For this research I did three interventions during the academic year 2023 - 2024.
Intervention I took place in November 2023 during a three day visit at Musikhögskola Ingesund, where I got the opportunity to work with students that were completely unfamiliar with the MoM approach.
Intervention II consisted of six bi-weekly lessons in Studio Mapa, Haarlem in the spring of 2024, with a mixed group, some participants were familiar with the approach, some were new to the work.
Intervention III covered the academic year 2023-2024. I followed two groups of students who had weekly lessons of Physical Performance/Musicality of Movement at Codarts, University of the Arts, Rotterdam.
All participants reflected on their experiences.
2023-10-18 Interview with Virág Dezsö (transcription in appendix)
Information and questionnaire to students MHI
My visit to Arvika/MusikhögskolaIngesund was successful and gave me information on how easily students, new to the MoM approach, seem to step into this work and how satisfactory it can be for them to experience results in a brief time.
4. 1. 2. Self-reflection leading to the next intervention:
On my first day at Ingesund I managed to fail to record the session, it must have been the excitement of working with new people in an unfamiliar environment. Looking back at the video of the second day I notice being slightly overambitious with introducing new elements. As if I were afraid the students would get bored. The exercises that I simply repeated from the day before had more clarity, precision, and purpose. This is something that I kept in mind with my other Musicality of Movement sessions, later during my research. Variation of similar exercises deepens the experience and thus allows it to settle more into the system. During the third day my approach was calmer and more consistent again. The morning session that day was shorter because of the planned lunch concert. After the concert, the students wanted to do another training session in which we repeated the exercises we had worked on. After this last, shorter session we had an evaluative talk, the transcription of which can be found in the appendix.
After arriving home, thinking things over, I felt where and how I could improve my teaching the MoM approach to make it even more applicable for singers. From the feedback I received I understood that the feeling of ease and playfulness and the body-and-breathing connection (‘being one’) and being present (‘here and now’) were important and helpful for singing and stage presence in general.
