By V A Vidya | Project Leader and Managing Trustee
Dear Friends of AJ Trust!
Apologies for the delay in sending this project report. AJ Trust is doing very well in the areas of curriculum development, curriculum instruction and conducting model classes for the Transformative Art Education project as well as the STEM for homeless children in Madurai.
Festival Camp : 27.09.2019 to 02.10.2019
AJ Trust has been focusing on themes and curriculum related to environment. This involves teaching the children about creative, inclusive and sensitive approaches to handle the environmental challenges. We have worked on the concepts of Rain, Water, and Forest. This time around, it was the wind. “Kaatru”
During this festival camp our dancers experimented and produced two theatrical dance pieces set to Waltz No.2, Shostakovich by Hauser and Vivaldi-Gloria:1
They enjoyed interpreting the western classical pieces, and adapting it to an Indian theater and dance art form.
Their theme was 'wind'. The campers learned a poem by the Indian poet, Subrahmania Bharatiyar.
Sit back and watch the performance.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004409535162&ref=brem
This was a special camp. We celebrated the power of wind. The children learnt a verse from the national poet, Bharathiyar:
The poem translates as:
'All that are alive are the children of the
Wind,' says the Veda.
Life is Wind.
The live matter is the Wind's doing;
Mother Earth thrives.
Her breath is the Wind. On Earth, Wind is life.
Wind makes stirs and tempest over water;
Electrifies the sky;
The Wind turns water into fire and fire into water;
He, turns water into particles and particles into water;
The Wind shall decide the end of the Universe.
He protects.
Let him protect us.
The children set their production to two western classical pieces; Waltz No.2, Shostakovich by Hauser and Vivaldi-
Gloria:1
The children created the story/script for the mime, and their teachers choreographed the moves.
8.10.2019 Commenced the new sessions of advanced classes from Vijayadasami day:
Vijayadasami is a very special holiday, celebrated at end of the nine days celebration for the goddesses of power and quality. The name means “tenth day of victory” It is considered auspicious to begin all new learning programs, particularly arts and science. We started the advanced classes for the students who have completed and graduated the four year DDM Course. New students also enrolled.
Wednesday classes : Stem and Choreography :
Recently, we have included intensive practice session for dance, and a session for STEM.
In the dance session, the children take a poem or a song and try abinaya – meaningful mime, to narrate a story, message or a concept. The music and percussion pieces are chosen by Dr.Vidya and the teachers from SSSV and these are sung live or specially recorded for the children’s performance.
In the STEM session the children write a quiz about the everyday science, technology, math, and history and discuss the answers. We cover some basic language and grammar class as well.
Designing a 30 hour comprehensive performing arts program for children and youth:
Ms.Nivetha Mohan, in conjunction with Dr.Vidya, has designed a 30 hour comprehensive Bharathanatyam introductory course. This has all the essential components of the dance form – Abhinaya – mime and gestures for narration; Nritha- simple to complex rhythm structure; Bhava- expressions, sensitive portrayal of the story or concepts, and body language and postures; The songs selected are classical, secular pieces, besides the traditional invocation songs for Ganesha, Saraswati and Nataraja.
DDM course progress :
The dance, drawing and multimedia course will commence once we improve our finances. It is likely to commence from January 15, 2020. In the meantime, new students have been enrolled into the course and they are taking the dance and STEM classes. We have utilized this time to review the curriculum, teacher/participant performance, and resource management. We have also trained the peer educators, approached retired and emeritus professors to help with the curriculum review.
Given the delays fund disbursements, payment towards the students’ stipend and travel stipend are pending. We are working closely with GlobalGiving, to implement an effective alternative disbursement method and very soon it will be resolved. Thanks for the cooperation and patience.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
