Shared goals are more important than any other factors when building community. Not shared cultures, shared backgrounds, or shared talents. We just need to want the same things. Choirs are typically natural breeding grounds of this type of shared interest. In this episode I compare notes with writer, podcaster and Tango instructor Dr. Iona Italia on the the ways we build community in our artistic spaces. She brings her experience living all over the world and participating in many cultures and the common threads in all of those efforts, while I just continue to notice more and more parallels to what we do in group singing. There is a little bit of something for everyone here, including my first E for explicit rating. Something about Iona just makes you want to take off the filter. Tune in and prepare to be fascinated by one of my most interesting guests!
Highlights include:
- In both group singing and in tango, the music looses some of its value when we are apart.
- The importance of accountability to each other
- Thoughts about how music and dance can cause a beautiful melding of cultures when we allow it.
- The intimacy of the connections formed. Dance and choir romances! Why is sexual connection so common in choir and tango?
- An entire bonus episode about an hour in on our political philosophies related to discourse.
About Iona From Her Website:
Half Scottish, half Indian by origin, I lived in the UK, Germany and the US before settling in Argentina, where I have been working as a freelance writer and translator since 2006. I speak three foreign languages—Spanish, German and French—with fluency and confidence.
I am currently subeditor of Areo Magazine and host of the magazine’s podcast, Two for Tea.
I have translated texts ranging from literature, through business and technical material, to websites and advertising.
With a PhD in English Literature from Cambridge University, I have taught English at universities in both Europe (including Germany) and the US and have extensive experience in academic writing and editing. I’m the author of the book Anxious Employment, a history of early journalism, published by Routledge UP. I’ve published essays and articles on journalism and was joint editor of an essay collection on early periodicals (with Prof Robert Clark).
Paul Rudoi and MANY more.