Day 25: Why Collaborate?
I feel the most alive, the best at what I do when I am collaborating to create with someone who also wants to collaborate. I have had time when the experienced has been forced and extremely unbalanced and as a result, I left the experience feeling down on myself, the work I was doing and my purpose. It's not magic but it is able creation and it can be magic.
I learned to collaborate, to really work together to create, making theatre. There is one show, where everything came together for me and I worked as a costume designer, collaborative with the Directors, a cast of actors, lighting and set designers, drapers and stitchers to all create and execute a common vision. It took time, effort, analysis, many conversations, listening and pushing or pulling, to eek out the piece that was just right, that was inspired, that maybe the audience didn't know was there but the actor did and it was a little secret they had a kept that just their character got to know. All the collaborators came together to create something new- a piece of art, a story.
A lesson, a unit, curricula- they all tell a story and the process of coming together to create, this is what I love. The longer I teach, the more I learn that I love working with and mentoring new teachers, preservice teachers to create. Getting better at asking the questions that the provoke and challenge the work. Seeing a teacher do that lesson where everything was magic- and celebrating the magic. By the same token, being there to console or even catch a teacher when a lesson bombs, a kid melts down in their class or a fight breaks out.
So why collaborate? To create, to be inspired and inspire others. To grow. To be humbled. To have those A-ha! moments. To connect.
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