Thursday night’s faculty presentations yet again received standing ovations from the students of OSAI. On the roster were ballet instructor Mary Carpenter and chorus conductor Paul Tucker. Today’s blog post will bring you a few of the evening’s highlights, illustrated by some of the night’s best quotations.
1. “You’ve
not lived until you’ve had a Parisian look down their nose at you and say, ‘Zat
is a very nice shirt from ze Gap.’” – Mary
Carpenter
Along with performing and teaching ballet, Mary is a master pointe
shoe fitter. She gave a talk on the history of pointe shoes and a lesson on how
to fit them. This quotation was in reference to the French aesthetic. French
dancers have always been innovative and quick to adopt the latest dance
aesthetic trends.
2. “It was like when Lady Gaga wore a meat dress.” – Mary Carpenter
Mary described what a sensation it was when the first
ballerina rose up to dance on the tips of her toes, even if the era’s primitive
pointe shoes allowed it only for a moment...
...Much like this!
3. “I want you to sound like well-trained kitties.” – Paul Tucker
Paul’s presentation highlighted the various ways expert
singers can control their voice to turn sound into music. He had help from—whom
else?—the chorus students, who performed a few lines of vocal exercise to
demonstrate the concepts he was explaining. He had them sing one line using the
word “meow,” and this quotation came from stopping to correct their technique.
And finally, our best quotation of the night:
4. “If we had something like this in every state, we’d
change everything.” – Paul Tucker
This was an answer to a query from one of the students, who
asked Paul what his single most affecting experience with music was. His
answer? The Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.
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