One of my fondest and most vivid memories of a cultural event is of the original Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater troupe. I saw them when I was ten or eleven. I was lucky enough to be able to finally take my daughter to see them last year. Much to my chagrin, they didn’t perform Cry. I’d shown her the YouTube videos, so she knows what Cry is about. Continue reading Memories of Ailey’s “Cry”
Tag Archives: Arts
Art Is Vital – James Hamblin – The Atlantic
The best education facilitates artistic voice and creative habits of mind.
ASPEN — It has been three years since the spectacular video of Lil Buck dancing to Yo-Yo Ma brought jookin—which draws from hip-hop, ballet, jazz, and modern dance—into mainstream consciousness. Ma would later call Buck a genius; and, he is. According to the theory of multiple intelligences, which posits nine distinct dimensions, Buck is clearly off the charts in intelligences like spatial, musical/rhythmic, and bodily/kinesthetic.
The theory was developed in 1983 by Howard Gardner, who is now the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard. It defines intelligence expansively, as the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture; a set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life. It’s a broader definition than many curricula address, and some of the multiple intelligences regularly go unstimulated and underdeveloped in traditional schools. Continue reading Art Is Vital – James Hamblin – The Atlantic