GSA Daily 2008: First Day of Classes

GSA Daily: First Day of Classes

Monday, June 23, 2008

Every day breakfast is served from 8:00-8:50 a.m. before the morning performances and announcements, and it’s no surprise that as GSA wears on fewer and fewer show up right at 8. But today is the first day of classes and the cafeteria is already teeming with students when I grab breakfast before heading off to work at the Administration Office with my fellow Interns Nicole Sikora and Josh Hall.

This morning Harry Pickens addressed the GSA class of 2008. Harry Pickens is an amazing pianist, educator, and speaker, and he began by playing “What a Wonderful World”, which was first recorded by Louis Armstrong. Mr. Pickens asked the audience what this song is about, and after gathering responses like “wonder!” he added that this song is also about gratitude. There are so many things we have to be grateful for, and right now our most apparent blessing is being here at GSA. Being selected for GSA is an honor in its own right, but each “community of artists” that forms over the three week program each summer is always different. As an RA last summer I loved the class of 2007, but I can already sense a new and exciting energy from this group of students, faculty, and staff.

Mr. Pickens also shared his own story—as a 6’9” tall high school student everyone expected him to play basketball, but he loved to play the piano. Mr. Pickens said, “No matter what other people tell you, you have to find your own voice.” To be an artist, he said, is a rare gift that one must share with the world, for the artist has the ability to take the imaginary and transform it into something real.

Harry Pickens asked a pianist to volunteer to play with him on stage.

Today I got to peek in on the dance studio and watch some of the students’ “me dances.” Dance faculty member Joe N. Cox explained to me that before the program even starts they ask the dancers to prepare a dance that they feel expresses what they are about—a wonderfully open ended assignment that allowed for a vast array of interpretations. Some performed dances that they had learned while dancing in major performances or competitions, some had choreographed theirs with the help of an instructor, and some had practiced their “me” dances in their bedrooms before coming to GSA. At the end of each dance, whether it was modern, ballet, tap, or anything else in between, I was amazed by the artistry and athleticism each dancer called upon as he or she took the stage.

After dinner, the students went back to their studios and I remembered why GSA is so often and lovingly called “Arts Boot Camp.” In the evening, students mingled in the lobbies of Forrer Hall, and I could already see friendships forming within and among disciplines. At the end of the day I could hear my bed calling to me from across the street—and I hadn’t done anything nearly as exhausting as the dancers, or any other discipline for that matter. At 11:30 the students walked up to their floors and the first day of classes at GSA came to a close.

Until tomorrow, this is GSA ’08 intern Laura Lamping Greenwell signing off.

Dance faculty member Joe Cox leads the Dancers in the first of many classes.