Life as a Modern Dancer

Springtime Musings on Teaching and Learning: Or, Where My Mind and Heart Are with Teaching Modern Dance These Days

Image above pulled from the 2017 Dance+Change project through Life as a Modern Dancer. Read about the project and view all 12 images here. Graphic design by Jenny Lederer.

 

Springtime Musings on Teaching and Learning
Or, Where My Mind and Heart Are with Teaching Modern Dance These Days

By Jill Randall

Over the years on the blog, I have enjoyed writing and offering lists of themes, quotes, and guiding questions to support our teaching practices, including my own. As we head into springtime 2021, you might also be seeking some new ideas. 

The ideas below explore this particular time in our teaching lives and consider online, outdoor, and in-person teaching experiences. Plus, I am starting on a personal journey and self-study about decolonizing dance classes and programs. 

Some of my current inspirations and readings include: 

• Intro Spective Wellness: 10 Writing Prompts to Examine Your Beliefs around Intersectional Wellness by Chanel Durley
• Decolonizing Dance Discourses - Dance Studies Association
• The work of Nyama McCarthy-Brown on critical dance pedagogy and culturally relevant curriculum, including her book Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World
• “Dancing Decolonization: Embodying Communal Pedagogical Practices” - by Waeli Wang
• “My Dearest Arts Organization, Are You Listening?” - by Miko Lee and Jennifer Ridgway
• “Sarah Crowell Moves to Decolonize Dance” - by Lou Fancher

Please share in the Comments section below current readings and podcasts informing your teaching practice as well. Thank you!

I dedicate this piece to teachers Anne Riordan and Ruth Bossieux, two incredible mentors. Thank you for your love and wisdom.

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The Prior and the Current: Words to Describe Teaching Dance Classes

Previous/Prior/Traditional:

lead, impart, direct, preserve, show, transmit, tell, critique, decide, 

speech, monologue, soap box, 

one-way, rigid, set,

not deviate from the lesson or lecture, stick to the script, self-preservation

The Current + Aspirational:

share, offer, put into motion, hold space for, listen, respond to, co-create, 

reciprocity, dialogue, fluidity, emergent, flexibility, questions/questioning, feedback, 

co-learner, journey, generosity, teaching for transformation, to move and be moved

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Questions, Curiosities, Offerings, and Actions: 21 Ideas for Teaching Artists This Springtime

The questions below are not in a particular order and can be explored in any order:

1. Whose voice (or voices) are centered in your class?
2. When do you name your sources and influences? After class, are you able to share these names and relevant links so students can learn, experience, and connect further?
3. How does your class/course support self-care for your students?
4. How do you see and acknowledge everyone in the room?
5. Do you feel you have agency as the teacher (based on your place of employment, required syllabus, etc)? How do your students have agency for their own learning in your class? Do you ask your students what agency feels like to them?
6. What sparks joy for the students?
7. How is your class/course a catalyst for liberation? Transformation?
8. When and how are there moments for personal expression?
9. How do you acknowledge location/land for the class, for your location as the teacher, and for where the students are? 
10. How do you talk about the honor and privilege of teaching, of leading, of being in front of the room? 
11. How is teaching a collaborative endeavor?
12. Supporting many voices and stories; supporting windows and mirrors for the students. Do you have the potential to have guest speakers?
13. What does “making it your own” mean and look like in your class? 
14. What is the role of set material in your class versus improv? Direct instruction? 
15. How do you offer multimodal learning for students to access and experience information in many ways? (Seeing, hearing, reading, writing, feeling, moving, discussing)
16. How do you center BIPOC voices, stories, and teaching inspiration in your classroom? 
17. Making personal connections. When and how are there moments of reflection? Moments for conversation, peer feedback, and shoutouts? 
18. How do you incorporate student ideas and feedback - on topics, music selections, and more? 
19. If possible, are you able to have personal check-ins with each student throughout the semester? 
20. When and how is there student choice and student leadership? 
21. What does “dancing together” and “being together” mean right now? 

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Challenging the Technique Class (such as forms like ballet, modern, and jazz)

Questions, topics, and themes:

1. What lineage are you a part of? If continuing a Eurocentric tradition, why? 
2. Clarifying your lineage and what you are actually teaching, including how much of the material in today’s class is your original creation
3. Actively/regularly naming influences; sharing links and resources afterwards so students can learn more. Actively exploring non-European influences and inspiration.
4. What does “make it your own” mean to you in a technique class setting?
5. Naming the honor and privilege of being the teacher/guide/facilitator; it is a two-way street and give and take for both students and teacher alike.
6. Humility 
7. Introducing yourself to students in drop-in classes. Learning students’ names.
8. Being a lifelong learner. Embracing growth mindset. Being a co-learner. 
9. Your place physically in space. Do you always need to be in the front of the room? What about circle formations sometime in your class?
10. How can student voices emerge - in both small and big ways - in a technique class? Can students make suggestions of songs, ideas and themes for the next class? (Please note and name these students next class too if you use their ideas!)

 

Thank you to colleagues Rebecca Johnson and Wendy Jones for reviewing this piece and offering feedback.

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For an Undergraduate Course: 45 Questions and Prompts for Post-Performance Discussions

For an Undergraduate Course: 45 Questions and Prompts for Post-Performance Discussions

These 45 prompts are to spark reflection and dialogue after experiencing a professional performance. This can take many formats. It can be a whole-class discussion, a discussion in small groups, a writing assignment, or even a walk around campus with a partner during class time (with 5 prompts in hand to reference during the walk).

Throughout the semester, consider working with 5 ideas from the list (randomly or selectively) after each performance experience.

I hope that this list is useful and a springboard for the next semester. Please join me! Consider adding more prompts and questions in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you. Thank you.

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The questions/prompts are in random order here:

1. Describe the beginning, middle, and end of the whole show
2. Draw the energetic pathway/arc of the show
3. If you could be cast in one role, which one would it be? Why? What skills do you possess to do this role?
4. Which role do you aspire towards?
5. Highlight of the event for you
6. Speaking of the costumes….
7. Speaking of the lights…
8. About the music...
9. About the text...
10. Audience attendance; perceived engagement
11. Timeliness of the start of the show; curtain speech/introduction (aka the start/the set up)
12. Paper program and information shared
13. Order of the pieces; curation of the evening. Length of the performance...
14. Post-performance experience
15. What information did you have going into the show?
16. What or who do you want to research further?
17. Use of narrative
18. Social impact of the piece
19. The venue/setting for the performance
20. List 5 people you would recommend this show to
21. What training/skills did the dancers need to fulfill the performance?
22. Write a tweet about the show
23. Three questions you want to ask the choreographer
24. Describe the ensemble and ensemble work
25. Pushing the envelope or honoring tradition?
26. Role of unison
27. Create a word bank/word list of the movements, steps, action words of the show (10 or more)
28. If you could change one thing….
29. Use of space….
30. Dynamic qualities….
31. Gesture…
32. Timing…
33. Partnering…..
34. 1-3 other works of art it reminded you of
35. Social relevance of the work
36. A moment that is sticking with you
37. Your physical response while watching it
38. Describe the show in 2-3 sentences.
39. Emotion(s) you experienced throughout the evening
40. Casting: gender, race, age of dancers, body types, skill levels
41. By yourself or in small groups of 2-3 people in class, make a 20-30 second movement sketch to capture some of the moments/memories/potent images from the show; share with the group
42. By yourself or in small groups, get 6-8 index cards. On each index card, write a word or phrase to describe an element of the show. Organize the cards to create a “found poem” of 6-8 lines.
43. How can this performance inspire your technique training/class this week?
44. What kind of choreographic assignment/experiment could we do this week, inspired by the show?
45. Speak about the title of the evening and titles of the pieces. What role did the title have in your experience of the work?

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For Studio Instructors: Weekly Ideas and Reflection Questions for Fall Semester Youth Classes

From Blog Director Jill Randall:

I created this list of 30 questions/ideas for my employees this week, and I thought that you might enjoy joining us this fall semester as we reflect each week on our teaching practice. Here is the complete list of ideas, plus the first week's two big ideas.

Week 1

Reflecting on our teaching practice: What is your personal teaching goal for this semester? For experienced teachers – how do you keep growing and learning as a teaching artist?

“Inside the lesson plan”: Repetition. How many classes or weeks will you repeat the material you are teaching at the very start of the semester? What is the value in this repetition?

Download Weekly Reflection at the Studio

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In 2016, have we expanded beyond the “one job” model for dancers in the United States?

A video montage of SF Bay Area artist Kristin Damrow and her schedule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmiSc9hHSA

Most dancers would say that they work full-time; more and more, the picture of “full-time” is not simply at one location. It is common to hear of a dancer working multiple part-time jobs as a choreographer, teaching artist, and Pilates instructor, for example.

When I say move beyond, I mean.....can we fully embrace and articulate about the multi-site job model, whether talking to young dancers or explaining to an acquaintance how we make a living?

Ultimately, whatever way you slice it, do we need to work at only one site as long as we

• Make the income level we need
• Have health benefits
• Are artistically satisfied

Six artists from around the country recently shared ideas and questions around this complicated topic, which can be frustrating, disheartening, confusing, and yet exciting and invigorating at the same time. Some of the artists who participated in the conversation are quoted here, while other ideas are synthesized within the blog post. I would like to thank Ashley Anderson (Salt Lake City), Valerie Gutwirth (Oakland, CA), Juliana Monin (Oakland, CA), Rebecca Ferrell (Urbana, IL), Alexandra Beller (New York City), and Ashley Thorndike-Youssef (Washington, DC) for contributing ideas. 

From Alexandra Beller (New York, NY)

I think the question is a personal one and relates deeply to both the nervous system and our personal approach to time, space and focus. For me, the multiplicity of foci makes for a turned on brain, which allows me to think three dimensionally, which is good for my art-making. There's something about having my art (and my kids) retain my ongoing attention, and everything else gets a part-time approach that benefits my sense of myself as an artist (and mom). For me, if I had a full-time job, I worry that my art making would feel like a peripheral activity. Since I'm freelance, I'm able to schedule all of my jobs in relation to art rather than sticking my art making into the spaces where I'm not working. It's likely a similar number of hours, but it feels like art and kids are at the center of the system and money, career advancement, administration etc spoke off from the center, which is a good fit for me. Many people, though, find they can't concentrate on art if there are always so many things in their life. 

From Rebecca Ferrell (Urbana, IL)

In my opinion, the “one job” model and the “multi job” model have gotten to a point where we have a legitimate choice of which one works best for us as individuals. In many ways, dance is becoming more project-based, and dancers are learning skills to be more independent and rely less upon the strength of a single resource. The days of large companies are dwindling and dancers are becoming increasingly self-sufficient, allowing them to choose the path they want, rather than choosing between income or artistic integrity.

Before I came to the University of Illinois, I was a dance educator, choreographer, performer, arts administrator, curator, and critic, but I was responsible to up to ten different individual jobs at any given time. The benefit of having a “university gig” is that I am still all of those things, but it’s centralized. I have an office, a community of colleagues, a sense of structure, and a steady income- but I haven’t sacrificed any variety, freedom, independence, or artistry. If anything, my opportunities and connections in the dance field have grown by being part of Dance at Illinois.

From Valerie Gutwirth (Oakland, CA)

In the US, artistic satisfaction can come first only if those other needs are met, so the trick as far as I see it is to start at the bottom and build up. Mostly that means not just working multiple sites, but multiple job descriptions: the money-and-benefits job, the dance job that may not suit us completely artistically but pays some, and the thing that makes your soul sing, the thing you’d do even if you had to pay for it. I also think that "artistically satisfied" changes over time and life stages. For me it meant dancing full time in my 20s, supporting my family in my 30s, reconnecting with my dancer self in my 40s, and doing whatever feels good and possible plus mentoring/big-picturing in my 50s.

Are you developing a retirement fund on your own? How are you planning for retirement? I’m lucky to have retirement funds in several places, all because one (non-dance) employer, who I no longer work for, started a fund way back in the early 90s. I kept contributing to it and to another IRA until I landed in my current public-school dance teacher role, and now I get the state pension system.  And because my partner makes more than I do, I can also contribute to a 403(b) plan through work. 

Are you okay with this multi-site job model, or do you still seek a position at one place? Why or why not? Because I was able to go to grad school and be credentialed so I could teach in the public system, I had the opportunity to make a real-life-supporting, benefitted wage teaching dance. So my multi-place work usually happens because each thing adds to the glory of the whole picture. 

About MFA programs and whether they should (or can) lead to full-time professor positions in current times: I think you can get advanced degrees for a couple of reasons: to further your career in terms of employability, salary scale, range, or to expand your understanding of the field. For the latter, you have to have another source of income. There are not enough dance professor jobs for everyone getting an MFA (or even a PhD) to be employable in the field. 

From Juliana Monin (Oakland, CA)

I’ve been dancing professionally in some capacity for the last 14 years or so, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a dancer with one job. Even when I danced “full-time” for a company (full-time due to the schedule demands of rehearsals and touring), we all needed to hustle with fitting in other work to make ends meet. I think for a lot of people the one job model is not only unrealistic, but also insufficient to fulfill our artistic needs. Even those with great full-time teaching or arts administrative jobs often look for dance projects outside of their regular work because their work does not provide these opportunities. For me, having a variety of work works. All of my work endeavors challenge and feed me in different ways, and each of these realms informs and enhances what I am doing in the others. That said, I am very lucky in that I do have a main job, teaching dance part-time at a high school, which provides the bulk of my income in addition to providing health and retirement benefits. By having this security, I have been able to fill in my schedule with other teaching jobs and dance jobs that are meaningful for me.

On a side note, I have noticed that now that most of my income comes from teaching as opposed to dancing, my self-identification has also shifted. I no longer introduce myself as a dancer, but as a dance teacher, and would feel fraudulent if I announced myself as a dancer these days. Is this part of the problem too? If we start to accept a multi-job model as the norm for dance artists, then will we be better able to embrace the idea that dancers do more than just dance?

Blog Series: My Dance Week

Since February 2014, I have run a column on the blog called "My Dance Week." Once a month, I ask a dancer to literally sketch out, write out, or create a video montage about his/her week. The goal of "My Dance Week" is to highlight this very topic - what a life as a dancer looks like and entails. Check out the column to view many examples of dancers who have multiple jobs as well as dancers with one position at a school or within a dance company. 

Blog Series: My Dance Week

The Topic of Retirement

Saving for retirement emerged within this conversation multiple times. Many artists are relying on their partner's retirement savings; others shared that they are personally saving, but simply not enough at this time. 

To find out more about retirement planning options while working at multiple sites, please read more here.

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Related posts:

Multiple Pathways: Highlighting 10 Dancers with Tenure

Continuing the Dialogue around MFA Programs in the United States

How many MFA programs are in the United States right now?

Dancers and Retirement

Artist Profile: Alexandra Beller

Artist Profile: Valerie Gutwirth

Artist Profile: Juliana Monin

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Deepening our Teaching Practice This Coming Semester, Whether Teaching College Students, Teens, or Children

Q1 Light by Amber Heaton; amberheaton.com

 

For Seasoned Teaching Artists: Reflection Questions and Inspiration for the Semester Ahead

As we prepare for the coming semester, these questions can offer opportunities to consider, reflect, and grow. 

I want to thank my colleagues Leah Cox (Associate Dean at ADF and Associate Professor at Bard College), Debra Knapp (Director of Dance at New Mexico State University), and Elizebeth Randall (professor at Saint Mary's College of CA and teacher at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center) for contributing ideas for this post. These three artists serve as great inspiration to me as thoughtful, vibrant teaching artists. As Elizebeth posed, "Do you have a practice of self-reflective writing for yourself and/or your students? If so, how does this inform and transform your/their experiences in class?"

We encourage you to use these questions - a few or all of them - in a way that works for you. This might take the form of weekly journaling, silent reflection while commuting home one day a week, discussions in staff meetings, or participation here on the blog in a dialogue. 

In the coming weeks, we will pose these questions on the blog and on the Life as a Modern Dancer Facebook Page. Either way, you can share your thoughts related to the weekly reflection question as well as read about others all around the country. 

Here are many questions for the semester ahead:

1. How do you want to grow as an educator this semester? What are some ways that you have changed, grown, or developed as a teaching artist in the past year? What excites you about these changes? How are you continuing to learn/grow/develop/change?

2. What are you excited about in your work/program?

3. How is teaching a beautiful thing? How is learning a beautiful thing?

4. How does the energy of your students fuel you? What are your students teaching you?

5. What are some of your obstacles (personal or logistical)?

6. How are you employing creative problem solving?

7. How are you authentic with your students? How do you know?

8. How are you caring for your teaching body, mind, and spirit?

9. When was the last time you were in a dance class? When taking a class, how do you shift out of teacher mode and into student mode? How does taking classes inform your teaching practice?

10. What resources (books, music, articles, etc.), if any, are you using to guide your teaching practice? How are you integrating your personal study of teaching into your practice?

11. What are you “leaning into?”

12. What’s feeling static/stale?

13. When was the last time someone observed you teaching and offered feedback? What kind of feedback is useful to you? 

14. Do you have opportunities to observe other teachers? If so, how has this informed your practice? If not, do you think this would be beneficial to your practice?

15. What’s going well? What are some of the highpoints of the semester so far? What has been the journey of this semester? 

16. How can you go deeper with the material?

17. What do you love about teaching?

18. How do you encourage your students to develop and use agency/choice making in their dancing? How do you navigate the possible contradictions between agency and form that can arise in teaching any dance tradition?

19. How is teaching informing your performing and choreographing? How are performing and choreographing influencing your teaching?

20. What unique qualities and strengths do you contribute to your school/department/program/students?

21. How do you help to empower your students to be more present and alive on their journeys? How do you do this for yourself?

22. What kinds of recuperative practices have you established for yourself and/or your students? What kinds of recuperative activities do you offer your technique students when they need a break from technique?

23. Are you keeping joy, curiosity, and playfulness alive in your work? How?

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Becoming a Teaching Artist: Reflecting on the School Year

If you have teaching work based on the September-June schedule, now is the perfect time to reflect on your hard work. Here are some questions to help you get started. You can also consider bringing these questions to a staff meeting to discuss as a group.

 1. Looking at this school year, how have the students grown? You? The program?

2. What project was artistically satisfying for you this year?

3. How do you and your program stay on the radar of your principal/director?

4. What is your area of growth right now?

5. Are you keeping "the main thing" the main thing?

6. In only 1-2 sentences, describe the purpose of your program/class.

7. What is the throughline for your program?

8. What was the journey of this school year?

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"Success in 10 Minutes or Less: Reflections on Life and Work as a Contemporary Artist" by Wally Cardona

Ten years ago, Dance/USA published Dance from the Campus to the Real World (and Back Again), edited by Suzanne Callahan. Over the years, I have shared it with colleagues and occasionally paused to read an essay or two.

Finding it on the bookshelf again today, I was drawn back into Wally Cardona's 4-page essay about being an artist, having a company, and what this all means in the US at this moment. While "this moment" was 10 years ago, this moment is now, still, in the US. On this blog, we keep sharing the stories, questions, challenges, and successes of artists throughout the country. There are so many ways to do this work, to be in dance, and to be a dancer.

Through the magic of technology, the entire book is now online for free. You can click on the PDF to enjoy the book on your own tech device. Wally's essay is on pages 128-131. I encourage college students, dancers building their companies, and dancers of all ages to read this succinct, spot-on, inspiring essay. Thank you, Wally!

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Questions We Ask Ourselves: For Choreographers and Perfomers

Fifteen questions that have been on my mind this week.....Great questions for both inside and outside of dances, as performers and choreographers.

1. Why modern dance? Why now?
2. What is timeless? Universal?
3. What will move someone?
4. What will inspire?
5. Why will someone attend the show?
6. What will an audience member walk away with?
7. What is the power of simplicity?
8. What is the power of virtuosity?
9. What is virtuosity? 
10. What is your intention?
11. What draws the audience in?
12. How do you create magic?
13. Why share?
14. What is your dream of the audience?
15. What is the dream of the audience?

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Blog Series: Questions We Ask Ourselves

Reflecting On and Analyzing a Dance Performance: Studying the Dancers (Instead of the Choreography)

This has been on my mind this week. In many college departments, students see several performances a year and write about the choreography. I would like to suggest another lens to view a few performances each year. Reflecting on and analyzing both the choreography, and the company, are worthwhile activities.

These questions can be used within a college class, but of course dancers of all ages can use these questions.

Considering a performance you just experienced live:

• Who caught your attention and why?

• Who would you describe as a “strong performer” or a "compelling performer?" Describe in detail his/her vocabulary, technique, presence on stage, commitment, rapport with the audience....

• What skills and tools did the dancers need to perform the piece (ex. acting skills, hip hop vocabulary, improvisation, partnering….)?

• Which role would you love to learn from the performance?

• Which roles in the show are you already suited for? Which ones would be a stretch and why? What skills would you need to develop to perform some of these roles?

• Did the group feel like an ensemble? How did you see this?

• What does investment and commitment look like?

• Was there unison in the work? Describe the unison. What skills did the dancers employ to move in a synchronized way?

• What is one “take away” from seeing this performance and really looking at the performers? What do you want to try in the near future in your own performing work?

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Questions We Ask Ourselves: On Commuting

Time….money….opportunity…..

Commuting is a serious consideration for dancers, whether driving or using public transit to get to jobs and rehearsals. How far are you willing to travel? What are the trade offs? Is it commuting to one job, or the total time spent traveling as you are juggling 4 different freelance gigs? Three artists from around the United States share their take on this topic. Their answers are honest, with a balance of seriousness and humor. Commuting can push dancers to their limits; it can become one of the most time consuming elements of the week. It can make dance happen for us, or pull us directly away from the heart of our work. 

Artists Tina Fehlandt, Randee Paufve, and Damon Rago were asked the following questions:

-How do you become at peace with the reality of commuting?

-How do you weigh the pros and cons? 

-How do you make the most of your commute time?

-Do you do dance related work or non-dance activities?  

-Is commuting a time to be still, not think about dance, etc? 

-How do you care for your "commuting body?"

Tina Fehlandt
 

Tina Fehlandt (New York City/New Jersey Area)

I recall a conversation I had with Eva Nichols, then Education Director at Mark Morris Dance Group.  It went along the lines of, “Princeton wants to do a dance by Mark.  You would go out twice a week for the Fall Semester. Are you interested?”  Me – “Sure!  I can handle going to Princeton twice a week for a few months.”  Seven years later I’m STILL traveling there, usually three times during any given week and more when we have a show going up.  Truthfully, I would LOVE to work someplace closer to where I live!  But…the University is a phenomenal employer and the support all the arts programs receive is unparalleled in higher education.  The campus is gorgeous, the students are engaged and responsive, and my fellow faculty members are, simply put, amazing and inspiring. I think about those things when I’m stuck in traffic or on a stalled train…

I use my car time for thinking and listening to music or an interesting podcast.   On the train I’ll read, plan classes, sort through email and, of course, relax and look out the window!  When the chance presents itself I’ll commute with one of my colleagues – a true bonding experience! 

I do a series of exercises and stretches both before I leave home and after I arrive on campus.  At this point in my dancing life this has become a priority!  Warm up exercises first, then email or meetings or whatever else needs to get done. In addition, I do a weekly Pilates session, ride the stationary bike at my YMCA, and see a PT or massage therapist for any lingering aches and pains.

To read Tina’s artist profile, click here. 

Randee Paufve (San Francisco Bay Area)

I grew up in farm country and while the gifts of a childhood spent barefoot in nature are immeasurable, to get anywhere besides the river or the woods we had to get in a car.  This was a way of life and I have inadvertently continued to set up my life as a commuter.  I have never made peace with this.  As a dancer and choreographer I teach and rehearse in venues in San Francisco, East Bay, North Bay and beyond.  I sometimes drive a full loop of the Bay for work in a single day.  We all know this but it bears repeating that commuting in the Bay Area absolutely sucks, a whole lot of body-crunching wasted time sitting in a car, spewing CO2.  Yet aside from making a radical move such as getting rid of my car, taking out a giant loan and getting an electric car, making a severe shift in my work or changing professions completely, I don’t know how to transform this.  I have implemented a no-drive Saturday policy, which is working except that I sometimes cheat by riding in my boyfriend’s car.  I also walk or take public transportation as much as possible, but even on days where public transportation is doable this means a combination of a long walk, bus and BART, carrying all the stuff I need for a day of teaching and rehearsing.  Between the arthritis in my hips and the expenses of BART, I often cave in and just take my car.  Though driving may well have contributed to the hip situation, bit of a catch-22 there.

While driving I do music research, talk on the phone, catch up on news, think, practice challenging and sometimes phantom conversations, win one-sided arguments, say weird or awful things I would never actually say to anyone, repeat certain words over and over to see what happens (porch, porch, porch, porch, porch), practice facial expressions, write meaningless inspirations on little pieces of paper which is very bad driving of me, spew, vent, cry, talk to God, Della (Davidson), and any other spirits who appear on the ride that day….

To read Randee’s artist profile, click here.

 

Damon Rago (Los Angeles Area)

I’ve been commuting 50 miles each way for 15 years.  I wake at 4:45 each morning and leave the house at 5:40.  I try to leave school (Loyola Marymount University) no later than 4, but as chair, that is often not realistic.  I spend about 3-4 hours in the car 5-6 days a week. We choose to live where we do because of a desire to be near our family, but, the truth is, my patience with the long drive comes and goes.  I have an electric vehicle, thus I can use the carpool lane, but the sheer distance is what makes the commute so long.  I do enjoy the solitude, as it is the only few hours a day when I have quiet time to myself.  I refuse to “work” in the car and take no calls, except from my wife, and I try to keep those brief.  I treat myself to podcasts on my favorite past time, stand-up comedy.

I must admit that my relationship with commuting is dynamic.  There are times when I feel flat out suicidal about the concept of a 2 hour commute, and times when I truly zen out in the car and feel even refreshed by it.  It is nice in the evening to feel like I’ve truly left school and the work component of my job far, far behind me.

To read Damon’s artist profile, click here.

 

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