How do you feel about collaboration?

In the excellent class I'm taking at NYU (Collaborative Projects in the Performing Arts, with Dr. John Gilbert), we were assigned the task of familiarizing ourselves with iMovie.  The project was to be a few minutes long, and was to represent some aspect of collaboration.  I took the task directly to work, and  asked my students to reflect their feelings about  the collaborative process. Using images of their responses to my question, I created the short video below.  The music is Flight of the Bumblebee as performed by Yo Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin, and is available on their disc of duets Hush. (One of my favorite collaborations, ever!)  Please let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

-Kevin

Life as Collaboration

Have you ever stepped back a moment, only to realize that you are taking something completely for granted?  As an elementary Theatre Arts teacher, I spend each and every day preaching the gospel of collaboration - extolling it's virtues, helping my students forge connections, insisting on deeper participation.  Then, at the end of the day, I step away from the kids and put on my other hat - the artist's hat - the one I feel guilty for having put up on the shelf where it sits gathering dust.  True, it's not always easy for a creative soul to live a dual life, but it's not impossible.  The last time I stepped foot on stage in a project which was meant to feed my artistic self was well over a year ago, and that nagging voice in the back of my mind, the one telling me that I was overdue, was getting louder every day.

Then, in one of those blessed "light-bulb" moments, I came to a new awareness.  If I could take my blinders off and look at the big picture, I could see my life as the ultimate collaborative project.  Whether in the classroom, navigating the subway, or interacting with colleagues or classmates, my life is one big, complicated game of give and take.  The rush from the South Bronx to NYU was choreography, the horns and voices of the city the score to my day.  I could cast myself in the ongoing movie of my life, and see each adventure as the next chapter of the story - each and every day offering new characters and plot twists.

I hope that this blog might serve as a place where people can respond to the ideas of collaborating in this unique city we share.  Welcome to the colalboration!