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>> Finishing up our chats for today, we're going to be moving
to a chat talking about art at Dartmouth.
I'll just reintroduce myself, my name is Ethan Weinberg,
I'm an intern at the office, I'm a senior,
I'm a major in government and a minor in environmental studies,
I'm a member of the Dartmouth Aires,
an acapella group at Dartmouth.
I've also been a judge and a participant
in the Dartmouth Idol performing arts contest.
>> I'm JT; I'm from just outside Albany New York.
I'm a class of 2013, so I'm a junior.
I'm a math and social sciences major,
which is basically an applied math degree,
and I'm going pre-med, hopefully.
On campus, I play in the Dartmouth Symphony orchestra,
and I'm an admissions worker as well.
>> Hi, I'm Kayla Gellar, I'm a twelve, I'm a senior.
I'm from Aurora Colorado, and I'm a studio art major
and digital arts minor, and I'm also a member and director
of the Eugema Dance Troop, and I'm also one of the interns
at the Hood Museum of Art, doing programming
which is just setting up programs
for students at the Hood.
>> Ethan: Wonderful, well thanks for coming in to talk
with all the prospective students we have out there.
So, just to give you a sense of what the arts are
like at Dartmouth, many, many students are involved
in the arts in various capacities
and we have the Hopkins Center, which is the center
for performing arts mostly, and then we have the Hood,
which is a very wonderful museum that Kayla happens
to be an intern at this year.
So, between those two are a lot of the main hubs for music,
visual art, theatre, we have three wonderful studios
at Dartmouth; we have a Jewelry Studio, [inaudible] studio,
and a pottery studio that's a little bit off campus,
but all three of those are really open
to first students just come in a explore things
that they've never done before, which is really great.
So, how did you guys get involved
with the arts at Dartmouth?
>> Kayla: Yeah, I, for a long time I was trying
to decide what my major would be,
and I was definitely an Econ major, until Econ I,
and then I kind of reworked what I was really interested in
and I took an art class, and I just loved it, it was really,
you know, free and easy, and so after that,
I took another art class and then I, kind of,
decided over the summer, over sophomore summer, that I wanted
to be an animator, so studio art just seemed like the thing
to do, because there's only a digital arts minor
and not a major, unless you want to do a bunch of coding,
which I'm not too great at, so,
I stuck with the digital arts minor and the studio art major,
and that's how I got involved.
>> JT: Yeah, I, I've played different musical instruments my
whole life, and I actually thought that I wanted
to go music school, and so I applied to a bunch
of conservatories and then I, I even got into a couple,
but then I found out about the music program at Dartmouth,
and I was like, this is the best
of both worlds, it was just awesome.
And, I came here, and I found
out that you can take music lessons for free,
which is awesome, and it doesn't mean,
even if you've never played an instrument before,
you can still get lessons for free,
which was just really cool, and then, actually it was
through my teacher here, that I found about the orchestra,
so I auditioned, and I got in
and it's just been really awesome,
I've met some great people.
>> Ethan: That's really, really great.
So, we have our first question from [Inaudible];
when are auditions held for the arts at Dartmouth,
including the dance team?
So, the auditions for most of these groups happen
around the fall, when students begin to [inaudible]
and during orientation and just after orientation,
but a lot of programs will have auditions every term,
which is really, really great, so that you can always jump in
and try something new, which is really wonderful.
We have a question from mom2016; do students need to take classes
or be certified in order to use the studios?
Do you know?
>> Kayla: Yeah, I mean, with the woodworking shop, everyone has
to take a class on it, and they, kind of, just teach you how
to use the machines and a lot of safety stuff.
For those studios, I believe you do have a course.
In terms of the arts studios, as long as you're in an art class,
you can go into the drawing studio or the painting studio,
and that way you have materials and you can work
in the studio's that way.
>> Ethan: Great.
We have a question from Marisa; can any student audition
for a musical or do you have to be a theatre major?
You do not have to be affiliated with any specific department
to participate in any of the performing arts programs
at Dartmouth, which is really great, because we know
that there are lots of students who come
in with various interests in different subject areas,
and for example, I know that I really, really like singing
and music, but I knew that I didn't want
to necessarily be a music major, but I, a student,
any student who's interested
in a specific performing arts groups
or a visual arts group is able to participate
and doesn't necessarily have to be a major or a minor.
We have a question from [inaudible] 94;
can you please specify what opportunities groups there are
for dance, any performances?
Want to talk about those?
>> Kayla: Yeah, there are various dance groups on campus.
The one that I'm in, which is Eugema, is a hip-hop group,
and there are, I would guess, right now, about seven
or eight different groups ranging
from hip-hop to, what is that.
>> [Inaudible] which is South East Asian dances.
>> Kayla: And [inaudible] is also.
>> Which is also.
>> Kayla: And then there's fusion, sugar plums, Sheva,
I mean, they just range from all different styles.
And, there's also a lot of classes, too, that you can take
like PE courses that have that dancing involved,
so you don't have to necessarily be in group,
but you can take it as a course as well.
Performances; oh yeah, we perform at fraternities;
we perform at the common grounds on campus, just really anything.
We'll be performing for dimensions,
if anyone's going to be up for that.
So, yeah, just whatever opportunities come in,
we just dance all around campus.
>> Ethan: We have a question from mom2016;
are beginning students able to, or eligible to participate
in music lessons and stuff like that?
>> JT: Yeah, so, yeah, 100%.
There are, just, a wealth of opportunities
for beginning students.
In fact, there's some teachers here
who only teach beginning student, and yeah, that's,
in a lot of the instruments, because some
of them are things you've never heard of, like I'd never heard
of an Indonesian [inaudible] before, but,
so I think everybody's, kind of, a beginner there,
and you can take music lessons in that.
Certainly if you are an advanced player, there are opportunities
for that too, and performance opportunities there,
but Dartmouth, kind of, goes out of its way
to give everybody the opportunity,
and Dartmouth actually has a lot of its own instruments,
so you don't even have to own an instrument in a lot of cases;
you can get one here and there's lots of storage sites here,
right in the Hopkins Center for music instruments.
>> Ethan: We have a question from Angela,
what kind of opportunities are there
for wind players at Dartmouth.
>> JT: Yeah, so have, sort of,
there are two main performing groups
that wind players can play in;
one is the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, which I'm a part of
and we use a full wind compliment, and it's awesome,
our wind section is one of our best sections,
I'm actually a brass player, so I don't know specifically
about the wind audition process or anything like that,
but I do know that they are really cool and really good.
And then, we also have wind symphony, which is conducted
by an awesome, awesome conductor name Mr. Marset, he's young
and energetic and super, super interesting
and they always program really, really good stuff.
And then, there are a lot of chamber groups
that are wind related chamber groups
and you can actually get credit, course credit for taking,
for doing chamber music work, and for, actually also
for taking music lessons, you can get course credit for it.
>> Ethan: That's really, really great.
We have a question for JMM12; do you know how hard it is
to start a club related to music, the arts, etc. Well,
one thing that I know is that we have, I have friend
who started a ballet inspired fusion dance group just this
past year called Sugar Plums, so it's actually pretty easy.
A lot of these groups that are performing arts related,
fall under the COSO or Council on Student Organizations
and CALAS, so they, there's a process by which a student
who has a specific interest in something
that might not necessarily be represented at Dartmouth,
can find a group of students and present their, present a plan
for a group and they go through a process
where they can create groups and that happens fairly regularly,
which is really, really nice to see
that Dartmouth students can make a place for an organization
if they don't see their interest.
And then we have a follow up question; will the Hood
and Hop support these groups?
So, they do in different ways, there are some groups, kind of,
like the ones that JT was talking about,
that fall specifically under the Hood and have faculty
or staff run them, and then there are also a lot the groups
like Eugema, that are completely student run,
that they might have a faculty advisor,
but they pretty much do everything themselves.
So, for those groups that fall under CALAS,
they don't necessarily have a direct relationship with the Hop
and the Hood, but they can use a lot of the rehearsal spaces
and performance spaces, which is really, really great.
We have a question from [inaudible];
how often are practices for the various arts, theatre, dance,
music, etc. So, what's it like for Eugema?
>> Kayla: Yeah, we practice four times a week; Tuesday, Thursday,
Saturday, Sunday, and practices are usually about two hours,
but then when it gets towards shows that are really big,
like this year we're doing Step Show, and that will tend to be,
two weeks before performing we'll have practice every day.
So I know it ranges, other groups are a lot more intense
and other groups are a lot more laid back so it really ranges.
>> Ethan: There's definitely a variety of commitments,
and I know for acapella, most groups rehearse
about three times a week for two hours each week, excuse me,
for two hours each day.
So, that's definitely a variety and the kind of commitment
that you'd have there, and what's really great is
that there's so many students who are involved
in different things that they try to find rehearsal that are
at slightly later times in the day for a lot
of performing groups that you can note, there are people
who are athletes and in, also,
in a lot of these performing groups, which is great,
because they can go to practice, and then they can go rehearsals
and do everything, which is very nice.
We have question from ADS93;
are voice lessons also available for free?
>> JT: Yes, as far as I know they are, in fact,
I know for a fact they are.
I actually know a bunch of people who are taking them and,
yeah, again, not only are they free,
but you can get course credit for them, if you take it
for a year, it counts as a course, and it's really great,
it's really a different type of learning experience
than what you'd see in a typical classroom, obviously,
and I think that's one of the things that just awesome
about Dartmouth, is they give you all these cool opportunities
to do things like that, so yeah, they're definitely free.
>> Ethan: Thank you.
We have a question from Risa; can students work
under musical theatre directors as an intern?
Not only can they work as producers on a lot
of the big performing arts pieces that happen at the Hop,
but sometimes they can run their own.
There are a lot of student run productions,
which is really great to see.
Those can be straight theatre or straight drama
or they can be musical theatre.
You'll see probably a couple of those each term,
where students will get support from the Hop to put on a show,
and they'll have, they'll often use performances,
performances will be in our Black Box theatre, in the Hop
and they'll, you know, do all,
everything from finding a musical director to casting,
to running rehearsals, to directing, so all that kind
of stuff, so there's a lot of opportunity for students
to get behind the scenes work as well.
We have a question from;
how do you balance your scheduled rehearsals
and practice time with your school work and social life?
What do you think about that Kayla?
>> Kayla: It's hard.
I will say that it gets better with time.
You just, I mean time management is a huge, you know, issue,
I think, for a lot of students and I think, just, I mean,
having so many things is actually a lot better
because then you have to actually manage your time,
you have to write down when you can do things,
when you're available and I mean, the great thing
about Dartmouth, though, is that we, you know,
it's a whole work hard, play hard, we have as much fun
as we do work, and, you know, its manageable,
and it's doable; its hard though.
But, yeah, you make, you just make time.
>> JT: Yeah, I would completely agree.
You just, it just, kind of, all works.
It's one of those things where, I mean I've had terms
where I've looked at my schedule at the beginning, I'm like,
oh my God, how am I going to do this, you know,
but then you just do it one day at a time and it all works out,
and I think, you know, we only listed a couple of the things
that we're involved in, and that's what also kind
of interesting about Dartmouth, you talk to someone in the group
that you're in with them, and you find
out that they're doing all these other really interesting things
also, and that you never even thought about,
but they're just also awesome.
So, yeah, it's definitely hard, but it's just,
it's one of those things that just kind of works,
and you figure it out as you go.
>> Ethan: Great.
We have a question from [inaudible] 94;
do most students have previous experiences
with the art group they're a part of,
or are many students beginners?
I don't know, I've seen a lot of both.
There are definitely people who come into Dartmouth having,
you know, danced or sung
or played an instrument all their life,
and then there are definitely people who come
in who have never tried it, and give it a shot at Dartmouth
and really have an opportunity to try something new.
>> Kayla: Yeah, I know that, I'm a studio art major,
but I think I took about, well, I never took any classes
with any sort of art when I was, you know, in elementary
and in high school, and so when I came here,
it was a really cool opportunity and when I did that,
I just fell in love with it, and so, and dance too,
I used to dance probably in daycare to, like,
Brittany Spears and InSync, but that was something
that I also didn't do all throughout my previous career,
and then came to Dartmouth and something
that I just love doing, so, yeah.
>> Ethan: Then a follow up on that; does not having experience
in a specific art form disadvantage you
in participating in the arts, and I would say
that it definitely depends on whether or not you're trying
out for a group that's more competitive, that, you know,
if you're trying to get into Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra
or the wind symphony,
you probably should have had some familiarity
with those instruments before hand, but there are a lot
of opportunities for beginners to try out something new,
so I think that there is definitely opportunities
for people at lots of skill levels.
>> JT: And the other is, I mean, you're hear usually
for at least four years, so you know, if you're a beginner
in year one, you're not a beginner by year two,
year three, and there are, you know,
these are not things you can only join as a freshman,
you can, and that, kind of, goes back to the question
about time management, you know, if you don't want
to be necessarily as involved your freshman fall,
that doesn't mean it has to be the case
for sophomore fall either, so.
>> Ethan: A question from [inaudible];
can you give us a little more information
about Dartmouth Idol?
So, Dartmouth Idol is, kind of,
just a mock of the classic American television show,
American Idol, and we have a series of performance,
where students will perform for,
in our biggest performance space called Spaulding,
our biggest auditorium in Dell, with the help of some
of the Hop faculty, put together big bands,
and then there's voting, and it's a really fun process
for people who sing, get an opportunity to show off
to the community both in Dartmouth and then
in the upper valley, so it's a really fun program.
Question from Marissa; how are student run performances funded,
and where would a student find this source?
>> JT: So, yeah, we, well, in the area that I know about,
in music, you would just talk to the Hopkins Center staff,
they're usually pretty open to, not only, you know,
student run performance absolutely,
but if there's an artist that you know of,
that you'd like to bring in, maybe not a Jay-Z type,
but on a slightly scale, you could definitely make
that kind of stuff happen.
Yeah.
>> Kayla: Yeah, I know that with the dance groups, at least,
when we have performances that are, kind of,
our shows that we're advertising for and things like that,
every time we dance at a location on campus,
we do get funded for it from those places, and so,
when we want to set up our own show, you know,
we go through having to pay for the venue and advertising
and things like that, but I mean every, I mean it's a college
for its students, so you know, the facilities are endless
and just the resources are amazing,
so anything that you want to do, you can definitely do.
>> Ethan: We have question from ADS93;
as a possible theatre major wanting to go on a summer FSP,
would I miss sophomore summer
or do most people take it in their junior year?
I think that it's definitely a variety,
I actually do know a couple of people who are going
in the theatre major as a freshman,
finishing their freshman year, and then there are also people
who will do it during their junior summer as well,
and it's really nice, that's just one example
of the flexibility that the [inaudible] has,
so you can do something really great at multiple points
in your Dartmouth career and have a wonderful experience.
We have another question coming in; what about the arts
at Dartmouth attracted you to pick coming here for college.
>> JT: Yeah, so, as I said, I thought for a long time
that I wanted to go to conservatory, and I was set
on that, and then I found out about the programs here, so,
if we want to talk about a specific,
I would say it was just the wealth of opportunities here
and that it really is a place
where you can try whatever you want.
And, because there are so many opportunities here,
that you can try out and that you can experiment with.
So.
>> Kayla: Yeah, with me, I was, kind of, the opposite.
I went to a really competitive high school and,
it was a prep school, and we just, you know, you know,
going through the motions to get into the best colleges
and things like that, and so when I got into Dartmouth,
I was really on a different mindset,
and so when I came here, I was pleasantly surprised
by the amount of opportunities to do things that had to deal
with the arts and really, you know, found a home
in that sense, and so, yeah.
>> Ethan: And, for me, I remember my father used
to drag me to the Dartmouth Aires performances when I was,
you know, eight years old, and I would sit and watch them
and thing, oh my God, what are these silly boys doing,
and then I found myself auditioning for the same group,
about ten years later, so it was a really fun change
of perspective on that, and I think that there are
so many opportunities for a student to, obviously,
have so many different interests, and talents,
and coming to Dartmouth, you're going to be pulled
in so many different directions, and think that, kind of,
as Kayla was talking about before, it's tough to find
that balance immediately, but, you know, over the course
of your first few terms, you figure out where you want
to spend your time, and how you want to, you know,
balance your work with your social life
with your performing arts, with sports,
with everything that's going on at Dartmouth.
Another question coming in; can we talk a little bit
about the mentorship program in the arts, formal or informal,
and how that kind of works.
>> JT: I don't know of mentors for students,
but I know of students mentoring younger people.
There's a program called START, which is Students, Teacher
and the Arts, that's run through the Hopkins Center and the Hood,
where people who are involved in the arts at Dartmouth go
to local elementary school, middle schools and run the
after school program, so there's definitely cases
where students mentor non Dartmouth students, but I,
personally I don't know of any.
>> Ethan: I think this is more of an informal thing, kind of,
that you're talking about, and I'm sure that Kayla can relate,
but when you have a performing arts group, and you come
into Dartmouth, it really ends up being part
of your Dartmouth family, and you'll find little pockets
of that Dartmouth family all over campus
in the different things that you participate in,
and I know definitely when I came in my freshman fall,
and once I was in my acapella group,
that that definitely became a support group
where I had upper classmen who, not only sang, but also did
so many different other things on campus and were really great
at showing me the ropes and I think, when you come in
and you have trip leaders and you have your UGA's,
and you have friends in upper,
you have your upper class friends in other organizations,
you really have so many different people who are there
to try and help and support you
in your first couple terms at Dartmouth.
That's great.
So, thank you everyone for joining us in Chatapalooza 2012.
If you have more questions about the arts, you can look
at the Hop website, the Hood website,
Council on Student organizations website, just so you can check
out all of the opportunities there are at Dartmouth.
We encourage you to see our performing arts showcase,
which will be taking place on the Friday night of Dimensions,
and we're going to have a whole wide variety
of performing arts organizations there to present to you;
it's going to be a really, really fun time.
So, stay tuned for our last chat of the day, which is going
to be featuring two all-star seniors, who are going
to look back and share their experiences at Dartmouth,
and we'll be right back for our last chat of Chatapalooza.
Thank you very much.