Dunedin+North+Intermediate

=Artists in School Project 2009 = =//Songbong //= =Dunedin North Intermediate School = =Kate and David Grace (Songbong) =

//"What a fabulous week! Thanks for all your enthusiasm, ideas and knowledge. The children (and us) have been very privileged to be a part of this experience." Jennie// Dunedin North Intermediate Schools is Decile 7 with a roll of 254. Twenty students in years 7 and 8 were involved in the project. The history of Dunedin North Intermediate School has always been characterised by a focus on achievement and personal growth, together with strong co-curricular programmes. This focus continues today with an emphasis on excellence in teaching and learning in an environment where all are emotionally and physically safe.

Songbong offered twenty children the opportunity to make African drums, learn about traditional African song and dance, and prepare and perform African songs and dances during an electives week at the school in June 2009. The children performed the dances accompanied by drums to the school community, and to the wider Dunedin community.

David Grace started teaching music for djembes and dununs, carving drums in a traditional way, and formed Songbong. Even after years of playing and performing it, the power and complexity of this West African dance music has never ceased to move him. For Kate Grace, dance is an energy. She experiences the benefits of African dance month after month, year after year. Not only is it a relief after a week of work, but also it has initiated an unexpected personal growth. With their work in schools, David and Kate hope to: • Generate interest in percussion music as a music form in its own right; • Foster recognition of drums as musical instruments; • Remind the children that music and dance are the result of a cultural context; • Enhance their understanding of how music evolves through migration; and • Encourage active participation in music and dance.



For both David and Kate, seeing how positively the children were open to learning about other cultures and independently performing successfully with no help from teachers were the biggest rewards with being involved in this project. Children’s self esteem was boosted immensely by this creative experience.

Children learned about the traditional ways of making a drum, working with goatskins, marine rope and special macramé in order to tune it. They learned how to play African rhythms and refined their listening skills in call and response musical patterning. The dancers learnt African dance steps and talked about the importance of dance in African society. They made costumes and created choreography to communicate and express themselves, and an aspect of African culture. //"African dance is so much fun that when I'm dancing I feel like laughing. I love the feeling of freedom. I lose all my self consciousness and worries, my body takes over and follows the rhythms of the drums."// Clare - Dancer in Songbong dance class.

Stephanie Hobbs, teacher responsible for the arts at the school, valued the experience of working with Songbong. //“The children were well taught and well rehearsed so that they were able to perform faultlessly and independently of adult leadership within the presentation. Our school is grateful for this opportunity, and we would support others benefiting from such a venture in the future.”//

Having Songbong work with the children at the school supported learning that focuses on values and action. Having ownership of the project meant that the children met high expectations, they thought creatively and reflectively in order to communicate artistically, they acknowledged and celebrated diversity and learned respect for themselves and others. The notion of being ‘in learning’ in arts experiences rather than outside of and observing the learning is central in arts education. This consciousness facilitates the creation of meanings, which plays a role in determining the manner in which further participation in learning occurs. Participating in this project helped bring children’s senses, feelings, emotions and other physical experience to the fore - requiring that the learning of the body Embodied learning) be experienced.

media type="file" key="African 002.avi"media type="file" key="African 001.avi"