Lisa Higbee

Friends! You've been asking me where you can see music and sign language together. Thank you! I feel like singing and signing go together like peanut butter and chocolate :) In fact, they're almost the same word except for having two letters transposed. So yes, I will tell you where to go for your next singing and signing adventure... it will be at Arise and Shine Forth, an event for and by women in November. It was conceived by our amazing stake Relief Society Presidency including Jan McKinnon, Maria Pedroza, and Kathleen Wolf... Stay tuned!! Lisa

One of the first things I did after moving to New York was go to dance class. I almost didn't go. I almost left the studio the very first time I went there, too frightened to try dance class in New York as an adult... After all, it had been years since I'd taken dance classes regularly. I had a very little ballet when I was a small girl, a very little tap. Later, when I was an adult out in the working world, I took my first jazz class. With my sister Elena cheering me on, I even performed a jazz routine with a group of very classy ladies. And I found that I loved dance. I loved the way it helped my body feel streamlined and powerful. I loved how I could express myself through moving with a song. I loved how dancing just made me feel healthier. Every time I come to class now, I feel uncertainty... will I be able to handle what they throw at me? Will I remember every step? Will I make it to the end of class? What happens when they put me in a small group? I'll

People have been asking me this lately, so... One place is this blog!! It has links to videos and recordings that should give you some awesome singing moments :) Another place is... 144 W 15th Street in Manhattan on Sundays in a church service starting at around 1:15 pm on the 4th floor!! I sing there almost every Sunday in a free and beautiful service that is primarily conducted in American Sign Language (ASL) so as to be accessible to an ASL crowd, but it also has some great aurally audible musical moments thanks to my friends Jami and Richard Gordon-Smith, my parents Tom and Diane Higbee, lots of LDS full-time missionaries, and more!!!!! It's a beautiful and inspiring service, and I love singing there :) See you in church!! Lisa

Even as I write this, I’m singing. My mother said that when I awoke from sleeping as a baby, she would find me singing softly to myself. My sister Elena would cry and want to be stroked and soothed, but I awoke singing and kept myself comforted through my baby songs. I was a speech pathologist in Utah when American Idol went on the air. My students constantly told me I ought to audition. Alas, I was already chronologically too old to audition—past the age slated for the super-young feel of the show and its contestants, but I watched and wondered and cheered my young friends on to glory. The Voice… should I audition? I see the audition date. It’s in Southern California, where my parents live. It’s in summer, when I won’t need to be working with my students in Washington Heights here in New York. New York, ‘singer central,’ as my friend Laura calls it. I’m now in New York, where my love of singing has led me after years of adoring Broadway music and fascination with places like Lin