me arts ed

Thursday evening: Artists Showcase- Michael Trautman

Michael amazed the participants on Thursday evening with his ping pong ball performance. “Where did all those come from?” and “how did he do that?” were questions I heard over and over. I can imagine him with students, I bet he is AWESOME! In Michael’s own words here is his story:

At the urging of a college friend, I took my first mime class in 1976 at a dance studio in a Kansas City suburb. I was immediately hooked. My first teacher was Steve Harris. Steve had trained with Claude Kipnis and had been in Claude’s company at the University of Illinois. Steve invited me to be one of the founding members of Mimewock, a Kansas City based mime company. Through my association with the company, I received training in mime, dance, t’ai chi, improvisation, juggling, magic, and mask work. The company became a clearing house for mimes in the midwest. It was also a stopover for many of the great movement artists of the time. I met and participated in workshops with Claude Kipnis, Bari Rolfe, Ken Feit, and many others who passed through our doors.

After starting my career by performing on the streets, at shopping malls, and birthday parties, I soon had enough of a show to start doing school assembly programs. In 1979, I went on the road for my first solo tour, doing fifteen weeks in Georgia and Kentucky, averaging thirteen shows each week, never in a town larger than about 10,000 people. Two weeks of wearing whiteface make-up and trying to find my way around rural Georgia, combined with the fact that I was interested in many other aspects of performance besides the silent, illusionary pantomime I was concentrating on, made me decide to stop wearing the whiteface, and include in my show every type of skill that I possessed – juggling, magic, improvisation, and storytelling – while learning from the school audiences themselves what actually worked.

Since then, I have had the good fortune to make a living as a performing artist by touring around the world. I have given over 3500 school assembly performances in addition to doing shows in theaters, universities, festivals, fairs, television, circuses, and cruise ships.

When I first began performing in the schools, the mandate was fairly simple: bring artists into the schools, introducing and exposing students to the power and beauty of art, inspiring them to think creatively, become artists, or at the very least, to become future audiences and supporters of the arts. Over time, this mandate has changed. Now, artists are required to serve the curriculum of the schools, developing works and workshops that teach various lessons related to a wide range of school subjects. I am not convinced that I, as a mime/clown/magician/juggler/storyteller, am a qualified expert on teaching students about science, math, english, or other mainstream school subjects. What I am qualified to teach is movement and the creative process. Over my career, I have studied with two of the leading mime and improvisation master teachers in the world. From 1983 until his death in 2002, I trained with Tony Montanaro in a number of workshops and considered him to be my mentor and the main influence on my work. In 1987-88, I studied with Jacques Lecoq at his school in Paris, France. M. Lecoq has a long and powerful influence in the world of mime, counting among his students Avner the Eccentric and Mummenschanz.

From these two powerful influences, and from my study of the French movement theorist Francois Delsarte, I have developed my current school performance and workshop, BODYTALK. In these programs, I give students and teachers clear, usable tools for understanding and using body language. Our bodies speak. Every facial expression, every gesture, every little movement is a statement. BODYTALK teaches you how to understand what you and other people are saying without words. Besides the obvious application of this information to the performing arts, the benefits of exploration into this not-so-secret language include: Improved communication skills; Physical fitness; Improved gross- and fine-motor skills; Improving personal and social interactions; Self-confidence; Public speaking improvement; Improved empathy/awareness of others’ feelings and thoughts.

Something else that I have to offer to audiences that I feel is every bit as important as the educational and informative aspects of my work is laughter and fun. When ideas are presented in a way that engages and entertains, the information presented will be retained far longer. The laughter that my audiences experience is by far the greatest gift that I can give to them, or that they can in turn give to me.

Additional information, including a study guide, about BODYTALK is available online by clicking here or contact Michael directly at info@michaeltrautman.com .

Some weeks are just wild and crazy (and all good!)

Blueberry field

I had one of those weeks that took me on the road for several days. I started in Machias at the Harvest of Ideas workshop day (you may have seen an earlier blog). I stayed over to attend the Washington County superintendents meeting, wearing my ‘Regional Representative hat’. It is always interesting to hear the activities of superintendents. They had invited their legislative representatives to meet with them on this particular morning.

I headed west towards Old Town and drove slowly through the blueberry fields. The plants were a brilliant red and the sky was filled with glorious clouds. I stopped a couple of times to take some pictures, my eyes could not take in enough of the beauty, and the wind was blowing so much that my hair was a mess after each stop.

DEEP meeting

The next morning I headed southeast to Castine for the Downeast Educational Partnership (DEEP, curriculum leaders of Hancock region) meeting. It was being held at the Wilson Museum and what a fascinating place it is. I highly recommend a visit to the museum and check out the programs they have for students. I’ve been to Castine many times and was surprised that it is only 20 minutes from Bucksport.

I left there in the early afternoon and headed to Old Town to meet with the Leonard Middle School staff to plan the collaborative keynote we are giving at the MAMLE (Maine Association for Middle Level Education) at Sugarloaf. I was wearing my ‘middle level hat’ and will post about that next week.

I attended the Art in the Heart meeting at the University of Maine. A great faculty exhibit is happening at Lord Hall. Afterwards I met with a few colleagues.

The next morning I headed south to the ACTEM (Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine) conference in Augusta at the Civic Center. It was great to see many arts educators there. I enjoyed the keynote given by Marco Torres, educator, producer and media artist.

Yes, it was an especially busy week… all good!