While teaching rhythms and drum ballet to children at Washington Academy Charter School this week, Ghana-born artist Zinse Agginie said the montage of rhythm and body movements taught the students confidence and interest in percussive music.
"Education is art for us and every time we can express ourselves, music adds to our own self-confidence and interest," the ArtSmart Artist in Residence said. He is one of two artists the program, coordinated by the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, brought to school districts this week to promote greater thinking and learning in the classroom.
"Very, very young kids, they learn sequencing, order and math," he said. "Bigger kids, it goes a lot toward character building in some ways. The relationship they have (with) you depends on the people in the group. That produces good group dynamics."
During the three days he was in Kimberly Walker's seventh and eighth grade class, Agginie demonstrated hands-on techniques with a squeezebox and a traditional African drum called the djenbe. First, he taught them the techniques of playing the instruments, then built upon those skills to create a montage of rhythms and sequence, which resulted in one of his specialties: drum ballet.
"The movements come together to create a complex and very interesting rhythm," Agginie said. "It's a very interesting presentation, lots of different rhythms. Like building blocks-also working with sequencing. Basically, it's a step by step approach to something that finally culminates in the performance piece."
Walker said her art students became fully invested in the artist's musical processes, with him beginning the first day by telling his history of being born and partially educated in Ghana.
"He gets to know them a bit before he starts working with them," she said. "He showed them rhythms and patterns of how to play the drums and how they're made. It was a really good learning experience because he actually walks them through and gives them background on what it means to play the drums. They get into it."
She added that the students went from thinking they couldn't master drum art on the first day, to having enough confidence to ask for an audience for their drum ballet on the final day.
"I feel like it was a very positive experience," she said. "It was a way for them to engage and use their brain in a different way than they do in the classroom every day."
Agginie said the students were really focused on learning how to make the rhythms, and while doing so, they were developing their personal creative potential.
"We want an atmosphere where students are learning and having fun learning," he said. "We want them to have a lot of fun doing it."