Comparative Arts and the North Country Trail

 
Today I got to see something really unusual although it combined several things I really like.

If you are a reader who isn't from Michigan, or even the Midwest, I probably need to begin by explaining that Interlochen Fine Arts Academy educates gifted high-schoolers. These students are selected from all over the world to attend.

As one of the exercises in the Comparative Arts class this year, the 15 students went on an overnight hike on the North Country Trail, then they had to work together to create an artistic piece to express their feelings and whatever else they took away from the experience.

The performance was a combination of script, choreography, and semi-improvisation (as in- the performers did what they wanted within a certain framework).

There wasn't a lot of advance notice about the performance, but even so about a dozen North Country Trail volunteers managed to make it. I left right after work and met up with a friend (Ramona) in Manistee, and then we drove together the rest of the way.

It was quite interesting in a deconstructed sort of way. They began with sounds created by using traditional instruments in non-traditional ways. Let me also say that I only got a few pictures worth using, because it was very dark.



One of the middle sections was more structured, with segments of dance. The suitcases represent pilgrimage.



The end was highly improv, using fabric and rope.



Just for the record there were ten segments: Connection, Four Corners, D'arting: These Shoes, Colony, Migration, Roadmap, Ring, Journal, Shelter, and Reflection.

Afterwards (or maybe this was the Reflection section) the people who attended got to ask questions of the students. (Many in the audience were other students and faculty members)



Of course, at the very end, the set must be struck.



Here are some of the North Country Trail people who came, with the students and faculty who were involved.



Ramona and I discussed it on the way home, but I need to think about it some more. It was a difficult kind of art for me to enjoy, but it really was a class learning assignment rather than a public performance sort of piece.

For sure we decided that young people see the world differently from the way we do.

	See The Inside Story for another trip to Interlochen
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The Inside Story

 
I made a more formal post about today's experience at Shark Bytes and Tales. But you are my friends. You get the personal story.

This location was my driving goal for the day, about an hour and a half away. You might guess from the tower that the building has a special purpose.

It's the Interlochen Public Radio station. The Cultural Arts Center at Interlochen, Michigan, is internationally known for it's educational opportunities for young people in all types of performing arts, writing, and other visual arts. They also have summer seminars for adults, and concert series. Basically, if you are interested in arts you've probably heard of Interlochen.

As a result of making friends at the Blood and Tea mystery writers' conference last fall, I was invited to be interviewed by Aaron Stander, host of "Michigan Writers on the Air."

Aaron is a writer himself, having six police procedural mysteries set in a fictional town in northern Michigan. He's also an avid kayaker, and we sort of connected.

He mostly interviewed me concerning my book about hiking the North Country Trail, called North Country Cache. We took pictures, but this was radio, and I sure wasn't dressed or groomed for anything professional.




I read a portion of the chapter from the Adirondack hike, a piece about Chips the hiker pup. It was a fun interview.

The engineer did his job well too.



The program will air on IPR at 1 pm, Feb 20 and 24th, and after that it will be available on their web site. I'll add a link when that appears.

It rained and slushed most all day, so spending a bunch of it in the car was fine with me.

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