Sharing and speaking about African music : professional development with Swaziland primary school teachers

The teaching and learning of Indigenous African music is characterised as a holistic integrated experience where music, dance and theatre are inseparable, seen as an integral part of culture. The transmission of this experience is absorbed through participation in cultural activities from childhood in the community. In African societies, both traditional and contemporary, musical arts education and the understanding of culture are fundamental to life, community and society. It is through musical arts, that Africans embrace spiritual, emotional, material and intellectual aspects and knowledge of both the individual and the community. This paper reports on an in-service program (August 2006) offered at the Centre for Indigenous African Instrumental Music and Dance Practices (CIIMDA), Pretoria, South Africa. For the purpose of this paper, the one week professional development course undertaken by generalist primary school teachers from Swaziland is highlighted and proves worthy for these teachers to implement what they learnt in the classroom. As a position paper, I contend that the understanding and participation in indigenous cultural musical arts practices, enlightens learners about their cultural heritage and further enriches their understanding of African music and dance that can be adopted, adapted and applied to primary schools in Swaziland. This paper summaries some key findings of interview data from ten participants in relation to the intensive program. By offering such in-service professional development programs, teachers are able to reach their wider communities where they will continue to share and speak about African music, dance and culture.

Can social dancing prevent falls in older adults? a protocol of the Dance, Aging, Cognition,Economics (DAnCE) fall prevention randomised controlled trial

Background:  Falls are one of the most common health problems among older people and pose a major economic burden on health care systems. Exercise is an accepted stand-alone fall prevention strategy particularly if it is balance training or regular participation in Tai chi. Dance shares the ‘holistic’ approach of practices such as Tai chi. It is a complex sensorimotor rhythmic activity integrating multiple physical, cognitive and social elements. Small-scale randomised controlled trials have indicated that diverse dance styles can improve measures of balance and mobility in older people, but none of these studies has examined the effect of dance on falls or cognition. This study aims to determine whether participation in social dancing: i) reduces the number of falls; and ii) improves cognitive functions associated with fall risk in older people.

Methods/design: A single-blind, cluster randomised controlled trial of 12 months duration will be conducted. Approximately 450 participants will be recruited from 24 self-care retirement villages that house at least 60 residents each in Sydney, Australia. Village residents without cognitive impairment and obtain medical clearance will be eligible. After comprehensive baseline measurements including physiological and cognitive tests and self-completed questionnaires, villages will be randomised to intervention sites (ballroom or folk dance) or to a wait-listed control using a computer randomisation method that minimises imbalances between villages based on two baseline fall risk measures. Main outcome measures are falls, prospectively measured, and the Trail Making cognitive function test. Cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses will be performed.

Discussion: This study offers a novel approach to balance training for older people. As a community-based approach to fall prevention, dance offers older people an opportunity for greater social engagement, thereby making a major contribution to healthy ageing. Providing diversity in exercise programs targeting seniors recognises the heterogeneity of multicultural populations and may further increase the number of taking part in exercise.

Louise Lightfoot and Ibetombi Devi: the second Manipuri Dance Tour of Australia, 1957

Manipur, a small state in the North-Eastern India, is traditionally regarded in the Indian classics and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata as the home of gandharvas (the celestial dancers). Manipuri is one of the eleven dance styles of India that have incorporated various techniques mentioned in such ancient treatises as the Natya Shastra and Bharatarnava and has been placed by Sangeet Natak Akademi within ‘a common heritage’ of Indian classical dance forms (shastriya nritya): Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, Odissi, Sattriya, Chhau, Gaudiya Nritya, and Thang Ta. In the late-1950s Louise Lightfoot, the ‘Australian mother of Kathakali,’ visited Manipur to study and research different styles of Manipuri dance. There she met Ibetombi Devi, the daughter of a Manipuri Princess; she had started dancing at the age of four and by the age of twelve, she had become the only female dancer to perform the Meitei Pung Cholom on stage––a form of dance traditionally performed by Manipuri men accompanied by the beating of the pung (drum). In 1957, at the age of 20, Ibetombi became the first Manipuri female dancer to travel to Australia. This paper addresses Ibetombi Devi’s cross-cultural dance collaboration in Australia with her impresario, Louise Lightfoot, and the impression she and her co-dancer, Ananda Shivaram, made upon audiences.

Resuming the dialogue: rhizomic actualisations

Since 1996, we have organised conferences on the discourse of the arts. The conferences have, in turn, led to a journal entitled Double Dialogues, the first of which was in hard copy under the sole editorship of Ann McCulloch and has been distributed internationally. After innumerable obstacles, we decided to situate articles, essays, exhibitions, and the like, from both these conferences and contributions related to our themes from interested parties, on-line. This refereed electronic journal deals with the discourse and practice of the arts, ranging across the visual arts, film, multi-media, dance, music, creative writing and theatre. Our decision to do this is manifold, but one of the reasons has been determined by our wish to become part of a global debate. We recognise that our interests are ones that are being experienced within academic institutions and art-centres world-wide. Before exploring the central theme of this Issue, perhaps we ought to contextualise it in terms of a journey over the last six years and into the future.

Cafe urgency

The idea of Cafe urgency was to create a loose and social atmosphere in which performers, audience and everyone present explored the ideas of the evening together. What Urgency do we have in our lives? Which pressing ideas, compelling needs, burning desires fill a day? Which insistent thoughts, driving wishes, forceful longings span a lifetime? Our delectable menu of musings, meditations and magnificent imaginations will provide bite-sized morsels and overlapping slabs of creative sustenance to suit all tastes: song, sound, spoken word, dance, music, live art, installation.

What a wreck!

Re-enactment of the JC Scammell shipwreck at Point Danger in 1883 : Community Performance written and directed by Wendy Grose with choreography by Jacqui Dreessens and music led by Michele Barnes

Randai Hari Bela Negara

This was a traditional theatre form with an original script in Indonesian (as opposed to the local language of the region) that retold the events leading to the formation of the emergency government of Indonesian following Dutch aggression after Indonesia declared independence. The performance features an original script based on in-depth historical research, originally choreographed dance based on traditional styles, a play script for the actors, and original songs. The preparation of this script required extensive historical research, including interviews, as well as the conversion of traditional art genres into Indonesian for presentation in the modern context. This was the first time a randai, a traditional theatre form, has ben done in Indonesian and represents a significant innovation in the performing and literary arts. The performance involved dance, music, singing, written text, and acting, all of which were composed, directed, and overseen by the author.

Manifesto of a defeated poet

This feature-length experimental film is the result of an intimate collaboration between Bosnian filmmaker/poet/painter/musician/performace artist Saidin Salkic (On Karasevdah: Srebrenica Blues, 2007 & Konvent 2010) and veteran Australian experimental filmmaker and film educator John Cumming (Obsession, Recognition & Sabotage 1985-87, First time Tragedy Second Tome Farce, 1989, The Hollow Centre 1999). Created over a period of four years it draws on the traditions and possibilities of improvisation – in cinematography, experimental cinema, dance, music and performance – with moments of intensity and repose, fluidity and halting re-composure. Cumming’s camera and Salkic’s movement work in front of it are at once expressionistic and in dialectical tension as are Salkic’s poetry, his haunting improvisations on piano and melodica and Cumming’s industrial soundscapes. SYNOPSIS: In the midst of fascist-capitalist madness, the Foreigner (a poet/dancer with sun on his palms and blood from his dreams on his face) hovers in neon twilight with last whispers of sanity on his lips, guarding and protecting the world – forever. REVIEW: ‘Full of mystery and beauty, punctuated by strange eruptions of silent cinema, of Chaplin, of film history made personal … not the film of a dance but a dance itself around pure presence … something unique and precious.’ Maximilian Le Cain, http://lecain.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/a-few-reflections-on-manifesto-of.html

Dancing with inter-disciplinarity: strategies and practices in higher education dance drama and music

The rise of inter-disciplinarity has not occurred without debate and controversy. Often responding to government agendas, it is not uncommon for university research strategies to include inter-disciplinarity by default, by supporting multidisciplinary collaborations across the institution, nationally and internationally – industry and business being a particular focus. Beginning from the premise that Inter-disciplinary is where students/staff from more than one discipline learn with, from and about one another through a common activity, usually in the context of practice, this report documents the findings of a recent research project aimed to document ways in which inter-disciplinary approaches were active in universities, how they were resourced, what made them effective, and in what ways they are limited.

In the heat of the moment: audience real time response to live music and dance performance

Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience explores the processes and experiences of attending live music events from the initial decision to attend through to audience responses and memories of a performance after it has happened. The book brings together international researchers who consider the experience of being an audience member from a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives. Whether enjoying a drink at a jazz gig, tweeting at a pop concert or suppressing a cough at a classical recital, audience experience is affected by motivation, performance quality, social atmosphere and group and personal identity. Drawing on the implications of these experiences and attitudes, the authors consider the question of what makes an audience, and argue convincingly for the practical and academic value of that question.

Inspired by the past, driven by the passion: music in state-supported education in New South Wales and Victoria 1848-1920

This investigation considers the development of class music teaching in New South Wales and Victoria during the first seventy-two years of state-supported primary education. The first chapter describes the English background including music teaching methods (resulting from the mid-nineteenth century English choral singing movement) and the subsequent development of music teaching in English elementary schools. The promotion of school music is then considered on a broadly chronological basis in the two states and several themes are identified in relation to school music policy and practice. These include the status of music (core curriculum or extra-curricular subject), who should teach music (generalist or specialist teachers), what teaching methods and music notation should be used (staff or Tonic Sol-fa), musical training for generalist teachers, and curriculum content in relation to the aims and objectives of school music. Comparisons are made between developments in both states and between both states and English school music. The final chapter demonstrates the relevance of many of the historical themes identified for music education today. The thesis concludes by identifying a recurring problem from the past. namely the lack of co-ordination between various aspects of school music policy, as the most serious problem to be overcome in the future.

Cross cultural engagement: teaching African music to Australian students

This paper reports on research that examined the effectiveness of introducing rhythmic concepts through an unfamiliar musical genre to Australian generalist prim my teacher education students. The genre selected was African music, in particular action songs, dance and instrumental improvisation. The methodologies of Orff, Kodaly and Dalcroze were taught through the repertoire of African music in order to foster a closer relationship between pedagogical theory and practice and to teach rhythm through cross-cultural engagement. Through analyses of questionnaire and interview data, it was demonstrated that African music had a positive effect on students' conjidence as non-specialists music teachers and enhanced their skills in staff, sol-fa, hand notation and performance. Also students were not only highly motivated to engage with this new musical genre, but also gained an increased understanding of African culture. It is argued that African music was perceived by students not so much as a "novelty", but as a source of genuine motivation, interest and enjoyment. Its potential for extending student understanding of rhythm as well as taking a significant step towards internationalizing the curriculum for a cohort of predominantly Anglo-Celtic, pre-service teachers is also explored.

Exhausting dance : performance and the politics of movement, by Andre Lepecki

The article reviews the book "Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement," by Andre Lepecki.