Rolando, your post about the audience being more emotionally involved when their feet were grounded on the floor immediately brought to mind the memory of teaching music to elementary kids who were too little for the chairs in the classroom. I remembered all those dangling swinging feet and all those unfocused brains and chattering tongues.
Now that I teach middle school, I find myself constantly watching the way my students sit in the chair, whether it's for good posture singing in chorus, or in general music class.
The amount of slouching, taking up two chairs so they can sort of lie down, and the indignation I face when I request that they use only the space of one chair and keep their feet on the floor is really amazing.
I watch them in the hallways, and I watch people on the street or in stores and notice how people often move in space as if they are the only ones there. They don't notice if they are blocking others, or if they have stepped in your path, or if they are taking up more than their fair share of space. You can observe it when driving, too.
When I was studying opera in Lyon we had to do an acting exercise I simply loved. We were roughly a dozen singers and our task was simple: we had to line up at one end of the room and "imperceptibly" move as a group in a line to the other side of the room. Fascinating and difficult exercise. As you might imagine, some people had a tendency to rush, others had a tendency to not work as a team, others did nothing unless somebody initiated.
As teachers we are frequently reminded that the physical environment we create for our students has an enormous effect on their class behavior and motivation to learn. The circle is supposed to be the best way to encourage equality and empower all students. Putting up lots of informative and interesting things on the walls is supposed to stimulate them, so that if they are not paying attention, there are still things in their environment they can look at and find interesting.
I want to say all this stuff about chi, and meridians and t'ai chi, but I don't have time this round. I was also reminded of your show that involved spraying odors in front of fans.
Do tell us all more about that one!
