Final Video

https://youtu.be/c_TARwVwsM0

click here to start at the beginning of the blog! http://brittanyharano.blogspot.com/2016/05/introduction-and-forethoughts.html

Choreography Update

As promised, I choreographed my piece during the 3 week summer intensive!  I am currently in Europe with my family and will be back in the U.S. next week. While I am happy with what I finished during the intensive, I think I will spend one more week tweaking and cleaning parts of it and filming a video when I get back. I would like to use this post to reflect on my time spent choreographing and explain parts of the process.  In one of the books I read for my research, “The Art of Making Dances”, Doris Humphrey lists the steps one should take when choreographing.

The first step was, of course, finding inspiration, or something to dance about. For me, this was shadowing the medical professionals and discovering a connection between each field. As you all know by now, this is contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of the body.

The next step was to find music. While Humphrey emphasizes that you don't necessarily need music to dance, I personally find that I can derive movement from music with much more ease. In another book I read about ballet (101 Stories of the Great Ballets), George Balanchine, one of the most famous choreographers, often told his dancers that the audience needs to be able to “see the music, hear the dance.” I wanted to find a song that had contrast so that the different “parts” could represent either strength or weakness. I found this in the song “Tango - Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel. This song has soft, classical aspects and intense, tango aspects: when the music is classical, the movement will portray the weakness of the body, while strength will be shown in the tango sections. While I loved the song the minute I heard it, I had some misgivings about choosing it due to its length of almost 4 minutes. Since this is my first time choreographing, I didn't know how much I would be able to accomplish. Also, dancing full out for 4 minutes is exhausting!  I wondered if I could just use one section of it, but I love the whole song so much that I chose to do the whole thing and simply spend more time choreographing.

The third part, the most difficult in my opinion, was to actually choreograph. I knew it would be difficult to do after long, tiring days of the intensive, but I don't have enough time anywhere else in my summer. In addition to being exhausted while choreographing, I was also injured. In April, I was the lead in Ballet Memphis Junior Company’s spring show and sprained my ankle the night of our opening performance (and continued to dance on it for the rest of the performances, making it much worse). I had thought it was mostly healed by the time the intensive started, so I came back a bit gung ho and did too much too soon. For the first week I danced more than my ankle could handle, so it made the rest of the intensive harder and I had to do flat instead of pointe for much of it. As I intended my piece to be on pointe, it was difficult trying to choreograph on flat for what was meant to be done on pointe. Another issue was having studio space: Ballet Memphis has three beautiful studios (though we are moving to a different location next year), and the younger girls had class in the larger two when I was choreographing. Since I choreographed in a smaller space, I am worried my piece will not “fill up” the space of a larger studio or stage if I ever needed to perform or use it in an audition. Hopefully I can use the “transitional” parts (like the running or large jumps) to take up more space if needed. Another issue was actually having a studio available. Sometimes there would be a private class in the studio when I wanted to choreograph, so I would have to go home. In hindsight, this was quite a blessing because it gave my body and mind time to rest and take a step away from it to get a better grasp of the piece as a whole. However, I lost some valuable time and will need to make it up when I get back.

I really enjoyed choreographing and even began to understand my “thesis” of strengths and weaknesses better: it is much easier to draw inspiration for movements portraying weakness when your body is tired!  Similarly, as I grew stronger from the intensity of the classes, I knew more about the strengths in my body. I can't wait to get back and finish it up!  

Optometry Reflection

For three days this week, I shadowed Dr. Paul Mormon, Dr. Brandon Walley, and the two final-year optometry school externs, David Haba and Catherine Hogan.  I sat in on regular examinations, emergency visits, and different diagnosis methods, seeing over 30 patients.  While I had been to the optometrist once before, I had limited prior knowledge, so I learned a lot of new information.  Eyes have always fascinated me, and I absolutely loved seeing how they work, what they are composed of, and the many things that can go wrong.

The most common diagnoses and problems were cataracts, near/farsightedness, diabetes, and typical issues that arise with old age.  I also saw some uncommon things like people who are color blind, have Duane’s disease, and got a corneal abrasion (that has turned into a scar).  I thought that I would just be watching a doctor find people’s glasses/contacts prescriptions for 9 hours every day, but there are so many more factors that go into optometry.  Here is my final list of pros and cons:

Pros

•          Helping people be able to see
•         Diagnosing problems early on (you can see if someone has diabetes by the blood vessels inside the eye)
•         Eyes are just super-duper cool
•        Developing close relationships with patients—unlike dentistry where their mouths are full, optometry patients can actually talk to you during the appointment
•         Everyone’s eyes are different, so it’s like a solving a puzzle to find what is wrong
•         Flexible hours
•         Can be in different settings (hospital, private practice, etc.) or go on to minor surgeries (one of the externs wanted to do Lasik eye surgery)
•         Very quick way to solve a difficult problem

Cons

•         Might get routine if there’s nothing major going on
•         Have to also rely on the retail market, because much of the income is from selling glasses and contacts
•         Insurance trickiness
•         Lots of paperwork/charts (of course)

Going along with my plan to focus on the body’s strengths and weaknesses for my choreography, I discovered that there are three components in each field that directly relate or affect the body: age, genetics, and environment. I plan to elaborate on these for my choreography.  Age was a definite factor in each of the three fields, as your body breaks down as you get older.  Genetics also played a large part, because some people are naturally born with advantages or disadvantages that can determine their quality of life.  Environment is also vital because it governs your injuries, diseases, or lack of resources.  I like being able to have certain “key words” to inspire movement, and these will greatly help in the development of my choreography.

Dentistry Reflection

For one day this week, I shadowed Dr. Charlyn Wilson at Wilson Dental Care.  Honestly, I was rather cautious about shadowing a dentist because I am very sensitive to weird noises; I assumed I would be uncomfortable with the drilling sounds, but they didn’t bother me one bit and I had a really great time!

 I watched Dr. Wilson and her dental assistants put in crowns, fill cavities, pull teeth, and do a couple biannual checkups.  As I am not doing these internships for the sole purpose of choreographing but to also to determine what I want to do with my life, I asked around about what these professionals love and hate about their jobs: unsurprisingly, many of the dental professionals said that you really need to love dental care to do well in this profession, but they had very little negatives about the job itself.  Their main dislikes were performing root canal surgeries, uncooperative patients, and the physical strain dentistry puts on your body (from leaning over all day and gnarling your fingers). However, they all said that the positives outweigh the negatives.  Here is a list of my own positives and negatives for your viewing pleasure: 

·        Pros

o   Being able to develop close relationships with patients

o   Not boring because you get to do something very challenging everyday

o   Able to branch out into other fields (cosmetic, pediatric, periodontic, oral and maxillofacial)

o   Flexible hours

o   Enabling people to feel confident in their smiles.  One of Dr. Wilson’s patients had really bad teeth and other dentists/orthodontists had messed them up in the past, so he never smiled.  Dr. Wilson fixed them and he says he finally feels confident in his smile.

o   Immediate return in your work

·        Cons

o   Repetitive surgeries

o   Funky sounds/smells

o   Physically taxing on neck/shoulders/wrists/fingers

o   Annoying patients (we didn’t have any the day I shadowed, but she said she is extremely lucky to have good patients)

o   Most people don’t like going to the dentist…I don’t want to be disliked!

o   Dealing with insurance/paperwork (but I’m beginning to see this is a trend in the medical field)

o   Career is growing in popularity, so it will be more competitive for schools/jobs

Having already shadowed an optometrist for one day at this point, I have decided that I am sticking with body strength/weakness idea for my choreography.  I love how each of these fields have “quick fixes” to the body’s weaknesses.  The idea that we all have different bodies with different imperfections is mind blowing, and I think it’s amazing that technology has gotten us to the point where we can fix most problems.  I have begun the search for music for the piece, and I really want something that has “layers” so I can portray both weaknesses and strengths.  I am stoked that I am halfway through the fellowship and am excited to have two more days with the optometrist!

Physical Therapy Reflection

     For the last three days, I shadowed Kelly Lee and ten other Campbell Clinic physical therapists and techs. I was able to observe evaluations and therapy sessions for over 25 patients, and I learned a lot about different kinds of injuries as well as the prevention and solutions to each.
    The most common injuries were to the shoulder, knee, hip, and back, and some of the most notable patients were a woman who broke her pelvis, two children with a muscle deterioration disease, and even a young woman who got shot in the foot (with the bullet still in there!). It was fascinating seeing how the physical therapists were able to treat each patient with the knowledge of what exercises to use for each injury—I guess going to physical therapy school helps :). I also enjoyed seeing how they cared for all of their patients and tailored the exercises to their interests: for example, Mrs. Lee helped a man with a total knee replacement modify his golf swing to ease discomfort and allow him to continue pursuing his hobby.
     I also loved hearing about how each physical therapist decided to choose this career; many of them had experienced bad injuries that required excessive physical therapy sessions, making them understanding and knowledgeable about other patients’ injuries. Others, like Mrs. Lee, simply love helping people heal and the lively dynamic of the profession. Their explanations made me question if I would excel at or enjoy being a PT myself. As I do when faced with any large choice, I made a pro-con chart.

Pro:

1.     Building lasting relationships with different types of people

2.     Get to stay active all day (not stuck at a desk!)

3.     Able to branch out into different fields or advance in the workplace

4.     Able to choose flexible hours (depending on your workplace)

5.     High satisfaction rate because the effects of your work are evident when your patients heal quickly

7.     Knowledge that you are helping people

Con:

1.     May get repetitive with common injuries

2.     Patients might be annoying or unappreciative

3.     Patients might not like you because the exercises hurt

4.     A lot of paperwork and dealing with insurance

5.     Might be disappointed if one patient takes a long time to heal or isn’t doing their exercises

 

     After evaluating my overall experience at this particular site, I began to think about how I would convert this experience into a dance…and came up short. First of all, I didn’t know what direction to go in without having been to my other locations.  Second, I began to realize that this will be hard. While I have choreographic experience, I have never done anything of this degree. If I were to only choreograph on the physical therapy portion of my fellowship, I could easily focus on the human body, its weaknesses, or its profound healing properties. But alas, I must be able to encompass physical therapy, dentistry, and optometry *sigh*. As of now, I am considering the following themes:
 
  1. The contrasting frailty and strength of the human anatomy, both of which are evident in all three medical fields.
 
  2. The biographical elements of medical professionals. The life path of a medical professional is surprisingly similar to that of a dancer with its requirements of dedication, natural talent, and extreme training.
 
  These themes could be greatly elaborated on or changed in the next week as I finish the shadowing portion of my fellowship and continue my research, but I believe this is a good place to start. I highly enjoyed my time at Campbell Clinic and am excited that my fellowship has finally begun!

 

Introduction and Forethoughts

How can I combine possible career paths and a passion by finding artistic aspects in the everyday routine?  Many people find it hard to find the beauty in their jobs, but I believe that everything contains art.  I hope to explore this in the fields of physical therapy, dentistry, and optometry; these fields are very interesting to me because they help people with necessary care and are different for every person.  Everybody’s teeth are different, everybody’s eyes are different, and everybody's bodies are different, so I want to explore this uniqueness by choreographing based on what I learn and experience by shadowing professionals.   During this fellowship, I hope to both grow as an artist and explore my future potential.  This opportunity will not only enlighten me to my future aspirations, but also help me understand my current passion and further my abilities.

           There are three sites where I hope to accomplish these goals:  Campbell Clinic, Eyecare East, and Wilson Dental Care. At Campbell Clinic, I will shadow Mrs. Kelly Lee, at Eyecare East, I will shadow Dr. Paul Mormon, and at Wilson Dental Care, I will shadow Dr. Charlyn Wilson.  Finally, I will complete the choreographic stages of this fellowship at Ballet Memphis,  where I will be the “professional” since I will be creating.  I will most likely receive outside assistance from my teachers Janet Parke, Olivia Powell, and Ginny and Brandon Ramey. 

          As this fellowship requires 80 hours of experience, I will spend a week and a half shadowing the medical professionals then use my remaining time choreographing.  I will be with Campbell Clinic from May 25-27, with Eyecare East May 31 and June 2-3, and Wilson Dental Care June 1.  I hope to choreograph June 6-24 for one to two hours, and, if needed, the weeks of July 18-22 or August 1-5.  Since I also need 20 hours of research, I plan on reading Doris Humphrey's "The Art of Making Dances", George Balanchine and Francis Mason's "101 Stories of the Great Ballets", Valery Panov and George Feifer's "To Dance", "Motion Arrested: Dance Reviews of H.T Parker" and watching choreographic documentaries such as "Ballet 422", "A Ballerina’s Tale", and "Mr. Gaga.”  I will also look into any articles, books, or documentaries that the professionals I am shadowing recommend.  Additionally, one theme I am looking into is the similar biographical elements of medical professionals and artists, so I will be asking people in both professions about their lives and their journeys to reach their goals.

           This fellowship will help me understand myself and my future better, and I hope to both be inspired and inspire others.  I will keep a journal throughout my shadowing time and refer to it while I’m choreographing and will update this blog throughout this exciting process.  I can’t wait for this fellowship to begin and am so thankful for this opportunity!