Interesting, I'm not sure if my thinking has changed as a result of it - I'll let it simmer for a while, but today I had a wonderful experience. I've been making appointments to meet with some choreographers this week to talk about their experiences with music and whatnot. Today I watched a late-stage rehearsal for a collaborative piece with a live musician and dancers. It was great and enlightening in several ways.

1) I was excited to see the collaborative process at work.
The music was not classical art music, so it wasn't terribly anal about form - timing and many elements seemed to be very free to change based on the practicality. This is something that I have often used in my music, but I'm weary of going too far within the realm of my thesis.
Because choreography doesn't have a set written language, it was very open to change as well - almost improvised in some senses, within established guidelines.
The give and take nature of how they were working was exactly what got me interested in collaboration in the first place.

b) First off, I love the choreographer's movement style! I remember loving it when I played for some of her classes a year or two back - things haven't changed.
Secondly, they did a run of the piece at the end of the rehearsal. It was spectacular. I was amazed with the structure and form of the piece as it revealed itself. It was the wonderful kind of unwinding of a structural ball, where the key elements of characters was presented at the outset and they were elaborated upon throughout and especially in each character's solo.
It was completely moving. On the whole, it provided a strong sense of delight - it literally made me feel warm and happy inside. Throughout, it took me on a journey to a place of discomfort, which made the return of the delight that much more heartwarming. If it were the performance and dark, I would have let tears flow, but they were welling up nonetheless.
I can't remember the last time I was moved that much by an artistic creation, and it reminds me that I don't really think of any one art form as complete. My love of collaboration comes from these experiences, where you can see how one mode of expression enlivens and enriches another.

Long Story Short - I had a good day!
I'm definitely glad I've been persistent in getting these meetings to happen.