While the rest of the city was inundated with clearing roads and shoveling sidewalks, Marlborough High students went on a journey to the African country of Mali, where music supersedes all troubles. Returning to school after two snow days, MHS art, music and gym students spent Feb. 12 and 13 learning how to drum and dance during a residency program called “African Arts in Education” provided by Crocodile River Music, a professional African drumming group in partnership with the Gallery of African Art in Clinton, MA. Instead of attending their regularly scheduled art, music or gym classes, participating students took drumming or dancing classes with Crocodile River members Zach Combs and Issa Coulibaly, a Master Drummer who hails from Mali, Africa. Drumming classes took place on Thursday in the auditorium, where groups of 30 students sat in a circle of chairs onstage and learn how to play one of three instruments: a dundun, kashishi or djembe. Issa and Zach went over basic techniques for each instrument, then began to work with the students on Malian rhythms, gradually increasing their speed and complexity. At the end of each drumming class, students watched a video showing how African peoples incorporate music and rhythm into their everyday lives, and how a djembe is made. Students exiting the class could be heard tapping and speaking the various rhythms they learned throughout the rest of the school day.
The dancing classes took place on Friday in the MHS Field House. These classes were much larger, consisting of over 100 students and teachers apiece. Issa led the charge during these classes, while Zach and the other members of Crocodile River served as accompanists. Issa took the same approach he took in the drumming classes in teaching the students a traditional harvest dance from his homeland: he warmed the students up, then taught the movements one at a time. After he showed the students a sequence of step in, he would have them repeat that one sequence for minutes on end. The students learned five unique sequences by the end of the dance class and did the whole routine multiple times, the musicians gradually increasing their speed to Issa’s liking. The students who participated in the dance workshops were invited down to the floor to dance during a school-wide concert at the end of the day. Crocodile River played not only the traditional Malian harvest song at the concert, but played a set of pieces entitled “Trinidad to Timbuktu”. Each song in the series was from a different part of the globe, and the performers took turns explaining the importance of the pieces to their respective places of origin. Many of the pieces are still played in their respective cultures today. Students clapped along with the familiar rhythms, cheering especially when the group played the Samba, Brazil’s national dance. For more information on Crocodile River Music, visit the “African Arts in Education” website at http://africanartsineducation.org/. By: Jennie O’Leary -Staff Writer Comments are closed.
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June 2019
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