Editor’s Letter

Katie Couch

Magazines have always been a staple in my reading. In my youth, I enjoyed publications from Highlights to Rolling Stone, and more currently the New Yorker and 5280. I never imagined that I would one day be producing a magazine myself, and I’m thrilled to serve as the newest general editor of Dalcroze Connections, the official magazine of the Dalcroze Society of America.

Dalcroze Connections aims to bring our readership useful content through lesson plan ideas, repertoire pieces, long-form historical or pedagogical articles by Dalcroze experts, and more! It connects us as a community when we are separated by distance and time zones.

The 2023 National Conference this past January demonstrated to me (and others, I’m sure) how important it is to physically be together. Sessions were presented by a wide variety of clinicians, from highly trained Dalcrozians to professional dancers, and all were informative and enlivening. Among the many sessions filled with valuable information and experiences, there was something for everyone. For more on the conference, be sure to check out Lori Forden’s synopsis on page 13

That is the goal of Dalcroze Connections: to provide you, our readers and supporters, with materials you can learn from and use, and to connect us all. This issue continues the theme of expert-written articles on the Dalcroze Teaching Strategies, with more to come in following volumes (and blog posts). We are also trying out our new regular features, including Anatomy of a Lesson Plan (“skip” to page 46 for trochaic rhythms) and Aural Reactions (on page 49).

Have any comments or feedback for us? Send it in to editor@ dalcrozeusa.org and have a chance to be featured in next issue’s Verbal Reactions column (our inaugural offering is here on page 12).

Above all, we hope you enjoy this latest issue, as much as we had fun putting it together.

Katie Couch Editor Westminster, CO katie@dalcrozeusa.org