Hi everybody and welcome back to Pop Choir
Online Festival talks that I am having.
I am Janne Wind and today I am talking with
a very exciting person.
I am going to introduce you to Julie who is
actually a student.
She is writing her final theses at the University
of Århus and her study is Science of Religion
and Anthropology.
So welcome Julie and thank you for having
a little talk with me.
Thank you and thank you for having me.
I am very excited to tell you about my work
and what I have been observing in this weir
period of time.
You can say that again.
Because you actually also joined the choir
where you have been both observing the choir
to use it for your final theses and then you
have also been hanging out with us, and getting
to know us.
So would you like to share what you have discovered?
To begin with, I haven't been singing in a
choir before so I don't know the community
that blossomed when you go to a choir semester
or a choir group.
So I was kind of new in the community that
come out of singing together.
But by reading a lot of science it was more
biological: what happens with your body when
you sing together, you know the oxytocin in
your body and the heartbeat and all of those
positive effects when you sing together.
So I was interested in: "What happens when
you cannot see each other, you can't hear
each other, we only see you on the computer
screen or on your phone or iPad".
But I quite quickly came to learn that there
is a close community.
People care for each other.
Send each other thumbs up, heart emojis, smileys,
'I am worried' emojis.
Depending on what people are writing because
people share and they give stories about themselves.
Positive stories and negative stories.
It takes a close and trustworthy community
for people to want to share.
I found that is quite interesting because
the community on Facebook is quite new!
It is four months old and many people don't
know each other from the start.
I did not know anyone.
When we met four women last week for the online
concert it was like "bla bla bla" right away.
We didn't just sit like like "hmmm what should
I say - what should I do".
We knew each other from the online website
and Facebook and that made us friends before
we even knew each other's names.
Wow!
It was quite interesting and amazing to see
that you can actually get to know someone
that well just by singing together but not
physically together.
So that was something!
Yeah.
That is a really lovely sentence:" We were
friends before we knew each other's names".
That is actually a really beautiful sentence
because, I totally agree with your observations:This
is what I have also observed being the choir
conductor of the group.
I am so amazed with the vulnerability that
people are putting themselves out there.
They are showing up with all of their emotions.
They are not hiding if they have a bad day
or they are sad.
They really show up.
If they cry during a sing, if they listen
to a song and they start crying, then they
share that as well.
And that takes so much courage.
It really takes trust also that the group
is going to accept you.
That the group is going to respond with one
of these new Facebook emojis the "care for"
emoji.
Ithink someone wrote in the comment that the
new "care for" emoji were like OUR emoji!
It should be the symbol for the group.
And that also describes what community this
is!
It really does!
That is a little funny, right - that we have
totally adopted it.
Now it is OUR emoji.
It belongs to us.
I love that.
But in all seriousness.
It sounds like you have also been a little
surprised?
I have.
Because I thought it would different.
I follow another choir on Zoom, where we could
see each other.
But not hear each other.
And that has been going on for one month.
And there were no comments at all.
People were singing and then we are like "Bye!".
And then they left the zoom meeting.
So even if they were singing together and
they could see each other (not hear each other
but see each other) there were no "Hi how
are you doing" or "I feel like this today
and I would like to tell you about something
that is just amazing" or "I am isolated at
home so who should I tell it to".
There were not that kind of community.
So I am surprised to see that this group (the
Danish Pop Choir Online) has created this.
It is not just that you give something of
yourself, people have also like taken you
in and reacted on your comment like "oh this
song it really hits me", "I find my kleenex"
and people say "oh yeah I also found my kleenex,
it has been a tough week".
There is much more - it almost feels like
someone is sitting next to you, when you are
singing.
And that is amazing because you can't hear
of see each other.
So there is a lot of trust and vulnerability
in the group.
To be vulnerable you have to feel safe.
I think people feel safe in the group.
Yeah.
I really believe that this is a testament
to also what lovely people have gone into
this choir group.
Because it also tells something about the
quality of people we are actually hanging
out with here, right?
Yeah.
So I am excited for the upcoming international
Festival that we are doing.
Because my big wish has been to take this
method, I call it the "hygge" method.
The Danish concept of HYGGE.
The way that can contain each other, the way
that we hang out together, the way that we
interact together.
That is such a Danish concept that we have
really just like it is our emoji, it also
feels like HYGGE is something that has been
developed in Scandinavia.
This way of interacting, opening up to each
other and hanging out with each other.
So the idea that we have had is to invite
different choir cultures in to this setting.
What would be your first anthropological thought
of my idea of going international?
I think there is a big interest in the Danish
HYGGE and how we are doing hygge.
I think some years ago they started teaching
HYGGE at a University in England.
I don't know if they do it still - but there
is an interest in hygge and in China they
learn the fairytales from Hans Christian Andersen.
So there is a big interest in Danish culture
and HYGGE is a big part of Danish Culture.
So I think that not just the choir will be
something that gets people into the international
festival but I also think that the possibility
to get to know what hygge is could be something
that will make people want to be part of the
festival.
I think if we do it right, and we have a lot
of ambassadors to help, then we can spread
the Danish hygge into homes in Spain, Greece,
you know everywhere!
But I am also interested in seeing if some
of the cultures from other international choirs
will affect the Danish choir.
Can we learn something from other choirs as
well?
Because that could also be interesting.
How are they doing it?
Are other countries having online choirs as
well?
It is something that is only going on in Denmark?
I know in England there is a project with
elderly.
Where they also meet together for singing
and after Corona they will meet physically.
But do they do that in Germany or England
or China?
What is the reality out there in other countries?
Not just the Danish hygge.
But what are they doing?
I think that will be really interesting just
to watch and see what comes out of it.
What a fabulous anthropology student you are!
You ask all the right questions.
I totally agree that one thing is for us to
share our method and the way we do it but
totally it is so important that we are also
open to see what are they coming in with?
And right now, we have participants from Macedonia,
Serbia, Albania and Poland and also areas
where I know absolutely nothing about the
music culture and the choir culture.
I even have participant's names that I cannot
read or pronounce and it is so exciting, and
I get a little scared because I really want
to invite people in and share our deep love
for both community and choir music.
It has been wonderful talking with you about
the more science nerdy stuff of this.
Because I am going so much on intuition here.
I am feeling into what is working, what can
I do, where can we go.
I am kind of developing it as I go along.
It is really lovely to have an academic view
on this entire thing.
Thank you so much and thank you for being
a part of our Danish Community.
It has been lovely having you as part of it
and I enjoy so much seeing how good you have
being going right in there with all of us.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Thank you.
