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World
Music in the Schools
India
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[Please click on
photos for project album.]
Introduction
In January 2002, and with welcome assistance from the Exemplary Arts
Program of the California Arts Council,
the Center launched the second module of its World Music in the Schools
program, focussed on the performing arts of India.
Unlike the first module, which began in the year 2000 with Balinese
music and dance in a single school (the Museum School in downtown San
Diego), the India program has taken place in two schools. Hawthorne
Elementary, in the Clairemont Mesa area of north San Diego, and Freese
Elementary, in the southeast, were chosen because of their expressed
interest and potential support for the new experimental program. The
two schools had rather different student bodies, Hawthorne being predominantly
Caucasian in a relatively affluent area of San Diego, and Freese representing
a mix of African-American, East Asian, Chicano and Caucasian children.
The Freese children had experienced a notable introduction to world
performing arts through a special program already in place and under
the guidance of Mary Pat Hutt, our principal liaison at the school.
This program provided a larger world context with its assembly programs,
artist teachers, and wide scope of presentations.
Artists
 The
availability of three artists able to represent the melodic side (raga),
and the rhythmic side (tala) of Indian classical music, as well
as the classical dance, led to the selection of the particular artistic
areas: North Indian (Hindustani) singing, Odissi dance from the northeastern
state of Orissa, and its accompanying Odissi drumming, performed on
a unique instrument, the mardal, became the three styles taught
to the children.
Sudakshina Alagia, a disciple of renowned singer Lakshmi Shankar,
and a concert artist and teacher in her own right, faced the instruction
of more than 160 American fourth and fifth graders with more than a
little apprehension. How could one hope to introduce the demanding intricacies
of a music that requires lifelong dedication and constant practice from
its leading exponents to a group of lively
American kids? Their cultural background does not instill the unquestioning
respect for the guru (spiritual teacher) or the frequent models of unwavering
concentration that are part and parcel of everyday life in India.
This is the challenge that lies at the heart of the introduction of
Indian classical performing arts into an American elementary school
culture and it was the main topic of discussion among the presenters
as the program developed. Traditional Indian teaching methodology began
to be stretched and modified to fit a totally new situation as the teachers
started to interact with the children on a twice a week basis.
 The
results were interesting. Sudakshina found it difficult to get the students
to match the basic tonic and fifth pitches of the drone instrument (sa
and pa). When she decided to start introducing two, then three,
four, and finally all five pitches of Malkouns, a favorite raga,
or mode, of North Indian music, the pitch sensitivity noticeably improved,
and the children surprised her by picking up the idea of phrase manipulation
by ascertaining very quickly how a pattern was unfolding, and by making
up intricate patterns of their own. As in so many aspects of Indian
music, this was also an exercise in developing mathematical and logical
concepts.
Yudhisthir Nayak, as a traditional dance teacher and drummer,
and trained as a gopipua in Orissa, felt comfortable sticking
to the traditional sequence of drum instruction in India, starting with
two basic drum strokes, and only when everyone had mastered those did
he proceed to the next stage. He was limited by having just eight instruments,
so in one school only one-third of the students could play at a time.
 At
first the rest of the group was restless and distracted, but as time
went on, and with a few suggestions from Dr. Robert Brown, the students
who did not have instruments began to practice the alternation of strokes
by slapping their thighs and repeating the spoken syllables that represent
the drum sounds. By the end of the semester this was an established
routine and the children had learned something about concentration and
group involvement in the process.
Shalini Patnaik, whose youth and warmth, not to mention her
expertise in Odissi dance (which she has been performing from an early
age) appealed greatly to the children. She faced the problem of getting
large groups of both girls and boys to, first of all, get over the shock
of learning to dance in their bare feet, and then to control the movement
of all parts of the body-arms, hands, fingers, legs, torso, hips, and
head. The children, boys and girls alike, soon began to enjoy the dance
sessions.
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