What ViM Means to Me
By Erica Phare-Bergh | Artistic Director | Voices in Motion
I’ve been blessed to experience many wonderful choral communities in my 34 years of directing choirs, but the choristers of Voices in Motion are family. What began as a research project at the University of Victoria in January 2018, has become so much more.
The ViM choir project initially interested me because of dementia in my family of origin. I selfishly wanted to know more about the role that music could play in prevention of dementia or slowing its progression.
That was January 2018. Since that time, I have been inspired by people’s resilience, willingness to show up each week and love on each other, and their deep sense of desperately wanting to care for and do what’s best for their loved one or friend as they watch them struggle with cognitive decline. These singers are real. They are authentic. They love. They also love to sing. When I hear their confident and full-hearted singing, I melt. It moves me.
These singers are no longer a research project to me (they stopped being that in February 2018), they are life-loving, overcoming, honest people who are family. Whether they are there because they have dementia, or because they are caregivers, or students or are friends of people with dementia, they are amazing human beings.
Voices in Motion has been transformative in my life and I’m so blessed.