The Dambe Project Music Residencies:

Who are we?
The Dambe Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that specializes in African performing arts education and mentorship. We utilize African arts to create spaces for youth to practice community solidarity, positive self-esteem and cultural diversity. Music from Guinea and Mali (West Africa), and Uganda (East Africa) provide activities that embody African history, culture, geography and greater world perspectives. The Dambe Project aims to cultivate social responsibility, personal integrity and guide youth through a learning process that is both physical and experiential. We address global and local concerns such as racism and self-esteem; and strive to promote cross-cultural understanding.

We do this through building positive mentor-student relationships through music, song, dance and visual art apprenticeships. Our programs are designed to bring professional artists in close contact with the local community. Presently we conduct in-school residencies, after school programs and community classes for youth and adults. We have tailored curricula for all age groups that address the needs and life skills of the specific stages of development. All programs and residencies culminate in a community performance that showcases student learning.

What do we do?

• Senior Year Rites of Passage Events/Ceremonies
• School Residencies
• Interactive Performances
  

School Residencies
This program explores the music of Guinea and Mali, West Africa and Uganda, East Africa. Dambe Project instructors visit the school twice weekly (during school hours is preferred) for the semester or the entire year. Students learn techniques in traditional drumming techniques and the cultural significance of music within the society. We use music to develop connections between self and the community and to cultivate attitudes that support renewing our cultural environments. We have tailored curricula for all age groups that address the needs and life skills of the specific stages of development. All residencies culminate in an school/community performance.

Our program functions in collaboration with the music and social studies curriculums by fostering a more integrated and culturally conscious understanding of the relationships between the music, culture and history. For example, students learn about the social significance and function of traditional African performing arts at agricultural events, initiation, weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies.

Benefits:
Our primary focus is to guide youth through a process of learning that is physical and experiential, rather than just intellectual. Through learning music of East and West Africa students become engaged on levels that encourage their cognitive, emotional and personal growth.

Our program intentionally teaches the life skills of integrity, responsibility, communication skills, cultural competence, peaceful conflict resolution, personal empowerment, self esteem and sense of purpose. Our program also teaches youth to develop creativity and self-expression through music. Students become skilled at active and attentive listening, a vital building block for personal and academic development.

Students cultivate academic and learning skills. Music is an excellent learning tool for developing patience, discipline, listening skills and group cooperation skills. The music embodies constructs of the culture from which it originates; in that, each group or instrument contributes to the whole. If any one group or instrument fails the entire group weakens. Playing these traditional African poly-rhythms requires unwavering focus and attention to both the part and the whole ensemble, thereby developing patience, discipline, listening skills and group participation. The process of learning the music provides students the opportunity to develop new ways of learning and thinking about the learning process. Students learn how to be in relationship to one another on subtle unspoken terms that cultivate new perspectives on relationships, cooperation and friendship.

The benefactors of this program are the students and the community of friends and family who attend the final performance. The final performance is always the place where the students ultimately understand what they have been doing in regards to self-esteem, relationships and the sense of community they have been building. Being on the stage and really producing something genuine and meaningful to the community is not always easy. There is fear, anxiety and sometimes panic inside. It is at the final performance that the students come to a place of inner peace and accomplishment. I particularly enjoy seeing their expressions at the realization that the community is supporting them with enthusiasm through hoots, hollers and clapping.


Background:
In every culture around the world, music and song plays an important role. They are often the fabric of the society in which all things surround. Youth are educated through learning songs passed down from generation to generation. Music and song embody a world perspective that is unique to each culture. Our youth are in great need of larger global perspectives on the world we live in and I have found in over 10 years of teaching in the schools that this program creates change in the students, change that leads to a better understanding of self, culture and a greater world perspective. In addition, music and song offers the students a unique opportunity to learn with a whole body experience. Our program is the only program in that utilizes African performing arts to foster connections between life skills, academic skills, cultural diversity and community development. The most unique aspect of my work with youth is the ability of music to lift our youth into a place of personal and academic empowerment. The program is an extension of our belief in the power of music to educate, build interpersonal skills, empower and heal people.

Call Martin Klabunde (520) 245-4547 or email
 

Interactive Drum and Dance Presentations

Our interactive rhythm and dance presentations will move and inspire you. We bring our drum and dance ensemble to your school or organization for a presentation that includes high energy demonstrations of music, song and dance from East and West Africa. Our presentations create an environment where the line between performer and observer is obscured. Audience participation includes rhythm games, dance instruction, and community singing.

Options :

Try combining a drum workshop with an interactive presentation. This combination provides the opportunity for a more in-depth “hands-on” experience.

This program is excellent for both youth and adults!