Taryn's essay

Our trip to Boston enlightened me on several occasions and also brought me to understand the meaning of my essential question. When we first got to Boston we went to several art museums. Overall my favorite one was the ICA. I’m glad that we went on this trip because it was a very fun and meaningful experience. I learned things that varied from different foods we ate to what goes into the making of a carefully performed play. We visited three play sets. The first was ‘Shear Madness’, We interviewed a cast member who told us everything about backstage life. He also told us about how difficult it is to have everyone in a play have the right stage of mind. We also visited ‘Blue Man Group’ and ‘Spelling Bee’ Where we learned more about stage set up. We visited two museums on our trip, both were the best I’ve ever seen.
Another important detail of our trip to me personally would have to be the sighting of several homeless people and performing artists on the street or in the subways. We did have a chat with one man who was performing in one of the subways. We sang with him, laughed with him, and partied with him and overall showed me how happy some people can be living a life on the down low of society with just his guitar and will to sing. On the other hand I did feel certain ways about the homeless people who sat quietly on the benches in the depths of the subway. I did feel bad for them at first but then realized that it was their own decisions that had lead them to that place to begin with. I learned that you must make important decisions and have a straight path to follow when attempting life.
My essential question was mostly about dancers and how their profession effects their bodies and how it impacts their life. When we went to Boston we did not watch any performances. However we did get to perform ourselves. I thought this was a fantastic experience and learned a lot. I learned that you have to be extremely focused on your goals and what you want to achieve. A few things I observed about myself as a performing artist was that I was nervous when we first started the ‘social experiment’. After a while I needed to tell myself to forget about my surroundings and concentrate on what I was trying to achieve. I feel that professional dancers would have to do the same things. Not worry about fame or fortune, but to just focus on where they want to be. While I was in Boston I learned that you can’t take what you have already for granted.