Integration of technique and imagination is an essential but rarely explicitly discussed topic in music education literature or in the performing arts classroom. Exploring how master teacher Phyllis Curtin puts the two together and how students describe their integrative experiences in her class, the author tackles the paradoxes and complexity of the connection between body and mind in performance. Leading the musical tone with the mind, staying close to feeling while working on technical aspects of articulation, using metaphor to translate mental image to physical action, and learning to trust the body helped students reach creative unity. While the nature of the connection between technique and imagination remains elusive and paradoxical, there are paths and principles that facilitate integrity in performance.