Movement Means
Dr. Janet Song Kim
I study a form of movement, in a sense…. but conducting music is so much more than a series of movement patterns. I presume that other forms of moving or the act of movement itself include so much more than what observers can see. Let’s talk about what we can see, though, and how that connects to a deeper meaning; let's talk about what movement means. Movement is so much more than just a feat (of flexibility, strength, stability) or grandiose, beautiful gesture. Movement can be: Unstoppable joy forcing your muscles to pull up the corners of your mouth into a smile, the warm embrace of your loved one during a cold time, the flickering of eyes belonging to someone with dementia recognizing a tune from their childhood the wiggling of fingers of a family member in a coma, the slight turn of a hand to let you know that the mistake you made in a performance is just fine and that it's okay to move on, the rise of someone's chest during a breath alerting to you that you’ve miscounted and that