the power of dance upon the stage

 

virtuosity in motion

in high school I took ballroom dancing classes

I danced in a musical, 

where my dancing was far better than my singing,

I was asked to mouth words in songs,

my body more agile than my voice,

early in my middle school teaching years

I helped co-teach Israeli folk-dance,

a lot of circles and camaraderie,

when my son married into Judaism,

I taught Ma Navu at the party after the wedding,

this goy from East Tennessee knowing an Israeli dance

no other attendees did,

though the bride's father said he had seen it on a kibbutz,

I even had to vocalize the music

since the band did not have this music in their repertoire,

at CFS I have loved to appreciate brilliance

that I only vaguely understand,

yet skills I have touched enough to appreciate their story

for I know enough of that world

to marvel at what others create

with the right honed skills and prodigious effort,

the result of which appears natural,

like the grace of a waterfall or a flower's blossom,

tonight the middle school dance before me 

was of virtuosity: dancer, dancers, 

one, two, and more, one after the other,

moved body and soul across the stage,

by one's self, or with the other,

fixed shape and transforming movement,

visually the body tells a story,

even with gravity limiting how long and how far

body can rise before it comes home to grounding,

the audience particularly cheer when gravity is most held at bay,

the purpose of school, at its most real,

is to allow, even to facilitate

the student to tell their story,

the way their understanding of the universe

and their experience within it,

forces coherence out of chaos,

their positing of a "take" that they want to say,

tonight they want to say it in movement,

this evening I was undone by the power

that dance released upon the stage,

like others in the audience,

I cheered the virtuosity before me,

and I cheer each young person who tonight touched the power

that each of their lives can release

with the right opportunity, the right effort,

the right creation,

to honor the questing soul within.

by Henry H. Walker

May 16, ‘24

to build and celebrate community!

 

Mamma Mia!

What a magnificent way to build and celebrate community!

This weekend the Upper School 

pulled off a rousing musical, Mamma Mia!

visually stunning with stage design and construction, costuming, lighting,

well-miked so the engaging story and moving songs were clear,

the many actors sure of selves 

and capably pulling audience into this world

with lines and song individually and collectively meshed

into entrapping conflict of person and goal,

the music true and deepening each moment,

the choreography careful, clear,

opening each actor to the audience,

enabling the groups to work seamlessly together into joy, 

and, when the show was over,

song, dance, and costume changes

won the audience over, again and again,

in the lobby I saw star after star

bubbling over with smiles and laughter, and happiness,

knowing that who each is had a chance to be within this musical,

to be and to be seen,

to be seen and to to be appreciated,

whether from being on stage or to have built the stage,

to have lit and miked the actors,

to have procured, and made, and fixed the costumes,

to express a community it takes a village,

when the village works together, as it did this weekend,

each individual can shine brightly,

and the lights, all together, make a whole,

a community comes to be,

and all of us in the audience can joy in being part of it,

for a brief time,

The PAC was built so that it can be as womb:

what the Upper School birthed this weekend was wonderful!

by Henry H. Walker

May 4, ‘24

my students' digital stories

 to find a voice, and use it

at its most basic

what should we want for another?

is it also what we should want for ourselves?

each of us needs to find our voice

and to speak our truth,

the universe spends a lot of effort

so that each of us can be,

and that being needs to be followed by doing:

why have a voice if we don't use it?

each of us has a unique "take" on the world,

and the world needs to hear that "take,"

my calling for decades has been middle school,

an extraordinary time when each student

is on many cusps of development,

still able to remember the joy and magic of the child within,

and also able to access the impending adult coming fast

who can know and express different truths,

despite the fear that wants to suffocate any taking of risk,

this spring I have challenged my seventh grade students

to deeply consider their life up to now,

and to choose a story of their journey

that each can express in words and then on iMovie,

with their words recorded and revealed in their own voice,

then supported and embellished with photo and video

all carefully crafted to express a part of who they are,

today one young woman shared her video with me,

and I was undone with its power,

she eloquently, beautifully, visually revealed

herself as a young girl: vibrant, joyous,

moving body and self through space and time,

completely swallowed by transcendent moments,

till the snake entered the garden

and used social media to insinuate self-doubt into her,

such as the impossible ideal her phone and Tik-Tok

slapped her with every moment she gave herself to them,

so she disengaged and found herself again,

after a lot of work finding how to deny hearing that outside intruder,

the joy that should be her birthright re-found her,

many of my other students are still in process,

finding and revealing the story they want to tell:

the sport that calls to them,

the mitzvah that pulls them into their heritage

and shows them much of who they want to be,

the journey to understand who they are

in terms of their sexual orientation, their love of place,

their love of family, and how family and place can intersect,

their "I-Thou" love with horses,

their "take" on Covid 19 and its slap to their psyche,

one writes of a decade long devotion to dance:

its revelation of her worth,

its denial of her worth,

her physical challenges, her psychic challenges,

16 minutes of her processing who she is

within a world that sought to claim her

and to let her shine, or not,

I am deeply moved by how well my CFS seventh graders 

are knowing who they are and taking the risk

to express a significant piece of that truth.

Wow!

by Henry H. Walker

May 3, ‘24