Kieran and I already desired to begin the semester with activities focused on self and ensemble building but it was reinforced by the students’ desires in their journal entries and in our dialogue. We facilitated activities such as Body-scapes and Silence-maps which challenge them to physically express what’s happening on the inside (and around them). I know this was challenging for some students but it felt good to push them outside of their comfort zones and “force” them to reflect on a part of themselves they likely never reflect on. Their feedback again reinforced this. I’m extremely grateful we encouraged their constant feedback and gave them the space to write about it if they didn’t feel comfortable sharing it with everyone. I believe our implementation of their feedback was especially important because they saw we were actually reading and listening to them (they also saw this from our individual responses back to them in their journals). 

Body-scapes:

1 & 1.5

2 & 2.5

3 & 3.5

4

5

Silence -Maps:

1

2

3

4

5

Journal excerpts:

Body-scape journal 1

Body-scape journal 2

Body-scape journal 3

Silence-map journal