Cheers, Cambridge.

Here are some pictures of my class. I can’t tell you what a smart, interesting, curious, kind, funny group of people they are. . . . and they care so much about kids, history, and their craft. (And so much fun to hang with after class as well!) The professors were wonderful and they even knew everyone’s name by the second day. Thank you, Gilder Lehrman! (I miss it already.)

Dance and the Cold War

This is me with one of the Russian ladies, Olesya, and my Balkan Cold War professor, Svetozar, Sveta for short. This character ( I just called this top dog Balkan expert from the LSE a character, ha!) reamed me out three times for not asking questions in class. .. . I tried to explain that I was thoroughly engaged even if I hadn’t spoken, but he wasn’t having it. He was remarkably interested in my ability to bring dance into the Cold War mix—in his Serbian accent, “it is this that tells us so much about the Cold War…..Daily Life in Eastern Europe, in China, in the U.S….there is so much to learn.” I told him if I ever get a PH.D. in dance history, I will specialize in the Cold War. He liked this. (If you told me three years ago I’d be talking PH.D. in dance and the cold war, I would’ve said you were mad.)

Punting on the Cam

Out of hundreds of potential punters, my group got “one of the top three punters on the cam!” I don’t think he was exaggerating—he was good. On a Saturday afternoon there are hundreds of boats on the river, and navigating is really crazy.

When Emily asked if he ever fell in, he said in a lovely British accent, “Just once on a public boat. . . . . but I’ve been in this river several times…in many different ways.”

If you ever make it to Cambridge—spend the 14 pounds to punt on the River Cam.

One of the most interesting moments of the seminar came today when we were discussing the end of the Cold War.

The subject was Gorbachev, Reagan, and the breakup of the Soviet Union. After acknowledging that no one believed Gorbachev would turn out to be the reformer that he was and then discussing his policies …talk turned to whether he was a good leader. Olesva said definitively, “No.” She went on to discuss his inability to lead the country after the breakup. Debra—“Would you rather Gorbachev not been in power and these reforms not taken place? Olesva (after a long pause)—“they would have happened anyway….the people wanted it. We were ready.”
I’ve got chills just writing this after the fact. (not that this matters, but I like Gorbachev and most believe he was fundamentally instrumental in the collapse of communism in the soviet union—and how much longer would it have been had HE not been in power, who knows?….but it is interesting to see another point of view of him in the era after Dec. 1991.

zhong guo ren min qi le!

Today in lecture, my professor, the Swedish-accented Cold War expert named Odd repeated these words of Mao Zedong at the Gate of Heaven . . . .and, I actually knew what he was saying (at least the jung guo ren part!) Speaking to the Chinese people and celebrating the Communist victory in 1949 he said, “The Chinese People Have Stood Up!”

Hayley—I’ve got so much good history material for us. You are going to love it. (Better yet, I have a better understanding of how to frame modern Chinese history in the context of our course! Yippeeeeeee.)

I love being a student of history! Have I mentioned how cool the Cold War is??

I’ve just decided to share some of the phrases I wrote down while listening to everyone talk in my session on teaching strategies:

Students driven by concepts of social justice and morality
Grapple with theory & ideology ---- to think about morality and values
Aristotilian response
To what extent was the CRMovement ushered along by the Cold War climate? (strong presence of leftists in Harlem, domestic more than cold war, segregation in WWII)
“Cold War is much more complicated than mere content”
Russian scientist chooses to go to desert to practice science…Russian classmate Yelena, “Did not think it better for his daughter to be in the cultural capital of the country.”
USSR not able to meet the demands of consumerism….Yelena: ”I wanted to buy jeans.”


Books mentioned: Freedom by Eric Foner
Consumer Republic
Lynn Tyler Mae book—women in cold war/domestic cold war
Uncertain Partners by Lewis Xue (Korean war)
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Film: Good Night Lenin
Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears
The Lives of Others
Illusion of Morality
Gentlemen’s Agreement

Telling Stories

Met the nicest Italian ex-pat, Claudio, on the train on my way to Cambridge. He works at Cambridge and has a PH.D. in engineering and an MBA from Cambridge. . . But forget all that, he is one of the best storytellers I've met!

Claudio told me about his grandfather and grand-uncle, who deserted the Italian Fascist army and hid in a basement in Rome for three years—only to step out at night to smoke a cigarette. Once it was somewhat safe (Italy was virtually in chaos), the two men faked paralysis and rode the train to Milan (taking as long as 12 days at times since the tracks were often bombed out ) to pick up fabric for Claudio’s grandmother—a clothesmaker for the Roman elite. Next, the two became Robin hoods of sorts—assuming jobs as chefs (they were not cooks, but said, “it’s American food, how hard can it be?”) and securing jobs at an American army camp—stealing food and tossing it along the streets, only to return the next day with containers to collect the food and distribute it to everyone in the neighborhood.

Turns out Claudio will head to Beijing on July 12--the day before I leave for Beijing. Pics are from a little tour of Cambridge.

The Cold War is absolutely fascinating!

After being consumed by the modern dance world for a couple of years now, I’ve forgotten just how smitten I am with history and politics. This stuff is so crazy—especially when you are reading from the actors themselves (Adlai Stevenson asking the Russian delegate about weapons in Cuba and saying, “….don’t wait for the translation” and the Russian delegate retorting back at him, “I am not in an American Courtroom, Sir.”) . . . . . I can’t wait to read more about Stalin, Mao, Guevara, Castro, Tito, and GDR housewives in 1965.

Molly—I think you’ll get a kick out of my document project…I titled it "Ballet as Propaganda." Here is the photo I used as my doc http://www.zitantique.com/c2170.html …and I found a book--Cambridge U press published last year--that had an entire chapter on ballet during the cultural revolution in China.

The Race for the Double Helix

The Eagle, Cambridge

OK, Carrie D. . . . Do you remember watching this film in Ms. Krol’s Genetics class (one of the few in which we actually did scientific research)? She would be so proud knowing that I stopped at the establishment where Watson & Crick announced their discovery of the Double Helix!….Hortense would be excited, too!

“One of my favorite history books is one called Moving Through History—it is a book about dance.”

This is what Dr. Odd Arne Westad , Cold War expert at the London School of Economics, told me today after I introduced myself and explained why I chose to attend the Global Cold War Seminar. (I had mentioned a bit about our new course dealing with Chinese History, Culture & Movement.)

Can you imagine? An LSE history professor, who earlier in the day made an appearance on CNN, and one of his favorite history books is Moving Through History? Does he have a clue that his words will cause me to work extra, extra hard on my project for his class???

I love being a student because it reminds me just how much students may be affected by the things we (teachers) say. That affective connection means so much!

This seminar is going to be even cooler than I had imagined. As I said, my prof asked us to explain, briefly, why we chose the Cold War seminar. Everyone’s answers were so engaging….some of my older classmates spoke of elementary school duck and cover drills, two Russian participants spoke of perspective and how they are very curious to hear what we have to say, many talked about their dads being stationed in Vietnam, others spoke about being stationed at the 38th parallel in 1984 , others talked about how much the mini series The Morning After freaked them out (evidently it freaked Nancy and Ron out, too) or how they loved the movie Rocky Four.

This all made me think of the letter Mrs. Will asked us to write in 1984. I was in 6th grade. I urged President Reagan to reduce the number of nuclear weapons because
“the U.S. and the USSR have enough weapons to blow up the world 20 times over.” I included a huge crayola-colored picture of a bomb enclosed in a red circle with a line through it. (Terribly original, I know.) Now that I think about it—this could’ve been my first task as a political activist. Hmmmm. Thanks Mrs. Will!

Do you have a memory of the Cold War?

Nate, you would LOVE the Tate!

Tate Modern

Sorry I had to do it. The rhyming thing, I mean.

My first stop today was the Tate Modern. I think I will chalk this up as my favorite thing in London. The building is amazing, and the art is sooo cool—they even had a showing of Yvonne Rainer’s (Judson Church Founder Extraordinaire) work. Imagine that…a modern dancer in a modern art museum. How novel?

Other things I saw and loved: Robert Therrien’s Untitled gigantic table & chairs, Cornelia Parkers appropriation of Silver objects (steamrolled and hung from the ceiling)—Thirty Pieces of Silver, Miroslaw Balka’s untitled piece of used soap, the PROPAGANDA Room with social realist art of the Bolsheviks, Robert Morris’ untitled industrial felt sculpture—he let the materials determine their own shape.

At the Tate, I met up with my friend Orlando, who, after finding out that I was with Barack Obama in Grant Park on election night, wanted to follow me around the whole of London. Very friendly, these Brits!

After the Tate I headed to…

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater
St. Paul’s Cathedral
The British Museum (Now I have seen half the remnants of the Parthenon at the British Museum and the other half in Athens. According to the British Museum at least it is now exhibited for the “entire world” to see.)
Victoria and Albert Museum of Decorative Arts
And Buckingham Palace

Heading to sleep now while someone out my window is playing the theme to West Side Story on a flute.

“It’s a Tah MAAAH Toh”

Big Ben

London Eye

Camden

Visiting with Mike Dickson

Two of Mike's Kids--Katelyn and Bruce

This morning I woke up and headed to the Parson’s Green stop (4 stops from the 2009 Wimbledon Finals match—I’ll have you know) in West London where Mike Dickson, his wife Kirsten, and their three kids—Bruce, Katelyn, and Anna live. It’s been about 18 years since I’d talked to Mike—and, back then…. he was a homemade beer-toting conservative . . .anyone out there remember Ms Hall’s AP Gov class....
Ms Hall: “Students tell me where you fall on the political spectrum.”
29 Students: “Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, Liberal, . . . “
Mike D.: Conservative
Wow, things have changed.Yes, folks, Mike Dickson, West Point grad, admitted that he has turned liberal. Gotta love that! (Mike, let me know if you don’t want the world to know your business.)

My burning question for Mike: Do your kids speak with an English accent?
Mike’s Answer: No, no…. maybe when they start school.
Real answer: YES. Most definitely, yes. They have English accents, and they eat fish n chips! . . . And they are sooo sweet. When Kirsten picked up a tomato and said, “What’s this?” Both Bruce and Katie shouted, “That’s a Tah MAAAAHHHH Toh!”

This was such a fun afternoon. Mike and I got to reminisce about crazy Hammond and the “factory model of education” we received there. I got to play trains with Bruce, and watch Katie navigate the streets of London on her scooter (this is exceedingly impressive!!!) . I even went grocery shopping at the hippest grocery store on the planet (and purchased cute little reuseable bags that say, “Waitrose.” I will tote with pride around Chicago.

I can’t imagine a nicer Sunday afternoon in London.

Later, I went to Camden Town—Lisa Prodromo’s stomping ground in 1991. Met up with friend & playwright, Neill (struggling playwright, that is) who took me to the Dublin Castle. Evidently THIS is where the punk movement started. (Let me know if this is disputed—I’d like to know.) Camden was like nothing I’d ever seen before—sort of like Wicker Park in 1992—but way, way more extreme. (in a good way, of course.)

Protests in Picadilly

“HAR-ay HAR-ay HAR-ay HAR-ay Ha-RAY-Krishna” . . . this is the roar I hear seconds, literally seconds after my mourning at the site of a makeshift Michael Jackson memorial is interrupted by a cavalcade of hundreds, perhaps thousands of MJ celebrateurs donning white sparkle gloves and singing “Ma ma se ma ma sah ma ma cu sa.”

Hundreds, perhaps thousands Hare Krishna followers, dressed in peach robes, donning bald heads, & playing drums—similar to the 1979 Threes Company episode in which I was first introduced, however suspectly, to this religion—ascend on the streets of Picadilly.
I know it is confusing. One second I am respectfully mourning MJ along with a few other somber folk , the next I am in the middle of two demonstrations—one in celebration of the King of Pop, one in celebration of … Krishna. Who could imagine? It was a strange and somewhat fitting clash of cultures . . . Who said I should skip Picadilly?

Also hit these other sites in London…
Portabello Road Antique Market Notting Hill Market (this is what a market should look like!)
Museum of Natural History
Big Ben
London Eye—didn’t ride it, just saw it
Trafalgar Square-complete with a Pride music celebration
Picadilly
Leicester Square

“Welcome to London, Love.”

Laban Institute in London

Why do I not live here? Gosh I love this place. So I got off the plane and headed to the Laban Institute today. Didn't get to dance, but did get to walk around and visit the library. Huge dance libary with individual viewing stations and an extensive archive of dance video, scholarly articles, and books on dance. I've never seen a collection like that before.

Lisa, I bought a book on teaching dance that starts off with your Aristotle "we are what we repeatedly do" quote. Funny, huh? (Oh, and why are you not living in this city? You really need to be.)

Susannah and Chief Murfay--any chance we can do this (see photo) in the Lindblom garden? :) It’s a performance area, with seating, sculpted right into the land. Evidently they showcase dance works in this space in the spring and summer.

Walked around Greenwich. Cool Market.

Justin, this Oyster card you lent me is fantastic! And. . . . just so you know, the next time you head to London, I am coming with!

Follow Hayley's blog, too.....

she is far more witty, and likes to poke fun at me.... (but who doesn't, right?)

http://hayleysunshineherford.blogspot.com/

It's almost time......

Hey, everyone.

I'm about to begin my travels, and I am getting ridiculously excited--especially to dance in London at the Laban Institute (my favorite Columbia dance professors studied here!), visit my old friend Mike Dickson (yes, the son of my favorite Superintendent, Dr. "Don't Open the Refrigerator" Dickson),  dive into the Cold War at Cambridge (the website boasts '800 Years'--is that even possible?), and, of course, meet up with my friend and Chinese language teacher, Hayley Herford, to explore CHINA and talk with as many people as possible! (Yes, Hayley speaks Chinese..... and is very modest about that.)

If you don't already know, Hayley and I wrote a proposal for a course called "Culture Through Movement: China."  That's "Culture Through Movement Colon China" thanks to our good friend and colleague, Nate.  The idea for the course came to us while we were attending a contemporary Chinese poetry conference in Boston with a couple of Lindblom students--Michelle & Jazmyn. (The perks of being a school librarian--I get asked to attend poetry conferences in Boston!) Much of the poetry was written by Chinese people forced to relocate due to industrial and housing development, the building of Three Gorges Dam, and the 2008 Olympics. 

Hayley and I brainstormed and came up with CTMC--a course that uses movement mediums (poetry, calligraphy, sculpture, dance, tai chi, film.....anything that moves really) to explore Chinese language and culture. More specifically, CTMC asks students to examine the ways in which artists use their medium to comment on  social issues in China. Our focus is development in China. Some of the questions our students will explore:   is there value/danger in modernization? how do communities balance development with cultural preservation?  what factors influence government decision-making?  to what extent are people involved in decisions that affect their lives? how do artists influence decision-making? (Yes..the old government teacher in me is getting a little crazy.)  Well . . . Alan let us run with our idea, CPS approved the course, and Fund for Teachers granted us a fellowship to study and explore China. Boom, boom, boom. 

In Beijing, we'll visit the Dazhalan hutong (traditional neighborhood lane) that we learned about in Michael Meyer's book The Last Days of Old Beijing. One of my favorite lines from the book comes from longtime hutong resident Old Zhang, who, speaking of his protest against his own forced relocation says, "This is not about money, this is about Justice."  He is fighter. Meyer wrote us and said we can still "eat the world's best noodles at Soldier Liu's" and perhaps meet some of the book's principals.  We can only hope.

We'll meet with urban planning and language professors at Tsinghua University in Beijing, visit a secondary school just outside the city limits, and, of course, explore Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Wall (on my birthday, in fact)!  I am also hoping to catch a dance class at Beijing Dance/LDTX. Glorious!

Next, we are on to Chongqing to begin the journey down (or is it up?) the Yangtze and through the Three Gorges Dam--experiencing this massive project, taking in the landscape, and visiting with people who have been relocated. After that, we have a couple of days in Shanghai. (Take a second to look at these alarming photos at a construction site in the city. Thanks, Andy). 

This is where Hayley and I split, and I am left to my own devices. (Hayley has placards ready to tape to my forehead..."Take me to the airport, Please." "Where is the bathroom?"  "Do you wanna salsa dance?") I fly to Guangzhou for the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival . Allegedly, all the revolutionaries come from Guangzhou.  I am hoping to see some revolutionary modern dance in this southern city. Ha. Finally, I jaunt over to Hong Kong before returning to Chicago--just in time to start the new school year. Woo-hoo!

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your comments! And I will see you soon. (Sorry about all the exclamation points--I'm just really excited!!!)

Katie

Oh, and. . .  I'll try to tweet, too.  https://twitter.com/kcterry

Here is a map showing the places Lindblom teachers, students, and principals are traveling over the summer. My route is pink!

View Lindblom Summer Travels in a larger map