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Grants  art$TART 2007-08 Funded Partnerships art$TART 2007-08 Danforth Sound of Drums
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| Danforth Middle School - "The Sound of the Drums"
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The big idea of this project is to give kids a greater understanding of different cultural backgrounds through learning and experiencing their music. The questions that guided the work in the partnership were:
“What specific and technical skills are required for the students to achieve mastery on the djembe and the dun-dun in order to perform?”
“What cultural connections can we make between the students' culture (African-American) and Biboti’s heritage from West Africa?”
Biboti worked with two different groups of students at Danforth: a group of 6th-grade general music students who had never played the drums before, and an advanced group of students in mixed grades called DRUM at Danforth. He worked with the 6th graders for one hour per week and the advanced group for 90 minutes per week from January through early June. The students involved in this partnership learned to love drumming and learned about different cultures from West Africa.
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In February, the students in DRUM at Danforth travelled to Fayetteville-Manlius High School to perform during their Black History Month Celebration. The FM Step Team then came to Danforth to perform. Both groups attended classes at each school. This added another dimension to the sharing of cultural ideas. Throughout the year, the students in DRUM at Danforth performed at FM High School, Ithaca College School of Music, Fowler High School, Webster Elementary School, All-City Chorus, Cazenovia Middle School, and Danforth Middle School.
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| On June 6, 2008, there was an African Drumming Celebration featuring Biboti Ouikahilo, DRUM at Danforth, and the 6th grade students who had studied with Biboti for the semester, including eight African drumming pieces, African songs, and both African and Hip-Hop dances. The students (twenty-eight in all) were all dressed in African costumes and entered the packed auditorium singing an African song. The celebration was a great success. The students reflections almost unanimously indicated that this was the best part of their experience in music. They were so excited to be able to share what they had learned with the whole school community. |
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"I will continue to teach African drumming as a part of my curriculum in both the general music classes and DRUM at Danforth. I would like to bring Biboti Ouikahilo back to Danforth to continue learning with him, because I think it really benefits the students to learn African drumming from someone who is actually from Africa. Biboti is a professional, performing musician and he expects professional, performing behaviors from the students he is teaching. That was a significant challenge during this partnership. With the pressure of performance, Biboti focused less on the cultural understandings and more on the mastery of specific skills, which I hope to change next time." -- Carin Reeve-Larham, music teacher
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Partners for Arts Education inspires learning and leadership for arts in education in Central New York and throughout
New York State. We provide funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the art
for students, teachers and artists.
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Partners for Arts Education 501 West Fayette Street Studio 221 Syracuse NY 13204 315 234 9911 Fax 315 234 9912
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