My first visit to the IJD!
Despite having been part of the DUK community for 25 years, I had not realised that I could attend the Congress in Geneva without an invitation or that it was open to all levels of students.
This year my work schedules aligned so that I was able to go, and it was a very enlightening week with a lovely atmosphere. Classes in the morning are given by Diplôme Supérieur holders from across the world, and I was lucky to be a student in wonderful classes given by both newly qualified DUK Diplômés, Kaye Barker and Andrew Davidson.
Photo - Emma Shubin, Sora Lee, Weronika Balewski, Katherine Smith, Kathryn Kay, Mary Price-O'Connor outside the Insitute.
Photo - Sora Lee, Katherine Smith, Emma Shubin, Kathryn Kay, Weronika Balewski being inspired by a sculpture garden between our Airbnb and the Institute.
Other highlights were a complicated but joyful class on the syncopated layers of a Bob Marley song, and possible deep connections with others through Beethoven contrasts. In the afternoon, presentations are given on different applied strands of the method or demonstrations, and I watched Mireille Weber give a talk on pedagogy as well as performances by students of the Haute École (including Helen Liddle, from the UK).
It was amazing to be embodying music through Dalcroze with global friends old and new, including many that I have connected with online (through DUK courses, the Virtual Dalcroze Meetups etc) but never met in person. To be in a room, moving, experiencing with them was magical.
I shared a flat with some of these good online friends, so our Dalcroze chats, singing in canon, enjoying meals together extended well beyond the walls of the Institute, including an impromptu plastique on our final morning!
