After
two weeks of stifling summer heat you are waiting in the cool air-conditioned
symphony hall, the symphony and the conductor stiffly raises his baton, and
suddenly your heart drops. The strings players to his left are confused,
inflexible, and come in late. He stoops over his score, and from the audience
you can't even mark the beat. While the conductor is furiously waving his baton
you are wondering how you could have been cheated from this unfathomably great
opportunity to hear Beethoven's magnificent symphony.
In
order to understand the essential elements of movement it is important to
master the aspects of non-verbal communication. Similarly, there are more than
just the integrity one experiences in the rests between played notes. When the
conductor brings up her hands to conduct, she has a specific expectation of the
sound. Coupled with a prepared mind and a fluid body, Haithcock suggests one
will be able to conduct with freedom and simultaneous exchange with her
musicians, sensitive to her own imperfections as well as the well-being of the
ensemble in order to command with "enlightened and compelling musical
leadership" (10).
As
a musician, breathing is the most
important aspect. It is said that with one breath the entirety of a work has
already been composed. She breathes the entirety of the song before she performs;
"intention" (14) is the
most important part of warding off tension.
The most important exercise Haithcock introduces is the one involving the
action point. Efficiency and fluidity is important, but without an intention
one cannot be aware of the strength and effort of each movement, or establish
contour through an awareness of space.
With
the basics understood, Haithcock brings the entire body into play. Yoga, as a
practice, similarly involves the entirety of the body. For the conductor, with
each pose she engages every fiber and muscle of her body in order to fully
express that which comes from very entire frame.
"For every breath
you take... your body is shifting and balancing." With this quote by
Jerald Schwibert lays the perfect foundation to involve of the pelvis. All
shapes and sizes of dance illustrates that each individual movement comes from
this center. Be it sagittal, horizontal or vertical; for me personally, it is
important to think of your body as more than the sum of its parts. Without the
awareness of your pelvis, as in dance, it's difficult to find the so-called action
point: this is where your power emanates.
Finally
the Kinesphere is formally introduced, of which is so important to be aware.
Haithcock really harps on this idea of the EFT, or even flow of time. In
conducting, this is specifically the conductor’s own time: there is a push and
pull in each musical phrase that allows you to have creative control to
maximize expressiveness. Along with study and practice, the kinesphere doesn't
seem like such an over-idealist proposition. Instead, it gives one a framework
of three-hundred-and-sixty degrees of motion from which to express you!
