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| directory of teaching artists: JO MILLER |
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Describe a transformative process that has occurred in your own practice
as an artist or in a past residency as a teaching artist. This experience did not occur all at once for me, but I believe has been dawning on me over the course of several years. I have always been an arts education advocate, because I know the arts are valuable. But as I was teaching a residency in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, in September of 2006, it came into very clear focus for me that the artistic process is more like how we get things done in real life than many of the exercises practiced in schools. An employer will often ask her employees to complete tasks they have never done before, perhaps that no one has ever done before. There are often not a set of directions to follow to complete tasks. This parallels the artistic process, in that, there is a general end-in-view, but the means to that end must be discovered along the way. Using the arts to teach children familiarizes them with artistic process/creative problem solving, which will aid them throughout their lives.. When have you been able to recognize learning taking place? I look for learning taking place through two methods: observing the students, and asking the students questions. Through observation: I look to see if the students create physical representations of ideas and if they uniquely alter these representations. I look to see if the students make decisions about order and structure of their performances and if they make final critiques of their own and others’ performances based on the original ideas and concepts. Through questioning: I ask the students to describe their solutions in words. Can they justify their choices in light of the original concept presented? (e.g. “To me, ‘free as a bird’ sounds like having no boundaries, so I tried to take up the whole room.”) In describing how they altered their movement? (e.g. “Here I did the shape up-side-down.” Or “I moved fast here because heat makes the molecules move faster.”) I ask them why did they order the movement the way they did. (e.g. “In the story, the hero first lives with his family, and then is on the road alone, so I did the first part of my dance with the group, and then moved to a solo section.”) In final critiques, do they use the original concept as a measure of success? (e.g. “I could see the three-sided shapes well, but I never saw a four-sided shape.”) What excites your imagination and in turn how does your work excite imagination for your audience? My imagination is excited by multiple interpretations or possibilities. For example, I love words and phrases that have more than one meaning. I love turning the words around, putting other words in front or back of them, changing my inflection when I say them, to tease out as many variations as possible. I think my improvisational dance work offers the same type of experience for my students or audience. I encourage students to “mess around” with movement; to find as many possibilities of solving movement challenges as they can. I also like to offer my audiences opportunities to participate in the work. My favorite kind of performance to do is to ask for audience suggestions for an improvisation, or to give audience members ways to manipulate the performance. What characteristics mark a successful collaboration for you? The number one characteristic of a successful collaboration is when there is evidence of a deeper richness to the process and product than I could have ever created alone. There is also a wonderful sense of satisfaction. When we create something with others, that is larger than the creators, we feel truly known and understood; a rare and beautiful experience. How do you foster creativity, both in your own work and as a teaching artist? The most important element for fostering creativity is a safe, non-judgmental environment; including helping participants to not judge themselves. When a person is comfortable in his surroundings, he will be able to say whatever comes into his head, or move in any way, without feeling uncomfortable. This facilitates creativity and many more ideas being explored. Once all the brainstorming is over, then the work can be crafted with analytical decision-making, but that uninhibited explosion of ideas is critical. I strive to make every participant in my classes feel that what she has to say and the movement that she creates is valuable. Three key understandings of this discipline are:
Three Idaho Humanities Content Standards that correlate
with each of the core concepts identified above:
Level (low/middle/high) Speed (tempo) Pathways Variations of energy (vibratory, continuous, start and stop, Jell- O, as if on the moon, hot sand, moving in peanut butter, etc.) Body parts/whole body Symmetry vs. asymmetry Retrograde (reverse) (re)Order/Fragment/Repeat Axial/locomotor Size of movement Facings Inversion Embellish/Simplify Choreography Improvisation Warm-up Subject areas outside of the fine arts that relate to potential residency work include: Improvisational and compositional dance lessons can be applied to any topic. Examples: Science, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Health, Physical Education References:
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 Discipline: Dance Phone: (208) 860-9279 Email: jmiller@cottey.edu Website:na Special Populations I work with: I have experience with ages 3 years to adult. I have worked with at-risk populations. I have no special training for special education populations, but have had special education students in classes. These students benefit from extra assistance in the dance classes from their regular teachers or aides. ICA Artists by Discipline Music Ken Harris Dance Wendy de la Harpe Jo Miller Norma Pintar Theater/Storytelling Geoffrey Bennett Teresa Clark Language Arts Judy Sobeloff Visual Arts Deana Attebery Tom Bennick Judith Brand Sue Rooke Lizette Fife Helen Grainger Wilson Terrie Kralik Jeanne Leffingwell Cathy Sher Linda Wolfe Video/Media Arts Peppershock Media |
 Phone: 208/334-2119 or 800/278-3863 Fax: 208/334-2488 Mailing address: P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0008 Street address: 2410 North Old Penitentiary Rd., Boise, ID 83712 |