When Someone Believes in You!
In the dog days of summer, it’s easy to let the heat get you down, but the kids enrolled in Franklin Middle School’s Summer Programs are keeping the beat hot. Lundstrum Performing Arts has partnered with this North Minneapolis school to provide students with music and arts classes for two months. Our instructors meet bi-weekly with a group of twelve 3rd and 4th graders to have some fun and learn percussion, hip hop and dance fundamentals!
A rapid drumbeat can be heard rippling through the air outside the newly renovated auditorium at Franklin. Students sit in a loose half circle. Some hold a drum or tambourine, while others tap a pair of drumsticks against large buckets. They’ve gathered for a drum circle under the leadership of percussion instructor Shane Ellis.
Franklin students practice their drumming skills.
The drum circle starts with Shane pounding out a rhythm on his bucket, and the students responding on theirs. “We’ve explored the fundamental language of drumming, and its origins as a call and a response. The leader plays something and the group responds. ” Shane explains, “You call; You respond, so you have to listen.”
Beyond the basics, Shane is also teaching students specific rhythms. “I taught them a rhythm called the 3-2 Son Clave, an essential element in Afro-Cuban music.” The 3-2 Son Clave is three steady beats followed by two faster ones. After several weeks, the students are comfortable with the rhythm and able to play around. That’s where the real fun begins.
“It’s a storytelling instrument, so I’ll have them play stories about Marvel characters battling each other, or a puma hunting its prey. You try and take all the repetition, the rigor, the physicality and ultimately make it a story telling experience,” Shane explains. The students love being able to play their own stories for their classmates. “This is how I first learned drumming with my teachers Joe Avent and Jesse Buckner.”
Instructor Shane Ellis leads students in a jam session.
Shane continued, “The full body immersion is what I love the most in drum circles. There’s something about 15 people locking into one thing. It’s like chant at church, an activity where everyone’s unified in a common pursuit. It’s aural; it’s in the air. That experience when fifteen people are one, that’s what drew me to the drums. That’s what keeps me around, that feeling of being elevated.
“That’s what drew me to the drums. That’s what keeps me around, that feeling of being elevated.”
Patrick Moore is no stranger to the importance of dance and music in the life of children. Lundstrum Hip Hop instructor Patrick was 14 years old, when celebrated dancer Theo Jamison came to Patrick’s school. Jamison selected Patrick and 49 other students to receive full scholarships to The Katherine Dunham Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Patrick recalls, “Theo is one of the main reasons I stayed on track. He showed me how to be a real artist.”
The mentorship he received in his youth inspired Patrick to pursue dance as a career. He has had an illustrious journey performing in many Broadway tours, and choreographing his own Company (Somebody Said Dance). He now enjoys giving guidance to young dancers. As the students practice their hip hop routine, Mr. Patrick calls out reminders about the moves and encouragement. “It’s an easy thing to do when someone believes in you,” Mr. Patrick tells the students, “and I believe in you.”
“It’s an easy thing to do when someone believes in you, and I believe in you.”
Minika Warden is a former Lundstrum student, she has been assistant teaching for several years now. She loves working with kids and says, “They give me the energy I don’t have on most days. We’ve been throwing different combinations at them seeing what they pick up, if they connect with the music and so far, they’ve really connected!”
As the summer starts to draw to a close, our partnership with Franklin winds down, but the students aren’t finished yet. Several students plan to join us in the fall, and the rhythm goes on.
Students practice the dance they learned with assistant Minika Warden.
Join us this Fall
Hip Hop, Ballet, or Musical Theater –– embrace the music!