Our department, which combines music, theatre and dance, is the perfect opportunity for each art and artist to inform one other. He is not afraid to create in front of people and this has been a great positive experience. We learn a lot about the history of our art in school but rarely do we learn the true experience of improvisation. Once we committed music to the printed page, the art of improvisation started to drop away. Of course, we need to learn the theory in any art.
Theory is essentially the grammar of the discipline.
Another good thing about our department is that when music students begin to study theory, they also begin to compose. This restores the aspect of expression to our art rather than just interpretation. I look forward to taking one of our projects to dance, theatre and choral conferences and watch how others react. I would be especially interested in presenting music making as theatre at a choral conference. It makes teaching more vital and interesting.