Scholarship Reflection

My license training at the DSR has pushed me harder than just about anything I’ve undertaken with the exception of Vipassana meditation. The skills resulting from this intensive, full-bodied musical and pedagogical study shape the ways I now teach, improvise, compose, perform and even converse.
This training has required significant practice and has refined my understanding of the processes of practice. To me, above all, practice is the art of sharpening one’s blade: engaging with that which challenges the most, requiring greatest uninterrupted time and attention and yielding significant growth in skills, including understanding.

This sort of practice involves perspectives on mistakes that are often at odds with popular US conceptions, in which mistakes are frequently taken as a sign of failure. On the one hand, if I don’t make mistakes, I’m probably not practicing the right material. Rather than sharpening my blade, chances are I am doing something else (for example, using skills I already own rather than increasing them). On the other hand, mistakes are themselves ways of increasing knowledge. Like a scientist who re-tools a hypothesis on the basis of unexpected experimental results, mistakes lead to data points: ways of approaching the same questions with greater perspective.

This article cobbles together observations based on mistakes, and also successes, in directing a Plastique Animé for a Certificate or License degree, especially when limited time must be shared between several student-directors. Many of these observations are taken directly from journal entries made during the process. I offer them up in the hopes that they will be useful to others embarking on a similar directorial process, especially because directing under pressure requires skills and awareness that are not a direct focus in Dalcroze training (but that our best teachers regularly deploy). Other than the discipline of advance preparation, these include: the craft of leadership; directorial efficiency; time management and balancing directorial decision-making with individuals’ ideas to build investment and meaning for the “cast.”

1. Know your piece. Inside and out. Know what sections repeat (and therefore can re-use movement as well). Know how it develops and what its affect is. While your vision is likely to continue evolving, it is your responsibility to have a deep knowledge of the piece before the first rehearsal. When analyzing your piece, be aware of the big as well as the little picture. Is it wise to make each measure, or each pattern, different and unique? Or would it be helpful to think in large segments, looking for phrases or sections that repeat? This is an analysis question as well as a time management question: the more granular your approach, the more time you’ll need.
2. Be aware of time. Balance Time-Equity and Piece-Specific Needs when sharing a constrained time-block with another director.
   • Time Equity: Suppose there is a total of sixty minutes allotted to the Plastique session, and that there are two directors, each of whom requires the participation of the full group for their piece.
     One simple time-equity approach is to divide the sixty minutes in half: twenty-eight minutes for director 1, twenty-eight minutes for director 2, four minutes transition in between.
   • Use a timer. For example, use a digital counter on a smartphone or designate a timekeeper (give them a bell or a tone-block!)
   • Piece-Specific Needs: This refers to the possibilities and constraints of the specific piece being directed. A two-page piece may well necessitate more time than a one page piece. But this is not a rule: A repetitive two-page piece may present shortcuts that a through-composed one-page piece may not in terms of repetition. It is incumbent on each director to know their piece in-and-out so that you can voice your needs up-front (rather than discovering them once time allocations have already been made and suddenly requesting additional time.) Knowing your piece also means the responsibility of choice. Is it wise to choose a through-composed two-page piece when you know your time will be severely limited?Select your piece wisely.
3. Stage time is a valuable resource. Be equitable: each director needs time to rehearse on
   the stage on which their Plastique will be performed. Remember that a solo plastique still requires stage time, even if it does not require participation from the group. Is it possible for the ensemble to rehearse in an alternate space (even the hallway) in order to give the solo director stage time while you work?
4. Know why and how to ask for others’ input. When opening up the opportunity for others to offer ideas, be aware:
   1. This takes time. The broader the question, the more time it will take.
   2. The group is not here to do your job for you. If you are unprepared, or generally vague, throwing the challenge to the group is not your solution. Review #1. There is a vast difference between having done your homework and genuinely needing help with a particular section, or choosing to include others’ ideas in specific areas for particular reasons, and asking the group because you are unprepared. Know precisely why you ask for others’ input and request it only after you have done your work thoroughly.
   3. As Ginny Latts teaches, there is a fine line between scary and exciting. The difference often comes down to limited choice. Used well, constraints serve a number of purposes: they often enable individuals to be more creative, to feel more secure, and therefore to actually contribute usefully, especially when time is limited. So, for example, “in these four beats, I’d like you to switch places with your partner. You figure out how to do that” is quite different than a vague “improvise something in these next four beats” (or, worse, in a longer section!) Consider the benefits of giving movers a goal or image. For example, “in these four beats I want you to use your eyes and hands to acknowledge your partner. Make sure they know how much you welcome and appreciate their contributions: ”or “you can decide what to do with your hands while you turn, but you and your partner need to do the same thing” is quite different than “improvise something” (i.e. because I am not prepared and don’t know what I want. Stop. Return to #1!).
5. Be aware of the group. Unlike many of the skills required for effective directing, this one is directly taught in our training. Just like you watch your students and give corrections in class, it is your job to watch your ensemble and solve the problems you note. Do the movers “get” it? Are they doing what you want? (If you don’t actually know what you want, stop. Return to #1 above). Take a breath, step out of the action and observe carefully with a collected presence. Then determine verbal and movement approaches to “fixing” what’s not right.
6. Repetition is key. Part of your job as director is to make it easy for your ensemble to give you what you want. Repetition is vital. Confusion will cost you time and increase tension. You are a Dalcroze teacher-in-training: Make directing into an art by using the tools you already know. Associations, inhibitions, excitations, interrupted canons, even reaction games can help you “drill” while still keeping it fun and fresh, and this needn’t take up a great deal of time. But if you are not ready to use these strategies, it’s fine. Just remember: Repetition is your ally, as are small bites. Break longer sections into manageable chunks, watch carefully, correct mistakes and make sure the ensemble can solidly give you what you want a few times in a row (I suggest five). Then add another chunk and repeat.
   Generally, it is your directorial responsibility to ensure that once you choreograph a segment, your ensemble “has it” solidly before you move on, unless you can articulate a very specific reason to do otherwise. Take the time, make corrections and build your ensemble’s comfort and certainty. An aim of practice is to work hard— to blaze and then retrace clear pathways — so that you don’t have to keep working as hard on the same thing. It is a misuse of time to move on before your ensemble “has it,” and then to have to take up more time doing the same thing the next day to clear the confusion caused.
7. Be specific. Ask for what you want. Be clear.
8. You call the shots. Others may volunteer ideas, but you have the vision (if you don’t, stop. Review #1!). You are not obliged to accept an idea just because someone else has offered it, though it may well be wise to consider when time permits. This is your piece, and you are the one who has invested the time and attention in the analysis. Take ownership and decide!
9. Remember: Others exist. Despite what I wrote above about mistakes, there is a category of mistake that should be avoided: Disrespect, by which I mean thinking or acting based on the assumption — whether that assumption is conscious or unconscious — that you have rights, privileges, and freedoms that others do not (i.e. that others are second-class citizens while you are first). This is a tricky one, especially because disrespect is, indeed, often unconscious, stemming from tacit values. Nonetheless, mind that it is personally and professionally disrespectful to act with even the tacit assumption that your time is more valuable than others’. Own the mistakes you make but do not deplete someone else’s time, attention and resources, because you are unprepared. It is doubly offensive to vilify or blame another director for sticking to the clock when your time is up and you haven’t gotten as far as you wanted because you are unprepared. Whether conscious or unconscious, such self centered thinking that will undermine you and eventually contribute to a negative domino effect in the group. There is of course always the possibility that you have done your homework and still run out of time. In this case, talk with the other director or with your Teacher. We are all human and most are humane, responding well to respectful acknowledgement of challenges and shortcomings.
10. Determine objectives for each rehearsal. Set realistic goals, budget time and work like mad to stick to your structure. Cut out what’s irrelevant and be certain to use time effectively. It is quite fine to request that the work time you have allotted be “rehearsal mode” and — precisely because you respect everyone’s time and won’t ask to step over the time boundaries set out — request that all conversation/activity not directly related to the work at-hand be saved for the break. In my experience, others will appreciate the productivity of a focused environment, even if the parameters you set seem a bit strict at first.
11. Be generous. What goes around comes around. Inspire upward spirals through your thoughtfulness.
12. Consider switching rehearsal order from day-to-day. If you start with one director’s piece on the first day, consider starting with the other director’s piece on the next day. This can often lead to increased fairness, whether actual or perceived.
13. Practice these four diligences: Speak your truth. Assume Nothing. Do Your Best. Don’t take it personally.
14. Treat mistakes like a scientist. Learn from mistakes, revise the hypothesis, re-tool the experiment. Use mistakes to advance the quality and efficacy of your work.