JC shares stories from directing a senior rock ensemble and leads a conversation on how music and movement can be used in community sing-alongs to support mental and emotional well-being, with practical examples from rehearsals and sing-outs.
JC: I'm the music director of Minnesota's premier senior citizen rock ensemble, Alive and kickin people 62 and older. On Wednesdays, we have a community engagement called sing out. JC: There's so much science and research being done on movement and music and its Impact on one's mental health.
One, two, three. Good morning, Cadre. How are you? Wilson Pickett, singing you on in your ship. Like, sing it out? Yeah, let's go. Add the major third above. Okay, Mr. Pickett, we'll hit pause for a moment. Land of a thousand dances. Wilson Pickett, how are y'all? There's a lot of ways we can dance on through this week. Good morning to you as well, Jules. Beez a bit. Speak Wonder, it's nice to see you for morning check in our hot cup of Cadre. Right. My name's JC if we've never shared time or space together before, thank you for the opportunity to let me share some time with you.
It is a gift, whether you know it or not, whether you feel great or whether you feel like blech. Your worth, your capacity, your journey is all moving. Speak wonder says 32 ginger snap degrees out here at the Great Lake. Oh, I thought you were saying that you had 32 ginger snaps for breakfast. And I'm like, lucky duck. Speak Wonder. That looks like two hot cups of Cadre right there. Well, hey, on Wednesdays, what do we talk about? We talk about the big old bucket, the big old great lake of mental health.
C. i really love Wilson Pickett. Or I don't know who Will Pickett is, but I know that song. Or never heard that song. But gosh, I'm here, and I'm grateful. Let me tell you a little story about that song. Land of Thousand Dances. So I on Mondays sit at the piano bench as the music director of Minnesota's premier senior citizen rock ensemble, Alive and kickin people 62 and older. Our oldest member right now is Chuck. He's 89. They sang Zeppelin and Queen and lots of music. Music spanning the popular realm, rock and roll of every style.
To the mission of this nonprofit is to provide voice back to a generation that is often told to retire and get quiet. Well, the second Monday of every month after rehearsal, we have a community engagement called sing out. And anyone and everyone can come and sing for an hour and a half. And quite often, we get a lot of people who are living in assisted living or their caregivers bring them to come and sing right before snack break at Sing Out. Wilson Pickett. Land of Thousand Dances. That's the song that we do.
And you have this room full of people of all wonderful different capacities. Dancing, doing the wawatusi and the mashed potato, all the things. There's so much science and research being done on movement and music and its Impact on one's not only mental health, but spiritual health, emotional health, physical health, all of the things. It's my invitation today. How often do we go, gosh, I have anxiety, I have depression. I have seasonal depression. I have. I have ocd. Whatever the battle is, we often think full sense.
We often think that's how we end up going. Here's how I can give myself some light or some reprieve or some break from the mental health struggle. We try to think it out. We sit down as opposed to standing up and maybe doing the mashed potato or putting on some music and singing or doodling or. Right. The things that bring us to life. So as you look at our wonderful lineup today, you're gonna see a lot of different people sharing a lot of different perspectives from the professionalism and from their pureness to say, hey, there are so many ways for you to journey towards a sunnier moment.
Or if the sun is shining, ways for you to be soluble to that sun, literally and metaphorically, wherever you are, whatever's going on, if all of a sudden you're going, huh? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Maybe it's not in the thinking. It very well could be, but maybe it's in the doing, in the dancing, in the singing, in the reminiscing, in the art creating, in the emoting, in the physicalizing. Do what you need to do today to be all that you are. Great thing about Land of a Thousand Dances, it just goes back to the top, y'all.
We do it. We na, na, we do it again. So let the saxophone play itself on out here. I think we have four, three, two, one. Oh, no. We got another eight measures. Y'all enjoy it. I'll play it out. Have a great Wednesday. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm feeling all right. Are you singing? Add the third. See you tomorrow, Cadre. Have a good one.
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