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Congrats to Ryan Christopher - his dreams are coming true! #singermodel #starmaterial #singspretty3/31/2022 Ryan Christopher received the highest score for his audition for Cab Calloway School of the Arts AND then won a $1,000 scholarship for Broadway Dreams. He works hard!!
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Eight Singers Advance from Regional to National Competition
These eight online students are now advancing to the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Quarterfinals!!! These singers placed in the top 5 in their category from both the Great Lakes Region (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Ontario) and the CalWest Region ( Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah.) During the next level of the competition, they will be up against 14 other regions’ top 5 singers in each category. From there, only one singer from each category in each region will move on for the Semi-Finals in July in Chicago. Super congratulations to you - thank you for working hard!! Top Row (L to R): Luis Vega-Torres, 1st Place CalWest Region, Upper High School Classical TBB Luke Randazzo, 1st Place Great Lakes Region, Upper and Lower High School Classical TBB Joseph Kayne, 1st Place, Upper High School Musical Theatre TBB Middle Row (L to R): Josh Knehans, 2nd Place, Great Lakes Region, Upper and Lower High School Classical TBB Amogh Shankar, 3rd Place, Great Lakes Region, Upper and Lower High School Classical TBB Bottom Row (L to R): Eva Milligan, 3rd Place, First Year College Musical Theatre Treble Carmen Rafalli, Honorable Mention, First Year College Musical Theatre TBB Norah Meisch, Honorable Mention, Upper High School Musical Theatre Treble I could not have said this better. Shared with permission from Shannon Coates: 'Recently, I was talking with friend and colleague, Melissa Bencic (Bravo Academy for the Performing Arts) about Theatrical Intimacy Education, which reminded me of something that I've been saying for a few years now: If you believe that you can't teach singing without touching your student, you are selling yourself short. Reliance on touching students in order to communicate directives or change coordination shows a lack of understanding of how bodies and brains operate to learn motor skills (such as singing) AND a fundamental lack of understanding of the repercussions of betrayed consent. And? Although this all applies with all of our students, it SUPER-DUPER applies when we're working with non-adult singers. Like, SUPER-DUPER-SO-MUCH-IT-IS-HARD-FOR-ME-TO-SAY-IT-STRONGLY-ENOUGH. RE consent: children and adolescents aren't able to give consent to adults - it's set up this way in many constitutions because we, as a society, tend to recognize that the power differential between adults and non-adults means that it's not possible for consent to occur SO EVEN IF we ask a child or adolescent if it's alright if we touch them and EVEN IF we fully explain what's going to happen and why and EVEN IF that child or adolescent agrees? IT'S STILL NOT CONSENT. RE consent: both the intention of the touchER and the reception of the touchEE can affect the impact of the actual touch BUT the intention of the touchER has far less impact than the reception of the touchEE has SO even if our intention is to show a singer what a more released inhalation should feel like (for example), that intention means very little if the reception of the touchEE results in the perception of being manipulated or put upon or having agency taken away. PLUS who among us has absolutely pure intentions when dealing with other people? so often, an intention for a student to have a more coordinated inhalation (for example), can be wrapped up in our intention to prove something about ourselves in some way. RE pedagogy: bodies & brains tend to learn coordinations more deeply if they discover them on their own SO using mimicry, movement, and clear directives will most likely result in deeper learning than touching and/or manipulating bodies will RE pedagogy: if you believe that there are certain things that can ONLY be taught through touching? please let me challenge you to find alternative ways to teach these things because? it will increase your #voicepedchops. #pinkyswear. RE exceptions: folks who are movement- and/or somatics-trained generally learn, in their training, how to create consenting environments that enhance learning and lower the possibility of harm SO these folks may be the exception to the rule if they include touch as part of their training BUT these folks must also be very clear that that is the kind of training that students should expect during voice lessons with them. RE exceptions: teaching online, as nearly the entire world has done at some point in the last two years, has taught many, many people how little touch actually IS required to teach well SO if you can hardly wait to get back to in-person lessons so you can start touching your students again, I need you to know: unless you are one of the folks mentioned in Thing the 1st RE exceptions? you are not an exception, AND please re-read the above points.' Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash
Luis Vega-Torres earned top spot in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) CalWest Region competition. The competition category was Classical Upper High School Tenor, Baritone, and Bass, and included singers from California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Hawaii. Next step is National Preliminaries. Congrats, Luis - thanks for working hard!
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