOSA conferences. Among her many topics, Terry offers sessions on eurhythmics for the adult learner. Too often these teachers are focused on the pedagogy of music learning and have put the “feelingfulness” of the music behind them. Consequently, many of these participants come away from Terry’s session feeling challenged and awakened by the experience. I have met many folks who have taken Terry’s session and then sought out more eurhythmics training.

Eurhythmics is an easy sell to Orff Schulwerk folks. A major component of the Orff philosophy is for the child to experience music in multiple ways. Movement is just one way of knowing. Educators trained in the Orff Schulwerk approach take movement as part of the curriculum. This movement takes two forms;1. Purposeful movement is used in body percussion.

This is where students are trained to place different parts of rhythmic ostinato patterns in various parts of their body. They include foot stamp, clap, pat, and finger snaps, with verbal reinforcement in the form of rhythmic chant.

2. Creative movement is used as the work comes together. Many of the teachers follow a Laban-based curriculum that explores various ways to move through space. Here movement is often less choreographed and more improvisatory.

You can see why people trained in the Orff Schulwerk approach are more apt to explore the Eurhythmics philosophy. They are already comfortable with creative movement and experiencing rhythm kinesthetically. Eurhythmics adds the further element of sequential

R.J. David Frego


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instruction in rhythmic and purposeful movement.

Solfège is another common element to the Dalcroze, Kodály, and Orff Schulwerk approaches. Kodály uses a highly sequential method that includes moveable-do, and a curriculum that begins with pentatonic music that covers so, mi, & la in the grade one curriculum. Orff Schulwerk also uses a moveable-do system and begins with mostly pentatonic repertoire, but the approach is less structured than the Kodály method and is geared more towards the techniques needed to internalize the music and learn the song. The Dalcroze approach, of course, uses a fixed-do approach that manipulates the experience so that students have multiple ways of knowing. This is done with singing while engaging in locomotor movement, inner hearing, vocal improvisation, and composition. The only hurdle I find when working with my colleagues trained in these other disciplines is the fixed-do approach. The immediate reaction is that the fixed-do system does not address the function of the notes. However, after fifteen minutes of working with function in a fixed do movement-based experience, many can see the positives. I must say, though, that if people are going to be passionate about an approach, it will often boil down to how solfège is applied in teaching.

Improvisation is often seen as the scary element to the Dalcroze approach. However, Orff Schulwerk uses multiple approaches to improvisation with percussion and tonal instruments. This can be as simple as call and response phrasing to complex forms of improvisation. Within the Orff curriculum, you’ll also see improvisation in movement.

The Kodály curriculum offers less space for improvisation, but it does occur in singing games and call and response activities. The Learning Theory uses improvisation in all musical conversation. An observer to a class of children in a Learning Theory environment will see creative and improvisational movement and singing.

In the early part of this century, a group of educators from Kodály, Orff Schulwerk, Learning Theory, and Dalcroze Eurhythmics came together to look at our commonalities. To that end we began providing workshop sessions showing how each of us might approach teaching a musical element. The goal wasn’t to show that one was more effective than another.

The goal was to involve the participants and lead them to understand that music making is an active engagement. We formed an organization called the Alliance for Active Music Making. http://www.allianceamm.org/

The purpose of the organization is to strengthen music teacher preparation by incorporating foundational principles shared by four widely-recognized music teaching and learning approaches, and promoting collaboration among practitioners of these approaches. To that end, these educational leaders offer presentations, courses, symposia, and publications about the approaches, with a goal of highlighting our commonalities and the successes that learners achieve through active music making.

Throughout the past seven years, my AAMM colleagues and I have given presentations at state or national music conferences where each approach is encapsulated in a 30-minute session based on the same musical concept. The participants are able to experience the similarities and to see where each approach has unique qualities. From personal experience, I can say that these sessions have allowed participants to want to learn more about the eurhythmics approach and to seek out summer training programs.

What I’m leading towards is the call for trained eurhythmics instructors to jump into the sandbox with the other players. In order for people to know what the eurhythmics approach is, they need to see it, even if it is in small bites. Rather than painting our craft as something that curious folks need to search out, we can reach out to them. Here are some examples of places that would be happy to hire eurhythmics instructors:1. School Districts: School teachers are often required

by their State to take continuing education cred-its. School districts are willing to facilitate this by bringing in specialists.

2. State Music Conferences: These conferences offer sessions in choral, instrumental, technology, and general music education. Here presenters can offer up to three sessions that show a progression of the eurhythmics approach.

3. Local and national conferences for AOSA, Kodaly, Gordon Institute for Music Learning (GIML), as well as the American Choral Directors Association,


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Dalcroze Pedagogy: A Pathway to Lifelong LearningBy Daisy T. Lu, Ph.D.

To instill and maintain a lifelong love of learning, the teaching profession needs a knowledge base, beyond content, that continuously grows and improves. There is a growing consensus that learning is most effective when it is multisensory, multicontextual, multidisciplinary, multidimensional, collaborative, and focused on students’ learning. Teachers, through their students’

active creative engagement, are constantly interpreting their students’ conceptions and misconceptions, plotting their students’ learning trajectories, and devising alternative teaching strategies that are most effective at the moment in helping their students master the concept being taught (e.g., musical phrasing). This “growth” mindset is the hallmark of Dalcroze pedagogy.

A Dalcroze education engages the body as an instrument, like a door that opens to countless explorations of individual/group learning and knowing that are projected unconsciously, subconsciously, and consciously. As a facilitator of learning, the teacher diligently adjusts his teaching, building on authentic ongoing assessment to support creative output. Beyond content mastery and effective pedagogy, a supportive community of learners with a common vision is targeted and, thus,

social skills are nurtured. Grounded in knowledge-based constructivism, an inquiry-based approach, and through the magical process of improvisation, students reach the highest step in the ladder of academic standards expected in the 21st century.

Cognitive science has contributed significantly to our understanding of learning, especially at the abstract long-term level. The human capacity for attention is limited; but we are capable of high quality processing of selective stimuli. A Dalcroze lesson in eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation requires major functions of attention: 1) alerting, or getting prepared to attend to a stimulus; 2) selective attention – thoroughly processing some stimuli while ignoring other stimuli; and 3) executive attention – controlling attention and focusing. Humans cannot encode or represent all of the perceptual information available to them. Selective attention requires sound judgment based mainly on semantic and affective input and cues. It calls on a student’s discriminatory skills while he overcomes the limited capacity of information processing in the moment. This critical choice requires higher levels of mental functioning.

The capacity of cognitive load increases as a student masters a critical concept. Dalcrozian “high demand” tasks require 100% attention, as irrelevant stimuli

Daisy T. Lu, Ph.D.

the National Dance Educators Organization, the American Music Therapy Association and the American Dance Therapy Association.

4. Universities and Community Colleges: Institutions often have grant-supported events to bring in guest artists and clinicians for master classes. These can range from one-day to three-day events that not only reach students, but to the surrounding community.

The DSA has taken a step in the right direction by arranging for continuing education credits and clock hours to be offered teachers for attending the 2012 National Conference in Seattle. It is my hope that in

the coming years we become even more visible to music educators, that we are able to inspire them to learn about our craft, and that we can mentor them to incorporate the eurhythmics approach into their curriculum.

David Frego is Chair of the Department of Music and Dance and is the Roland K. Blumberg Professor of Music at the University of Texas at San Antonio. David regular-ly presents workshops nationally and globally on Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Among his research interests David and colleague, Marla Butke, are studying the observable and reflective outcomes of the plastique animée experience.


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are almost simultaneously ignored. Memory codes – musical, phonological, visual, spatial, semantic – are activated, affected by one’s ability to re-organize and re-create, and to represent a concept as embodying the properties of these representations that interact with one another. The emphasis is on the manipulation of information and the control of informational flow. This depth of processing exemplifies what general learning, and certainly Dalcrozian learning, is about. It highlights multi-tasking, a trait highly valued in 21st century living.

What makes a good teacher? Beyond warmth, humor, the ability to care about people, planning, hard work, self-discipline, and beyond leadership, enthusiasm, a contagious love of learning, and speaking ability – a good teacher values the following:• Knowledge and skills that the learner does not yet

have;• Mastery and ongoing lifelong learning of subject

matter and peripheral knowledge;• Knowledge of how to transmit information and

skills, (e.g., relating abstract concepts to students’ experiences);

• Purposefulness, thoughtfulness, flexibility, never losing sight of his goals for every student;

• Emotional, intellectual, and social development of students.

A Dalcroze teacher deliberately designs activities that require and reveal understanding. Students understand when they can do the following (“Indicators of Understanding” according to Wiggins and McTighe):• predict beyond what was directly taught, based on

what was actually learned;• apply or adapt what was learned to novel and more

complex situations;• demonstrate the importance of what they have

learned;• verify, defend, justify, or critique what they have

learned;• make qualified and precise judgments;• make connections with other ideas and facts;• avoid common misconceptions, biases, or simplistic

views.

Teachers should ask themselves some key questions when probing student understanding, for example: What can we make of this? What are the causes or reasons? From whose point of view? What is this an

instance of? How should this be qualified? So what? What is the significance? Such questions are concept- and strategy-based, the crux of critical thinking.

Improvisation leads to and reveals various stages of understanding assessed from the perspectives of “Understanding by Design,” an educational concept developed by Wiggins and McTighe. This concept, adapted worldwide in K-12 education, follows these steps:1. Desired Results: What transfer goals and content

goals will be met? What should students come away understanding? What essential questions will stu-dents explore and address? What knowledge and skills will students leave with? What are the linger-ing effects for subsequent learning?

2. Assessment Evidence: What performances and products will reveal evidence of understanding? What other evidence will be collected to reflect other desired results?

3. Subsequent Learning Plan: What activities, experi-ences, and lessons will lead to achievement of the desired results and success at the assessments? How flexible and effective are the instructional strate-gies?

Ask a Dalcroze teacher to define knowledge, learning, and teaching, and the following concepts might emerge: individual differences in developmental progress, students’ self-initiated active involvement, focus on thinking process and not just product, multiple instructional strategies, emerging idea scaffolding (Vygotsky) as a support for student thinking, self-regulated learning, teacher efficacy, robust interest-based learning, enablers of student learning, creativity and critical thinking, transfer of concepts to a more complex plane, creative production vs. reproduction, differentiated instruction, the role of context, “understanding by design” emphasizing originality, intentional learning, conceptual understanding, quality emergent and improvised curriculum, professional practice, shared vision, and meta-cognition.

Guiding students based on their brain development requires designing instruction that is focused on meaning-making to ensure learning that transfers to a higher intellectual level. This is achieved through learning tasks that use the executive functions (e.g., emotional regulation). Teaching for understanding, thereby teaching for transfer (Bransford), is the heart of Dalcroze pedagogy. Facts are actively revised as information grows. Critical


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analysis, of changes from simple to more complex concepts, happens during moments of authentic learning. Creative problem solving offers insights into new problems, and transfer opportunities beyond rote memory. Such is the dance of creativity, an original expression that authenticates learning.

A Dalcroze educator stirs the imagination of his students during the entire lesson. Retrieving and reconstructing principles in meaningful and ever expanding contexts is a process that will evolve personally for each student.

Dalcroze is a pedagogy of plenty – ongoing authentic assessment and adjusted learning tasks, meaning-driven, a thinking-rich environment, quality responses, connection to a larger concept, problem-focused, strategy-based, meta-cognitive, collaborative and engaging with varying social configurations.

When a child understands a musical concept, he makes sense of the “big idea” through an active process of inference focused on meaning-making. This understanding does not play a didactic role. It must be earned through selective attention, emotional regulation, and meta-cognition. The effective application of one’s learning in novel situations, also known as transfer, is the ultimate outcome of authentic learning. This improvisation process is Dalcroze’s critical pedagogy.

Children are living messages we send to a time we will unlikely live to see. Teachers must resist the urge to be short-sighted by not supporting and “scaffolding” self-generated creative responses. Instead, teachers must create a supportive culture in the classroom – a community that loves and enjoys the arts profusely. Teachers must engage in an emergent curriculum, one that meets the immediate needs of students from moment to moment, one that engages higher thinking processes, emotions, contexts, and discoveries. Dalcroze teachers shift their focus beyond product to process and critical understanding. Problem- and skills-based, it is what Paulo Freire, a Brazilian philosopher, claims in his Critical Pedagogy, “Don’t copy me. Re-invent me.” Exemplary teaching is responsive to students’ needs. It is not a regurgitation of a common script. There is a commitment to learning and mastery. It is innovative

and challenge-seeking. It is also self-regulating and selectively attended to. When intellectual curiosity is activated, open-mindedness and mindfulness become partners. It will become clear there are no “proven programs,” just schools where we find genuine expert teachers – teachers who need no script to tell them what to do (Richard Allington). Such is the essence of Dalcroze pedagogy.

References

Allington, R. (Ed.) (2002). Big brother and the national reading curriculum: how ideology trumped evidence. Heinneman: Portsmouth, NH.

Bransford, J. (September 2000). How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school expected education. National Academy Press.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Vygotsky, L. (2003). Social development theory. Learning-Theories.com. Index of learning theories and models.

Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Education ASCD publication.

Daisy T. Lu received her Master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She previously taught in the Seattle schools, both foreign language (Mandarin and Japanese) and music, and teaches now at Seattle Community College.

Congratulations to people awarded Dalcroze Certificates

Caron Daley The Dalcroze School at Lucy MosesChang Shen Institute for Jaques-Dalcroze EducationDeborah Forsblom Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training Center

School of Music, Carnegie Mellon UniversityYu Shin Tai Longy School of Music


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Research UpdateBibliography revision is now complete! 94 citations were added, formatting was corrected, and entries were categorized. Look for the bibliography on the website <http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/resources/bibliography>. Here is a breakdown of writings under each category (some citations are listed under multiple categories):• Performing Artists – 23• Music Education – 90• Therapy – 13• Theory/Psychology – 24• Biography/Philosophy – 16• Emile Jaques-Dalcroze Publications – 7• Aesthetic/Expressive Qualities – 22• Historical Writing – 11• Scientific Writing – 6• Experimental Research

Many thanks to David Frego and Eric Barnhill for their assistance on this project!• Butke/Frego research on plastique animée continues with video and interview data recently collected from UTSA

workshop participants in June. Videos are being analyzed by 8 reviewers (3 Dalcroze certified teachers, 3 general music teachers, and 2 dance instructors). Completion of the research is expected by January 2012.

• Calls for research continue, with a specific need to look at what improvements/changes in musicality/expressiveness occur when the Dalcroze approach is implemented with grades K-12 students. DSA is now accepting applications for a $1000 research grant to support new research.

Suggested ReadingWang, D. P. (2008). The quantifying analysis of effectiveness of music learning through the Dalcroze musical method. US-China Education Review 5(9), 32-39.

I selected this writing to highlight as the researcher studied the largest number of students in all of the experimental research in the Dalcroze arena. Specifically, the researcher investigates how children can be motivated rhythmically by movement using the Dalcroze approach. Five hundred 6th grade students were taught music over six months utilizing different activities such as swinging, clapping, stamping, and tapping simple rhythms. Another group of five hundred sixth grade students were engaged in singing from textbooks as the means to understand music. Rhythmic dictation and improvisational skills were tested. The results showed that the Dalcroze group of students had a better understanding of organizing beats and rhythm. These students were able to adapt the steady beat in their minds more accurately. The researcher also noted that the implementation of rhythmic activities through body movement can motivate students’ interests in learning music and make the music lesson more enjoyable. The researcher also made note of Dalcroze training being insufficiently known and calls for more teacher training to promote the efficacy of this approach.

Informal Research Question Do you use focus/concentration activities in your class/rehearsal? If so, please share one that you have found particularly effective and indicate the appropriate age/grade of students. Send results to Marla at [email protected]

Your participation is greatly appreciated!

Marla Butke

Other interesting facts about the bibliography:• Writings by decade: 1920s – 2, 1930s – 3,

1940s – 3, 1950s – 1, 1960s – 6, 1970s – 9, 1980s – 26, 1990s – 45, 2000s – 33

• The author with the most listings is David Frego – 10 listings

• Number of articles – 63, books – 32, dissertations – 28, other – 4


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Research GrantThe DSA is pleased to announce a one-time research grant of $1000.00. Deadline for applications is January 1, 2012. Send applications to <[email protected]> A committee will review applications and announce recipient(s) as soon as possible after application deadline.

Research Grant Proposal Guidelines• Focus of research: how the implementation of components of eurhythmics

affects students’ musical abilities (i.e. rhythmic integrity, expressive qualities, inner hearing, improvisation)

• Type of research: experimental (qualitative, quantitative or combination). Published research to date has been mostly historical and descriptive

• Standard research format; research question(s), review of literature, methodology, data analysis, conclusion(s)

• Writing style according to American Psychological Association standards

• University protocol: Internal Review Board process

• Publishing: peer review journal with music educators as audience (Update, MEJ, JRME) and summary to be included in the American Dalcroze Journal. Possible presentation of progress-to-date at DSA National Conference in Seattle, June 20-22, 2012

• Timely completion of research and publication (starts within 6 months, 2 year deadline)


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Attention all members: We are currently accepting nominations for the 2012-2014 DSA Board – President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary. You may nominate an individual or self-nominate, by sending the name and contact information to Stephen Neely at [email protected].

The Elections Committee will prepare the slate, and announce it in the winter 2012 Journal in preparation for the general membership meeting in June. The election will be held at the 2012 National Conference in Seattle.

Thank you all for your participation.

Stephen Neely, Elections Committee Chair

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS2012–2014 DSA BOARD ELECTIONS


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In Memoriam

Passing of Beloved Dalcroze Teacher: Susan Zahira T. Miller, 1950 – 2011

By Martha Rogers, New England Chapter

On May 30, 2011 a tender, loving, inspired service honored the May 15 passing of Susan Zahira T. Miller. Susan was a teacher of many things throughout her life, with her most consistent love being Dalcroze Eurhythmics. In 1976 she earned a certificate at the Dalcroze School of Music in New York. She taught young children Dalcroze and flute in Vermont until 1995 and then most recently in the area of Oneonta, New York. Of the many cherished memories shared at the service, one of Susan’s very young students gathered the courage to speak through her mother. In halting words this inspired young musician told the congregation how much she loved Miss Susan and how much she would miss her. There could be no more eloquent testimony to the legacy of joy and music that Susan bequeathed to hundreds of students over the years.

In addition to Dalcroze Susan pursued a parallel career teaching Outward Bound in Maine, leading expeditions on the rivers and lakes and mountains. Initiated in the Sufi order by Pir Vilayat Khan in 1985, Susan (Zahira) followed the Sufi path which guided her personal healing and soul’s development. She taught Sufi dancing and meditation through sacred sound. In 1997 Zahira met Jeffrey Gale and settled in rural New York with him and resumed her teaching until spring 2011.

Susan died in New Berlin, NY, of liver cancer. She is survived by her husband Jeffrey, her father, three brothers and a sister. Donations may be made in Susan’s memory to two places that reflect her interest in music education for children and youth:

1. Dox Apprenticeship Program for vocal training for teens, catskillchoralsociety.org, or send checks with Dox/Susan Miller in the memo line to the Catskill Choral Society, PO Box 135, Oneonta, NY 13820.

2. Oneonta World of Learning for young children at oneontaworldoflearning.org, or send a check with Susan Miller in the memo line to Oneonta World of Learning, PO Box 1302, Oneonta, NY 13820.


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FLORIDAIMG ACADEMIES GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

BRADENTON FLORIDA 34210Dalcroze Music and Movement for VitalityThursdays: 9:30 - 10:30 a.m.Instructor: Joy [email protected]

LAKEWOOD RANCH, SARASOTACancer Support CommunityMusic and Movement/VitalityJoy YelinBeginning October 2011Mondays 9:30-10:30

ARTS AND CULTURAL ALLIANCE IN SARASOTAArtist in the SchoolsJanuary 2012Joy Yelin <[email protected]>941-751-9426

ILLINOISEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

(CHARLESTON)David FregoMarch 9, 2012Contact: Magie Smith [email protected]

KENTUCKYKENTUCKY MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION

(LOUISVILLE)David FregoFebruary 8-11, 2012Contact: Melissa Skaggs [email protected]

MARYLANDTHE LUCY SCHOOL

9117 FROSTOWN RD.

MIDDLETOWN, MD 21769Summer Institute for Jaques-Dalcroze EducationA certificate program comprising four modules: I. Structure - Foundations of the Jaques-Dalcroze Method; II. MusiKinesis - Contemporary Applications for Young Children; III. Form - Designs for Music, Movement and Teaching; IV. Making Connections - Practical Applications of the Jaques-Dalcroze Method. Each module

includes daily lessons in Eurhythmics, Solfège, Improvisation, and Jaques-Dalcroze Philosophy, along with observation, discussion and analysis.

Week 1: July 16–20, 2012 Week 2: July 22–27, 2012www.summerdalcroze.comemail: [email protected]

MASSACHUSETTSLONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

www.longy.edu/dalcrozeFull time 2 year Dalcroze program leading to Certificate, License and Master of Music Degree in Dalcroze. Courses: eurhythmics, solfège, improvisation, movement, methods, plastique, eurhythmics for seniors.

Faculty: Lisa Parker, Adriana Ausch, Ginny Latts, Liz Lurie, Eiko Ishizuka, Melissa Tucker.

Children’s classes ages 2-10. Students observe and assist.

MICHIGANMICHIGAN MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION

(GRAND RAPIDS)January 20–21, 2012 David FregoContact: Christina Hornbach [email protected]

MINNESOTAHAMLINE UNIVERSITY, ST. PAUL. Dalcroze Eurhythymics, Mondays 7:00-8:30 PM, Fall Term. Credit and non-credit available. Contact Kathy Thomsen, 651-523-2361, [email protected]

NEW MEXICOALBUQUERQUE PUBLIC SCHOOLSJanuary 3, 2012 David FregoContact: Luis Delgado [email protected]

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NEW YORKTHE DALCROZE SCHOOL

LUCY MOSES SCHOOL AT KAUFMAN CENTER

129 W. 67TH ST.

NEW YORK, NY 10023

http://kaufman-center.org/lucy-moses-school/

music-classes-workshops#adult|189The Dalcroze School offers fall, spring and summer classes for teacher training and personal/professional development. We award Dalcroze certification at both the Certificate and License levels.Faculty: Anne Farber, Director; Cynthia Lilley

For more information or to register212-501-3360lucymosesschool@kaufman-center.orgwww.kaufman-center.org

TRI-STATE CHAPTER 2011–2012 WORKSHOPSSee page 29 for details.

THE DALCROZE PROGRAM AT DILLER-QUAILE

24 EAST 95TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10128

PHONE 212-369-1484; FAX 212-369-1483

www.diller-quaile.orgGraduate Level Courses in the Dalcroze Approach / Certification AvailableFaculty: Ruth Alperson and Cynthia LilleyTo register for classes download an application at www.diller-quaile.org

This program has been evaluated and recommended for college credit by the New York Regents National Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction. Students who successfully complete course work may be able to transfer recommended graduate credits to fulfill degree requirements at colleges and universities.

Questions, contact: Kirsten Morgan, Executive Director, 212-369-1484, ext. 22, [email protected]

HOFF-BARTHELSON MUSIC SCHOOL

25 SCHOOL LANE, SCARSDALE, NY 10583

www.hbms.org/mount.htmTaught by Dr. Ruth Alperson, Dean, Hoff-Barthelson Music SchoolDalcroze Diplôme, Geneva; Dalcroze License, London; Ph.D., NYU Classes in Eurhythmics – Solfège – Improvisation are offered at the Beginning – Intermediate levels.

These courses are necessary pre-cursors to teacher training and eventual certification. Students enrolled in the course have the opportunity to observe Dalcroze classes for children.

Fall semester, 14 weeks; Tuesdays, 9:15 am – 12:15 pm. First day of classes: September 20, 2011. $649/semester (includes enrollment fee).

Contact Terry Wager 914-723-1169 or [email protected]

OHIOOHIO MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION

(COLUMBUS)February 16-17, 2012 David FregoContact: Marla Butke [email protected]

OHIO CHAPTER WORKSHOPSSee page 28 for details.

PENNSYLVANIACARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIAThe Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training Center, Carnegie Mellon University School of Music, is accredited by the Jaques-Dalcroze Foundation of Geneva, Switzerland, as a professional training center to grant the Dalcroze Certificate during the academic year as well as during the annual summer workshops. During the academic year students may enroll in the Dalcroze Certification Program or combine the program with a master’s degree in music education, performance or composition.

The Carnegie Mellon Music Preparatory School offers Eurhythmics classes for children from Pre-school through age 10 on Saturday mornings from September through July. Contact: Judi Cagley [email protected]

Carnegie Mellon University is an approved provider for Pennsylvania Act 48 continuing education credit.

Contact: Dr. Annabelle Joseph, Director, Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training Center School of Music, Carnegie Mellon UniversityTel: 412.268.2391, Fax: 412.268.1537Email: [email protected]: www.music.cmu.edu/dalcroze


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NATIONAL CONFERENCE, PITTSBURGH, PA November 9-12, 2011Stephen Neely will be teaching. “Getting Your Groove through Dalcroze Eurhythmics Parts 1, 2, 3” [Three sessions] “Is Dalcroze Cool? Eurhythmics in the High School” [One session, includes a high school demonstration class.]

TEXAS BAYLOR UNIVERSITY (WACO)January 30, 2012 David FregoContact: Michele Henry [email protected]

WASHINGTONSEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY November 12, 2011, 9:00 - 3:00. (5 clock hours, free to WMEA members) Dr. Ruth Alperson

NORTHWEST CHAPTER WORKSHOPSSee page 32 for details.

JAPAN RHYTHM-NO-MORI DALCROZE STUDIO

YOKOHAMAFebruary 5–10, 2012Jack Stevenson


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TO CONCERT STAGE

TEACHING MUSIC THROUGH MOVEMENTJUNE 20-22

REGISTRATION BEGINS MARCH, 2012WWW.DALCROZEUSA.ORG for Conference registration and more details

JOIN US IN SEATTLE FOR THIS ENERGIZING DSA EVENT! • EURHYTHMICS, SOLFÈGE, AND IMPROVISATION WITH MASTER TEACHERS

INCLUDING RUTH ALPERSON, JULIA BLACK, JEREMY DITTUS, ANNE FARBER, HERB HENKE, ANNABELLE JOSEPH, LISA PARKER, JACK STEVENSON

• MUSIC, THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE – PATRICIA SHEHAN CAMPBELL

• DALCROZE-INSPIRED MASTER CLASS AND RECITAL – NORMAN FISCHER, CELLO AND JEANNE KIERMAN FISCHER, PIANO

• MOVEMENT CLASSES – GEORGE LEWIS

• DALCROZE IN ACTION: BABIES AND TODDLERS WITH TED ROSENBERGER, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH RUTH ALPERSON, TEENAGERS WITH JEREMY DITTUS

• MUSIC THERAPY VIDEO PRESENTATION – TWILA MILLER, THE ARTS MEET AUTISM

• KODÁLY DEMONSTRATION WITH CHILDREN – KELLY FOSTER-GRIFFIN

CEU’S AND CLOCK HOURS AVAILABLE THROUGH SPU.

Dalcroze Society of AmericaMemorial Scholarship ApplicationEach year, Memorial Scholarships to Honor Fran Aronoff, Arthur Becknell, John Colman, Brunhilde Dorsch, Elsa Findlay, and Henrietta Rosenstrauch are awarded for winter or summer study at accredited Dalcroze training institutes to aid future Dalcroze teachers. The purpose of the DSA Scholarship program is to provide financial aid to students attending institutions offering Dalcroze certification or those offering graduate credit for classes devoted to the Dalcroze approach.

The application deadline is March 1, 2012.

DSA Scholarship Rules and Procedures

Scholarships are awarded commensurately for summer programs of one, two, and three weeks as well as for one semester (fall or spring) within the academic year (June to May of the following year). Semester courses are given the same weight as a summer program. Scholarship recipients will receive a one-year membership to the DSA.

Anyone who plans to register to study Dalcroze at a qualifying institution may apply for a scholarship. The Scholarship Committee will award scholarships based on merit and financial need. In addition, the Scholarship Committee will consider the following factors: the applicant’s intention to work toward Dalcroze certification and teach the Dalcroze approach in the United States, the applicant’s country of residency, previous Dalcroze experience, and whether or not the applicant has previously been awarded a DSA Scholarship.

DSA scholarships cover only a part of an applicant’s tuition. In order to serve a number of applicants, no full scholarships are granted, and all good-faith efforts are made to distribute funds equitably to recognized programs and institutions. The size of each scholarship is determined by the Scholarship Committee, the membership of which is determined by the Executive Board. The total amount of DSA funds used for scholarships in a given year is determined each year by the DSA Executive Board. All scholarship grants are sent directly to the institution the applicant plans to attend. Scholarship recipients may not transfer their scholarships to other institutions. Scholarships are awarded for use only within the upcoming DSA academic year; they may not be deferred.

Deadline for applications is March 1.

Scholarship application should include:1. Resume2. The recognized Dalcroze Training Center at which you will enroll;

the dates of the session for which you are applying; the cost of tuition for that session.

3. Three letters of reference: Two professional references (one should be from a licensed Dalcroze teacher) and one general reference.

4. A statement of financial need. Please include a copy of your most recent tax return or other document that demonstrates financial need.

5. A personal statement that describes your teaching experience, previous Dalcroze experience, and reasons for wanting to pursue Dalcroze training.

If a scholarship is granted, the funds will be sent directly to the institution upon receipt of a tuition bill. Further instructions will be included with your acceptance letter.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: March 1st, 2012

Send all materials to Scholarship Chair:

[email protected]


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Membership Form July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012

Name

Home Address Work Address

Home Phone Work Phone

Personal E mail Work E mail

Please make your check payable to the “DSA” and mail it with the completed form to: Kathryn Jones, 74 Lincoln Avenue, Ardsley, New York 10502.

Welcome to the DSA!

Please indicate your primary professional areas: College Professor [school: ____________________________]

Instrumental/Vocal Performance

Music Education

Music Theory/Aural Skills

Music History

Conducting (choral/orch.)

Other: ___________________________________________

K-12 classroom music teacher

Private instrumental/vocal teacher

Performer [instrument: _______________________________]

Chamber music

Church musician

Music therapist

Music psychologist

Dancer

Actor

Student [school: _____________________________________]

Other: ______________________________________________

Please mark the most advanced Dalcroze training or certification you have received:institution/year:

institution/year:

institution/year:

institution/year:

institution/year:

institution/year:

institution/year:

One or more short Dalcroze workshops

Three-week summer courses

College coursework during academic year

Teacher training

Certificate

License

Diploma

Please select your level of membership. (All levels now include FIER dues.) Participating Member: $52.00

Student Member: $32.00 (enclose photocopy of most recent school ID)

Patron Member: $77.00 or more ($25 is applied to the Dalcroze Society Memorial

Scholarship Fund and is tax-deductible)

Canadian/Foreign Member: $67.00

Institutional/Library Membership: $92.00

Additional contribution to Dalcroze Society Memorial Scholarship Fund: $____________________

Local chapter affiliation, if any: _____________________________________________________________________________________

Kathy Jones74 Lincoln Ave.Ardsley, NY 10502

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