How are y'all doing? Let's try that one more
time. How are y'all doing? [applause] I have to
say, I'm really, really thankful to be here.
Thank you, Michelle and the entire team at
Virginia Tech for the invitation and for helping make this
possible. I know we're in a good place just
because of the last hour and a half we spent
together. Um, so thank you all for taking
time. I know there's lots of other things we
could be doing. I want to say my name
is Matthew Cumbie, I am an Associate Artistic
Director with Dance Exchange. My name is Christine King.
I've been with in projects off and on with the
Dance Exchange for about four years in a artistic collaborator,
offering giving situation. And just to say a
little bit so as artists with Dance Exchange, which
is an intergenerational dance organization based out of Washington DC.
We believe that everybody can dance, right?
Yeah, and then actually by moving through something
together, we can not only come to know more
about ourselves and each other, but we can come
to know more about the world around us. Um,
I'm really struck by some of the information that
Jose Antonio shared with us a moment ago and again,
I know I'm in a good place. We
know and I think you all know too that if
we ask a big enough question we need more than
one discipline to answer it. And so at Dance
Exchange, that kind of collaborative spirit and understanding has
brought us to work with all sorts of folks over
the 40 year history of our organization. Right?
Artists, activists, scholars, scientists, farmers,
shipyard workers, fishermen, community organizers, educators,
people of all ages, in all backgrounds and today that
brings us here to this conference. Um, and
like Michelle said moments ago, Christine and I are
here over the next two days, um, to
really help invite us or rather continue to invite us
to pause and reflect as we go through this journey
together; to um, and I'm gonna borrow some language
from Christine um, moments ago or rather Michelle,
um, to also grapple with, to wrestle with,
um, and to move through some of the
questions, the concerns and the cares that might come
up or bubble up over the next two days and
to also weave together some of the ideas that might
grow from our conversation. Um, one of the
ways that we often think about how we might connect
to the ideas, how we might see these ideas
differently, is actually thinking about how the body can
also help support that connection. And so I want
to offer just some reflections back from this last hour
that we've had together, um, to help us
remember the journey that we've been on, but also
maybe to help us find a different way to see
some information or to relate to that information. And,
um, one of the first things that really struck
me was the fact that we're all here knowing that
there's lots of other things that we could be doing
today, this week, the week after a big
holiday, given the weather, all of that. But,
also the way Jose Antonio, you, um, even
in moments of we're here to talk about the kind
of questions and the challenges that we face as a
community of educators and activists and artists. Um,
even with the kind of technology challenges you had,
you were still here present and kind of inviting that
pause. I'm gonna invite us right now to pause
and in the same spirit that Jose Antonio did moments
ago to just breathe. We take a big deep
breath in together on the count of 3. 1... 2... 3... Let's
try that one more time. Big deep breath in
beautiful and Jose Antonio you talked a lot about a
word that came up a lot with change and the
kind of fast changing world we live in because of
culture, technology, and demography or immigration, the
kind of three main factors you pulled out. And
it had me thinking a lot about the world we
live in and how quickly that world can feel like
it's changing, how we can feel much closer to
each other and connected to each other. So can
we take our hands right in front of us and
kind of shape that world that you are in right
now and find a way to quickly bring those hands
together to find that kind of smaller world that collapsing
world 1, 2, 3 beautiful, nice sound! And then from
there Jose Antonio you also talked about four ways that
universities might be able to respond to this changing world
we live in, right? One of those being,
and I'm going to look at my notes,
um, the critical conscious of society, this idea
that we're agents of influence, right? Um,
hub. The university is a hub, a meeting
point, a crossroad and uh, a place of
research, a marketplace of ideas and a certifying role
for the skills needed the kind of role, important role
of educators. Right? So from here that you
actually had those um, one like that certifying influence
or that certifying role rather. And then you had
that other circle. If you're looking at the slide
that you had up there, the critical conscious of
society, that hub that we are, and the place of
research really stretching out that horizontal. And there was
somebody who asked a question a moment ago, where
where are you, who came up and asked a
question about, did he step out? Okay,
well, oh, from here, when that question
was asked, I also think about like the space
between where we see our universities responding now and where
we want to see our universities responding after these conversations
or in that future. And he actually had this
gesture of where we are now in responding to inequity
and injustice and where we want to be. So
let's go back, can we take one big deep
breath and here we go. And I would invite
everyone to stand if you feel like you have need
that moment right now. Thank you. Thank you
. So again a reminder to think about where these
come from a moment. Yeah and some stretching already
. I know we've been sitting for a little while
. It's that post lunch maybe nap time. So
here we go. Let's take a big deep breath
in and one more time. Big deep breath in
And from here we're gonna bring those hands in front
of us. Think about the world we're in and
find that quick change ready set go and from here
bring it over to one side. Think about that
critical conscious of society. The agents of influence moving
towards that place of research moving towards that hub that
connecting place moving towards that certifying role. The importance
of education and where we are now. Maybe where
we want to be Christine and some of the things
that he so eloquently put from here, that cross
cultural moments. Let's just add that onto it from
the top. Yeah I'm only gonna add that one
for now time time wise. So we had cross
culture. All right. And one more, one
more. Um The other thing that also and I
think Matthew mentioned it the illuminating moments illuminating the data
and that that was because I like to hear words
that impact me and when you have to illuminate some
data and just illuminating. So we're cross culturing but
we need to illuminate illuminate the data that's out there
. Yeah. So let's try this all one more
time. We are going to kind of find ways
to come back to this throughout the day. So
for good measure also may be a good opportunity to
again stand and take a different perspective from our more
our afternoon together. Here we go. We'll take
one big deep breath in. Here we go and
find that world collapse. That world. Find those
four ways that we might be able to respond knowing
that where we are is different than where we're headed
. Think about those crossroads where we are today and
how our work this week might illuminate new ways of
moving forward. Thank you. Hold on to that
. I think I'm gonna toss it back to Michelle
to take us into the next thing