Second Monday Music

A performing-arts intensive at the American International School of Utah

By Christa Saeger

One of the things I do besides direct orchestras in the Department of Performing Arts at the American International School of Utah, in Murray, Utah, is to help out with performing arts “intensives” for its students each trimester.
    The school year cycles on a trimester basis, but in-between each trimester, every student is invited to choose one of 20-25 two-week intensive programs where the student focuses intensely on one subject area, all day. These classes were designed from scratch by the AISU faculty and have included topics such as “No Sheep Left Behind,” a study of the fiber arts, including a trip to Coalville, Utah to sheer sheep, “The Chemistry of Cooking,” and “Lego Robotics,” just to name three intensives in subject areas outside the performing arts.
    The use of these intensives is one of the several ways that AISU differs from a typical school. AISU’s mission is to

personalize, accelerate, and enrich learning using a technology-facilitated, student-centered, blended learning model within a flexible, creative, and inspiring school environment that encourages students to be personally invested and globally engaged.

    The department of performing arts is grounded in the idea that quality art educates and quality education is an art. This past Friday was the final day of its intensive, “Ethno Explorations: A world tour through music and movement,” a course designed in collaboration between faculty members in instrumental music (me) and dance, and featuring a number of guest speakers and performers. Let me tell you about the students’ explorations!

China. The celebration of the Chinese New Year included presentations by our International students, learning traditional Chinese New Year songs, watching a Chinese Lion Dance, participating in a Kung Fu workshop, and playing Chinese games.

    Petting the lion signifies “Good luck for the New Year!” But don’t touch the horn at the top of its head, which represents the connection between the Earth and the Gods. At one point in the performance, the Buddha gives the lion a head of lettuce to eat, after which the lion promptly spits out the lettuce chunks at members of the audience. Don’t worry – it’s good luck to be hit with lettuce. According to their journal entries, our students liked the fact that both teachers were pelted with lettuce.

India. We learned about our dance teacher’s time creating a dance therapy program at a leper colony in India. Not a single student knew what leprosy was! For more information about the program, watch this video [8:51]:

Namaste

Bollywood dance class

The Middle East. The next day, we went on a field trip to attend a concert by world music specialist Todd Green. This man owns well over 100 instruments from around the world and brought over 40 to share with us. More information.
    Then we heard a guest lecture by our social studies teacher about the current conflicts in the Middle East after which we watched a documentary on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, headed by Maestro Daniel Barenboim. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a youth orchestra based in Seville, Spain, consisting of musicians of Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian. and Spanish backgrounds. Next we talked about the Dancing Classrooms program in Jaffa, which has been made into a movie (comes highly recommended). Watch the trailer [3:56]:

West Africa. We partnered with the Africa Heartwood Project to learn about raising money to build wells to bring clean water to villages in Liberia, and participated in a group West African drumming class with Andy Jones, founder of the Project. For more information.

Creating our “Change the World jars”

    We were lucky enough to spend another day learning about the music and dance of West Africa. We participated in an all-day dance workshop by Rosy and Kaz, who had every student on their feet, shouting “Yeah, yeah” at the top of their lungs.

Eastern Europe. We had a great day learning about Baba Marta Day and learning how to create Bulgarian Martenitsa to give to our friends. Martenitsi are worn from March 1st until the wearer first sees a stork, swallow, or budding tree (or until late March). The name of the holiday means "Grandma March" in Bulgarian, and the holiday and the wearing of Martenitsi are a Bulgarian tradition related to welcoming the spring. Thanks to our AISU faculty expert Geoffrey Dean, we were able to spend the entire morning learning about different rhythms associated with Eastern European music. We left out Baba Marta’s ties to ancient pagan history – they can look that up when they’re older….

Martenitsi on a tree

    That evening, we hosted a performance by Salt Lake City’s own Živio Ethnic Arts Ensemble, a semi-professional performing group specializing in folk dance and music from the Balkan region. Živio can be translated to mean “Here’s to life” and is a traditional toast of the Balkans. The students and their families had a wonderful time. and much to everyone’s surprise, every single member of the audience, young and old, participated in the group dance lessons. For more information.

Native America. We were very excited to host an all-day Native American music and dance workshop by Nino Reyes, a member of the Ute Indian Tribe of Northeastern Utah. The morning was spent learning about the history, culture, and traditional dances of the Ute tribe.

    In the afternoon, we all received a Native American flute lesson and were each given a handcrafted flute to bring home!

Our intensive concluded with each student creating an “Arts as a means of social change” project and presentation. Each student was to research an arts organization from around the world designed to help or raise awareness of a particular cause. Projects included Musicians Without Borders programs in Rwanda and Tanzania, Bindu Art in India, Music Bridge and Art Therapy in Ireland, Mitrovica Rock School in Kosovo, From Women to Women in Bosnia, and El Sistema in Venezuela.

    I could not be more proud of what my students have accomplished in the past two weeks. They have traveled the world through music and movement, and I hope they take away the power of the arts to bring people together, to foster communication and break down barriers. I hope they realize that even in the darkest of times, the arts can turn on a much needed light.

Copyright © 2015 by Christa Saeger Christa Saeger is a chamber and orchestral cellist, recitalist, conductor, and educator. She has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota.