Kathryn (Scarlett) Rustemeyer
Gateway to University Honors
UC Email: [email protected]
College: CCM
Major: Ballet
Title of Project: Ascertaining the Roots of Ballet
Thematic Area: Creative Arts
Expected Project Start Date: March 5, 2015
Expected Project End Date: April 20, 2015
Self-Designed Honors Experience Proposal
Abstract:
Within this self-designed honors experience, my creative endeavors will take me to Paris, France, for a ten-day journey to explore the wonders of the city and culture while also taking ballet class at the American School in Paris each day alongside my peers and Professor Michael Tevlin from the CCM Dance Department. In this study I seek to grow not only as a ballet dancer, but also as a conscious human being and traveler gathering new perspectives of dance and the world in general. This project is personally meaningful because it involves two of my passions – ballet and French. Ever since I was a child I have dreamt of visiting Paris, and to think I will be able to dance in a city where much of ballet’s history began is unbelievably amazing. As a rough estimate of my time spent on this project, I expect to spend about 15 hours researching and reading about Paris and ballet, about 28 hours spent touring Parisian landmarks, museums, and attending cultural spectacles, 14 hours in ballet classes, 5 hours journaling, and 20 hours creating my dissemination, reflecting over, and writing about my work. The quality of the time I spend completing these activities will be just as important as the quantity, because I will utilize this unique experience to further my educational goals and to extend the depth of my knowledge about ballet wholeheartedly. This project will not only benefit me, but it will also benefit those around me as I will be able to discuss and share what I learn along the way. In more specific quantitative terms, I now divulge the itinerary for this adventure:
Day 1: March 15, 2015
12:00pm Group meets at Cincinnati Airport
2:05pm Flight departs for Paris
Day 2: March 16, 2015
10:45am Arrive to Paris de Gaulle
11:30am Clear customs, meet EduTrips tour escort, board transfer bus & depart for hotel
12:30pm Check into hotel
3:30pm Depart for the Bateau Parisien
5:30pm Board cruise
6:15pm Dinner cruise departs
7:45pm Cruise docks, return to the hotel
Day 3: March 17, 2015
8:00am Breakfast
10:00am Begin our guided Paris Landmark walking tour, sites include Arch de Triomphe to Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower & Les Invalides
1:00pm Tour ends
3:00pm Admission to the Eiffel Tower summit.
5:00pm Depart for the Latin Quarter
Day 4: March 18, 2015
10:00am Board train & depart for Versailles
11:00am Arrive to Versailles, admission to the palace / gardens and time to explore
4:00pm Board train & return to Paris
5:00pm Arrive to Paris
Day 5: March 19, 2015
9:30am Depart for the American Dance Academy
10:00am Classes begin
1:15pm Classes end, depart for Les Puces de Saint-Ouen Market
4:00pm Notre Dame
5:00pm Tour begins
6:00pm Dinner
8:30pm Return to the hotel
Day 6: Tuesday March 20, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:00pm Classes end
1:00pm Depart for the Louvre
1:30pm Admission & time to explore
7:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 7: March 21, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:00pm Class ends, depart for the D'Orsay Museum
1:00pm Admission, time to explore
5:00pm Depart for the Montmartre
6:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 8: March 22, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:30pm Depart for the Eiffel tower summit
1:00pm Admission
3:30pm Return to the hotel & get dressed for the show
5:00pm Enjoy dinner at a local restaurant
6:00pm Depart for the Opera
7:30pm Performance begins
10:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 9: March 23, 2015
09:30am Classes begin
12:30pm Classes end
01:30pm Depart for the Palais Garnier
2:00am Backstage tour begins
3:30pm Tour ends, enjoy free time
06:30pm Return to the hotel & get dressed for dinner
07:30pm Enjoy a farewell dinner
10:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 10: March 24, 2015
09:00am Check out of hotel, board airport transfer & depart for airport
01:45pm Flight departs for home
Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area:
Learning outcome #1:
“Acquires or further develops competencies within a particular creative domain.”
To fulfill this specific learning outcome, I will delve into several works of literature that will acquaint me with the history of ballet, and more specifically, in Paris (example: history of the Paris Opera Ballet) in order to become more acclimated and informed on the background of this beautiful art form that I study.
Actions: I will read a variety of books concerning ballet history as well as research the school I will be taking class at in Paris (the American School). I will watch videos about ballet in Paris and also watch as many videos as possible of precisely technical dancers who demonstrate ultimate mastery of ballet material. These actions, paired with my daily ballet classes at CCM and the helpful corrections given to me by my professors, will aid me in furthering my overall proficiency and understanding of ballet.
Learning outcome #2:
“Possesses ability to embrace contradictions and integrate alternate, divergent, or contradictory perspectives.”
For this learning outcome, I will embrace the contradictory methods involved in taking ballet classes from different teachers (and in this case, in different countries) who approach ballet in different ways and may even use different terminology to describe dance steps. I will also explore the contradictory perspectives involved culturally and socially in Paris, and evaluate how they compare to American perspectives.
Actions: I will create a compare and contrast chart comparing American and French ballet teaching methods, based on my experience thus far in the U.S. versus the five days of classes I will be taking at the ballet school in Paris. Each day during my classes in Paris I will take note on any similarities and differences I discover and after class I will fill in the chart in order to have a definitive and concise comparison at hand. I will also make an additional chart comparing the more general similarities and differences between life in Cincinnati and life in Paris. Some examples of what might be different could be art, language, vernacular, diet, speed of life, and political dispositions.
Connection to Goals and Academic Theories:
This project contributes to my personal goals in that one of my life goals has always been to travel 1) across seas, 2) to a French-speaking country, and 3) to one of the most historically-rich ballet locations in the world, Paris. In terms of academic goals, this will help me achieve my goal of studying abroad while attaining my undergraduate degree in Ballet. It will help me attain a more worldly and sophisticated education through in-depth research and personal experience in a foreign country. Finally, in relation to my professional goals as a ballet dancer, a global experience will leave me more confident and ready to tackle a variety of professional dance environments.
Resources I will use for research:
1. Anderson, Jack. Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book, 1986. Print.
This book covers an extensive amount of dance history without bogging down the reader in extraneous unnecessary details. I will be able to gather a holistic knowledge of the progression of dance which will benefit me in my academic as well as professional goals involved in this project.
2. Guest, Ivor Forbes. The Paris Opéra Ballet. Alton, Hampshire: Dance, 2006. Print.
This book will be superbly helpful in my understanding of the place I will be visiting. My excitement and understanding will increase vastly from knowing a detailed history and description of the Paris Opera Ballet before I enter the premises.
3. Haskell, Arnold L. Ballet; a Complete Guide to Appreciation, History, Aesthetics, Ballets, Dancers. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng.: Penguin , Limited, 1938. Print.
Reading this book will help me fill in all the gaps I may have missed throughout my dance education that pertain to a well-rounded knowledge of what ballet encapsulates. It will prepare me for an intense experience overseas and will ensure that I do not find myself ignorant of anything I could or should know about the ballet world.
Initiative, Independence and Creativity:
My unique contribution to this project will be my dedication to recording the Parisian adventures through in-the-moment multimedia constructions. By this I mean that I will capture my fellow dancers’ reactions to different experiences (class, airplane travel, food, culture shock, sight-seeing, etc.) throughout the trip in the format of short video interviews and pictures. This will make my involvement unique because I will be going the extra mile in order to make our collective experience well-documented and remembered. My skills involve interpersonal relations, which I practiced while interviewing flow-artists in my most recent Experiential Learning Project, as well as French language skills (I took four years of French in high school as well as one semester in college, and earned a 4 on the French AP Test), which will come in handy while touring the many landmarks as well as in ballet class. I have demonstrated initiative towards this endeavor by planning a way to disseminate what we all learn on the trip, as opposed to those who are simply going on the trip to take class and sight-see.
Reflection:
I will actively reflect on my learning throughout my experience by keeping a personal journal that I will log my feelings and discoveries in each night that I spend in Paris. This will keep me on track with evaluating my exploration and will help me remember important discoveries once I write my final reflective essay. Within these journal entries I will incorporate a series of reflection questions, which might include:
· What differences have I noticed in this new cultural environment?
· How do French people at the ballet academy treat us as American students?
· Is it difficult to understand what the dance teachers want, or is it not too difficult since the ballet terms are already in French?
· How does visiting the tourist sites (such as Versailles and the Eiffel Tower) give me a perspective into French history and culture?
· Is taking ballet here more enjoyable than in the U.S.? Less? Why?
· What specific things have I learned about ballet while in Paris?
· How do my peers’ reactions relate or compare to my own on this trip?
· How could I improve my personal ballet technique based on my experience thus far?
Dissemination:
In order to share what I learned in this project in a public forum, I will compile a collection of videos and pictures to share with the entire Dance department at the College-Conservatory of Music. I will secure a time with the department chair, Jiang Qi, which will work best for a presentation reaching the full assembly of dance students and professors. During the presentation I will give a brief description of how I utilized the trip both as a supplemental ballet course and as an Honors experience. Then I will give a synopsis of the trip and show the slideshow and videos. I’ll end the presentation with a question/answer session. The audience I am choosing is extremely relevant because it will consist of other dancers who might be wondering what it is like to take ballet class abroad, or to visit another country. Not only will I inform them of what the trip consisted of, but I will also be able to give valuable advice on traveling and dancing in an unfamiliar place.
Project Advisor: Michael Tevlin
Title: Professor of Dance at CCM
Contact: [email protected]
Phone: +1 513 556 9455
Expertise: Professor Tevlin has an extensive ballet background including attaining his degree in dance from Butler University and teaching ballet at CCM. Here is a link to his professional biography:
http://tevlinballet.weebly.com/about-michael-tevlin.html
Budget:
My budget for this experience will include the cost of airfare, food, room and board, gratuities, tours, and ballet classes at the academy in Paris.
Specific amounts:
1. EduTrips Package: $2000 for airfare, hotel (including breakfast only), classes, and tours around the city.
2. Lunch and Dinner: $400 for lunch and dinner for 10 days (considering the money conversion from dollars to euros).
Total Budget: $2400
Gateway to University Honors
UC Email: [email protected]
College: CCM
Major: Ballet
Title of Project: Ascertaining the Roots of Ballet
Thematic Area: Creative Arts
Expected Project Start Date: March 5, 2015
Expected Project End Date: April 20, 2015
Self-Designed Honors Experience Proposal
Abstract:
Within this self-designed honors experience, my creative endeavors will take me to Paris, France, for a ten-day journey to explore the wonders of the city and culture while also taking ballet class at the American School in Paris each day alongside my peers and Professor Michael Tevlin from the CCM Dance Department. In this study I seek to grow not only as a ballet dancer, but also as a conscious human being and traveler gathering new perspectives of dance and the world in general. This project is personally meaningful because it involves two of my passions – ballet and French. Ever since I was a child I have dreamt of visiting Paris, and to think I will be able to dance in a city where much of ballet’s history began is unbelievably amazing. As a rough estimate of my time spent on this project, I expect to spend about 15 hours researching and reading about Paris and ballet, about 28 hours spent touring Parisian landmarks, museums, and attending cultural spectacles, 14 hours in ballet classes, 5 hours journaling, and 20 hours creating my dissemination, reflecting over, and writing about my work. The quality of the time I spend completing these activities will be just as important as the quantity, because I will utilize this unique experience to further my educational goals and to extend the depth of my knowledge about ballet wholeheartedly. This project will not only benefit me, but it will also benefit those around me as I will be able to discuss and share what I learn along the way. In more specific quantitative terms, I now divulge the itinerary for this adventure:
Day 1: March 15, 2015
12:00pm Group meets at Cincinnati Airport
2:05pm Flight departs for Paris
Day 2: March 16, 2015
10:45am Arrive to Paris de Gaulle
11:30am Clear customs, meet EduTrips tour escort, board transfer bus & depart for hotel
12:30pm Check into hotel
3:30pm Depart for the Bateau Parisien
5:30pm Board cruise
6:15pm Dinner cruise departs
7:45pm Cruise docks, return to the hotel
Day 3: March 17, 2015
8:00am Breakfast
10:00am Begin our guided Paris Landmark walking tour, sites include Arch de Triomphe to Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower & Les Invalides
1:00pm Tour ends
3:00pm Admission to the Eiffel Tower summit.
5:00pm Depart for the Latin Quarter
Day 4: March 18, 2015
10:00am Board train & depart for Versailles
11:00am Arrive to Versailles, admission to the palace / gardens and time to explore
4:00pm Board train & return to Paris
5:00pm Arrive to Paris
Day 5: March 19, 2015
9:30am Depart for the American Dance Academy
10:00am Classes begin
1:15pm Classes end, depart for Les Puces de Saint-Ouen Market
4:00pm Notre Dame
5:00pm Tour begins
6:00pm Dinner
8:30pm Return to the hotel
Day 6: Tuesday March 20, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:00pm Classes end
1:00pm Depart for the Louvre
1:30pm Admission & time to explore
7:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 7: March 21, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:00pm Class ends, depart for the D'Orsay Museum
1:00pm Admission, time to explore
5:00pm Depart for the Montmartre
6:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 8: March 22, 2015
9:30am Classes begin
12:30pm Depart for the Eiffel tower summit
1:00pm Admission
3:30pm Return to the hotel & get dressed for the show
5:00pm Enjoy dinner at a local restaurant
6:00pm Depart for the Opera
7:30pm Performance begins
10:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 9: March 23, 2015
09:30am Classes begin
12:30pm Classes end
01:30pm Depart for the Palais Garnier
2:00am Backstage tour begins
3:30pm Tour ends, enjoy free time
06:30pm Return to the hotel & get dressed for dinner
07:30pm Enjoy a farewell dinner
10:00pm Return to the hotel
Day 10: March 24, 2015
09:00am Check out of hotel, board airport transfer & depart for airport
01:45pm Flight departs for home
Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area:
Learning outcome #1:
“Acquires or further develops competencies within a particular creative domain.”
To fulfill this specific learning outcome, I will delve into several works of literature that will acquaint me with the history of ballet, and more specifically, in Paris (example: history of the Paris Opera Ballet) in order to become more acclimated and informed on the background of this beautiful art form that I study.
Actions: I will read a variety of books concerning ballet history as well as research the school I will be taking class at in Paris (the American School). I will watch videos about ballet in Paris and also watch as many videos as possible of precisely technical dancers who demonstrate ultimate mastery of ballet material. These actions, paired with my daily ballet classes at CCM and the helpful corrections given to me by my professors, will aid me in furthering my overall proficiency and understanding of ballet.
Learning outcome #2:
“Possesses ability to embrace contradictions and integrate alternate, divergent, or contradictory perspectives.”
For this learning outcome, I will embrace the contradictory methods involved in taking ballet classes from different teachers (and in this case, in different countries) who approach ballet in different ways and may even use different terminology to describe dance steps. I will also explore the contradictory perspectives involved culturally and socially in Paris, and evaluate how they compare to American perspectives.
Actions: I will create a compare and contrast chart comparing American and French ballet teaching methods, based on my experience thus far in the U.S. versus the five days of classes I will be taking at the ballet school in Paris. Each day during my classes in Paris I will take note on any similarities and differences I discover and after class I will fill in the chart in order to have a definitive and concise comparison at hand. I will also make an additional chart comparing the more general similarities and differences between life in Cincinnati and life in Paris. Some examples of what might be different could be art, language, vernacular, diet, speed of life, and political dispositions.
Connection to Goals and Academic Theories:
This project contributes to my personal goals in that one of my life goals has always been to travel 1) across seas, 2) to a French-speaking country, and 3) to one of the most historically-rich ballet locations in the world, Paris. In terms of academic goals, this will help me achieve my goal of studying abroad while attaining my undergraduate degree in Ballet. It will help me attain a more worldly and sophisticated education through in-depth research and personal experience in a foreign country. Finally, in relation to my professional goals as a ballet dancer, a global experience will leave me more confident and ready to tackle a variety of professional dance environments.
Resources I will use for research:
1. Anderson, Jack. Ballet & Modern Dance: A Concise History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book, 1986. Print.
This book covers an extensive amount of dance history without bogging down the reader in extraneous unnecessary details. I will be able to gather a holistic knowledge of the progression of dance which will benefit me in my academic as well as professional goals involved in this project.
2. Guest, Ivor Forbes. The Paris Opéra Ballet. Alton, Hampshire: Dance, 2006. Print.
This book will be superbly helpful in my understanding of the place I will be visiting. My excitement and understanding will increase vastly from knowing a detailed history and description of the Paris Opera Ballet before I enter the premises.
3. Haskell, Arnold L. Ballet; a Complete Guide to Appreciation, History, Aesthetics, Ballets, Dancers. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng.: Penguin , Limited, 1938. Print.
Reading this book will help me fill in all the gaps I may have missed throughout my dance education that pertain to a well-rounded knowledge of what ballet encapsulates. It will prepare me for an intense experience overseas and will ensure that I do not find myself ignorant of anything I could or should know about the ballet world.
Initiative, Independence and Creativity:
My unique contribution to this project will be my dedication to recording the Parisian adventures through in-the-moment multimedia constructions. By this I mean that I will capture my fellow dancers’ reactions to different experiences (class, airplane travel, food, culture shock, sight-seeing, etc.) throughout the trip in the format of short video interviews and pictures. This will make my involvement unique because I will be going the extra mile in order to make our collective experience well-documented and remembered. My skills involve interpersonal relations, which I practiced while interviewing flow-artists in my most recent Experiential Learning Project, as well as French language skills (I took four years of French in high school as well as one semester in college, and earned a 4 on the French AP Test), which will come in handy while touring the many landmarks as well as in ballet class. I have demonstrated initiative towards this endeavor by planning a way to disseminate what we all learn on the trip, as opposed to those who are simply going on the trip to take class and sight-see.
Reflection:
I will actively reflect on my learning throughout my experience by keeping a personal journal that I will log my feelings and discoveries in each night that I spend in Paris. This will keep me on track with evaluating my exploration and will help me remember important discoveries once I write my final reflective essay. Within these journal entries I will incorporate a series of reflection questions, which might include:
· What differences have I noticed in this new cultural environment?
· How do French people at the ballet academy treat us as American students?
· Is it difficult to understand what the dance teachers want, or is it not too difficult since the ballet terms are already in French?
· How does visiting the tourist sites (such as Versailles and the Eiffel Tower) give me a perspective into French history and culture?
· Is taking ballet here more enjoyable than in the U.S.? Less? Why?
· What specific things have I learned about ballet while in Paris?
· How do my peers’ reactions relate or compare to my own on this trip?
· How could I improve my personal ballet technique based on my experience thus far?
Dissemination:
In order to share what I learned in this project in a public forum, I will compile a collection of videos and pictures to share with the entire Dance department at the College-Conservatory of Music. I will secure a time with the department chair, Jiang Qi, which will work best for a presentation reaching the full assembly of dance students and professors. During the presentation I will give a brief description of how I utilized the trip both as a supplemental ballet course and as an Honors experience. Then I will give a synopsis of the trip and show the slideshow and videos. I’ll end the presentation with a question/answer session. The audience I am choosing is extremely relevant because it will consist of other dancers who might be wondering what it is like to take ballet class abroad, or to visit another country. Not only will I inform them of what the trip consisted of, but I will also be able to give valuable advice on traveling and dancing in an unfamiliar place.
Project Advisor: Michael Tevlin
Title: Professor of Dance at CCM
Contact: [email protected]
Phone: +1 513 556 9455
Expertise: Professor Tevlin has an extensive ballet background including attaining his degree in dance from Butler University and teaching ballet at CCM. Here is a link to his professional biography:
http://tevlinballet.weebly.com/about-michael-tevlin.html
Budget:
My budget for this experience will include the cost of airfare, food, room and board, gratuities, tours, and ballet classes at the academy in Paris.
Specific amounts:
1. EduTrips Package: $2000 for airfare, hotel (including breakfast only), classes, and tours around the city.
2. Lunch and Dinner: $400 for lunch and dinner for 10 days (considering the money conversion from dollars to euros).
Total Budget: $2400