Saturday mornings have lately become a favorite. That’s because I take my boys and go watch High School girls for two hours. Now, believe me, that isn’t nearly as creepy as it sounds, and before you all call the FBI please read on……….
I have two active boys. Raef, the eldest coming up on 7, 
is a Power Rangers loving, well co-ordinated, hard hitting lefty shortstop who might end up as one of the best of the next generation of violinists, or the last missing piece of the Chicago Cubs World Series winning team. Riley, 4 1/2, is a Broadway loving, dancing, Scooby-Doo watching gender-confused kid who is one of the funniest people I know and is destined to win more Tony awards than he has curls on his head. Despite all this I’m shipping them off to the circus!!!
That’s right, circus school. There is a wonderful venture in the Twin Cities called Circus Juventas. Think Cirque du Soleil except all the performers are kids. The kids perform every year, and the older high school kids put on a fabulous show every May. It’s worth seeing. My boys take classes on Saturday, and one of the first things that struck me when we started attending CJ classes were the student teachers, all young women c. 17-18. What caught my attention was that it was blatantly obvious that they were all completely comfortable in their bodies!!!
My own “physical” background includes sports (soccer, tennis, and now I’m an avid cyclist), martial arts (NorthEast USA Karate champion, Aikido, Kung fu, Yoga), and orchestral conducting (chasing some damn 13 year old violinist playing their first concerto with a professional orchestra to hell and back because they have no rhythm and think they’re the center of the very universe). So I pay attention to people’s physicality. When it comes to this issue I am soooooo glad that I am raising boys instead of girls. The stereotypes that girls pick up about what their bodies should look like – from Barbie straight through the Pop star du jour – are an abomination, and we should all be embarrassed as to what that says about our society. It leads to Bulimia, self-mutilation, Anorexia, and just bad self-esteem.
Not so our gals @ CJ, though! Ramrod straight backs, elasticity that would make a yoga teacher jealous, and they just exude confidence in what they do. This is what and how we should be teaching our girls to become women. Be who you are, love yourself for what you are, love your body for what it is, learn to use it, and then fergodsakes get on with life!!!! Keeping up with the vixens on Desperate Housewives ain’t gwans to getcha far.
Now in case you’re wondering where this rant is coming from – why are conductors the most uncoordinated people on stage? Hmmmm? I can count the conductors that I would trust in a 5/8 pattern on one hand, with more than one finger left over. Why oh why do we not insist that young conductors get body training? Why do we not insist that these people understand how their bodies function? I would wager that orchestras spend half of any rehearsal just trying to figure out what the conductor is doing, or trying to do. Our business would be so much easier if we insisted on clarity from conductors, not big hair and foreign accents. But that is a rant for another day. Today I shall merrily ship my kids off to the circus and admire a program that has got it right.
Ladies and Gentlemen! …….. Children of all ages!!!!…………….
******UPDATE*********
Just moments after I posted this I noticed this wonderful article in the NYTimes about a young man with a dual role as a linebacker and a tenor!!! It’s enough to make a guy a Harvard football fan.