page
2 of 3
 |
World
Music in the Schools
India
|
Page 1
| 2 | 3 | Next
Opening Performance
 One
of the reasons that the children in both schools quickly accepted the
idea of learning sounds and movements hitherto unknown to any of them
was the fact that their initial session was a lecture demonstration
involving the musicians and a leading Odissi dancer, Aruna Mohanty.
Ms. Mohanty, who--like the musicians--appeared in full costume, happened
to be visiting in San Diego. She had had extensive experience in introducing
Odissi dance to children in England. Moreover, her balanced combination
of demonstration and performance and her selection of such things as
the movements of various animals (elephant, tiger) that would have an
immediate appeal to the children made this a very effective means of
enlightening the students about what they going to undertake. Sudakshina
and Yudhisthir performed attractive examples of the vocal music and
drumming and the three artists combined these with a short performance
of dance. Shalini was on stage to provide the necessary drone accompaniment
for this initial display of the richness of music and dance in India.
In one school, Dr. Brown had preceded the Mohanty lecture/demonstration
with a session in which he involved the students in imitating drum sounds
and counting some tala cycles in a related tradition of Indian
music, and he also showed short videotapes of the students from the
Museum School performing Balinese music and dance on local television,
clearly demonstrating a respectable level of mastery attained after
just two years of study under a program of maximum saturation. This
suggested to the students that they could indeed accomplish something
of a level high enough to be seen on television if they were diligent
in learning the new Indian performance traditions.
Indian Culture
 To
situate the Indian performance arts in a cultural context, Dr. Brown
provided twice weekly presentations suitable for children at the fourth
and fifth grade levels. These consisted of discussions about Indian
society, clothing family life, epic stories, and involved a number of
films on videotape, some of which were designed especially for children.
The artists talked about the saris or other items of clothing that they
were wearing, answered the children's questions about their family life
and provided a reality check on the material seen in the films. These
included such items as Ancient India, Families of India, Music of India,
and Splendor of Rajasthan. Due to overcrowded schedules it was not possible
to provide as many in-service training sessions for the regular teachers
(four in Freese school, two in Hawthorne) as would have been ideal,
but some classic movies like Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali and
Jalsaghar ("The Music Room") and a contemporary film
like Lagaan were purchased and may be shown and discussed as
the program progresses. A substantial selection of readings in Indian
culture was put together for the teachers to use as they had time to
do so and included the following sections: Indian Culture and Hindu
Tradition, Land and People, History of India, Indian Literature, Indian
Religion, Indian Philosophy, Indian Languages, Indian Science, and Indian
Arts. The concluding chapter consisted of five essays on Indian art
and culture by Ananda Coomaraswamy.
These resource materials, which were made available to all of the teachers,
will provide a basis for teacher training in any future development
of the Indian Music in the Schools program.
Assembly Programs
 The
design for all modules of World Music in the Schools provides for a
series of single assembly programs representing different areas of world
music. The seven programs offered in the spring of 2002 were made available
at half price to the participating schools with support from the Exemplary
Arts Program grant from the California Arts Council.. (See separate
listing of assembly programs.).
Both schools received the introductory program by Aruna Mohanty, and
the gamelan and dance of Bali became a part of the final event, in which
children from all three of the World Music in the Schools participating
institutions took part. Hawthorne School was unable to sponsor other
programs, but Freese School, through its special arts funding had sponsored
a Music of Japan program before the India program began, and was able
to present the Balinese shadow play, music of Finland, and music of
Iran in assembly programs, providing an excellent world music context
for the area of specialty in India performing arts.
Page
1 | 2 | 3
| Next
|