PUSH Kickoff

Last night was the opening presentation and reception for the PUSH conference in Minneapolis. The theme for this year's conference is "A New Life". The opening presentation included performances by Crash and d3horse. Crash is a percussion group that combines visual presentation with rhythm and percussion. They did some very interesting things to produce sound that included using parts of their bodies and zippers on their clothing. They combined the ever changing rhythm patterns with visual presentation that was magical at times. I'm always fascinated by movement that is combined with the production of sound. Somewhere in my mind I have a hard time following both simultaneously and I get either absorbed in the sound or the movement and the other seems to spring from the primary focus of my attention.

Cecily Sommers then provided an introduction to the conference. A couple of things she mentioned that struck a chord for me are:

• Wall of Email - this refers to the daily tasks that we all have to do just to stay afloat. Often these tasks take so much out of us that there isn't much left to start to work toward a different future.
• Leadership from a vision - this refers to the power and quality of leadership that comes from a clear vision for the future. Her example in this space was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his "I have a dream" vision.
  

Following Cecily was a performance by d3horse titled "A New Life" to build on the theme of the conference. This was a fantastic performance! I'm not very practiced at describing stage performance that combines dialogue with dance and music but a couple of the themes that they developed included not needing to know exaclty where you're going to be able to start, patterns that we repeat over an over like we have no control over our actions and that there is no perfect time to start.

Overall this kickoff set a great tone for the next two days.