LEICESTER

MIM

A MIMA US EMBASSY LONDON PROGRAM REPORTJUNE 2012

ARTS ENVOY PROGRAM

MISSION YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

OPPORTUNITY MIMA partners with the US Embassy in London and the US Department of State Arts Envoy pro-gram to send 3 MIMA teachers to Leicester, UK to offer a 5-day songwriting program for under-served youth during their “Half-term,” or break.

RESULTSMIMA envoys produce an original song called “World Apart” with 16 students and perform it for parents and local school administrators. The BBC broadcasts an interview with students. Partici-pants use social media to interact daily.

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INTERVIEW BBC RADIO LEICESTER WITH ROSIE OLIVIER-HEGGSMIMA Student, Leicester, UK

www.soundcloud.com/mimamusic/bbc-interview

JIM DAVIS SHOW: “Rosie, tell us about your experience...” “It was really something new that [none] of us had ever done before. It was strange and it was great.

They put us into group tasks so we could become friends before we even thought about making music.

[Our song] has lots of contrast in it. There are three sections to our song and they all reflected different groups within a whole...Music is beautiful. You don’t need anything. You don’t need sheets. You can improvise and it can just be beautiful straight away.

[At the beginning] they made us do a survey and then we did the same survey on the last day and all of our scores had improved. They asked, “are you comfortable improvising a melody?” On the first day we said, “no no, we can’t do that?” On the last day we said, “yeah we did that all throughout the week, and it’s really great!”

The American guys were really great. I want to go and work with them when I’m older because it’s just amazing how they did it and how they built us up and how they improved our confidence. Our confidence was sky high by the end of it and I just want to give something back to them.”

OVERVIEW BY KAREN HUNTRESS Cultural Affairs Specialist PAS LONDON

What type of educational or cultural activity was this?Arts/Culture

Educational or Cultural Activity Format: Youth Engagement

Primary Theme(s)Strategic: Reaching New and Youth Audiences with American Culture

Why did you choose to sponsor this MIMA program?

“The reason we bring these programs out to communities like Leices-ter is so we have the opportunity to share American culture with people who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to American culture.

The great thing about using music as a tool to connect young people is that it is something that they all enjoy and it speaks to them. It allows them to express themselves in their own language and brings them to-gether. What I’ve really seen over this week is that students from more than a half dozen schools around Leicester who didn’t know each oth-er before the program are using music to come together, to start new relationships and to create something completely new from scratch.

I think my favorite moment in this program was during the improvisation session where the students were learning about rhythm. In these ses-sions the students have been standing around in a circle and they’ve been required to keep up a rhythm, and in going around in a circle they’ve also had to improvise on the spot a little piece of something. And watching students come out of their shells and share their own improvisation and seeing it work has really given each one of them a little bit of confidence as they move forward in this process; and to see that little burst of confidence as we go around the circle has been really inspiring.”

Following in the footsteps of the original jazz ambassadors Diz-zy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and David Brubeck, dozens of American musicians travel abroad each year on behalf of the US Department of State as “Arts Envoys”. Far from stadiums and amphitheaters with ador-ing fans, many Arts Envoys host workshops and residency programs for groups of at-risk youth who face violence, drug abuse and social exclu-sion.

Over the last 5 years, MIMA has partnered with the US Depart-ment of State in South America and Europe through joint programs ad-ministered by local embassy posts. We host songwriting workshops for teenagers and adults called “MIMA Weeks.” Our mission is to use mu-sic improvisation to engage and enrich communities.

In June 2012, Caleb Dance, Kevin Wenzel and I hosted a 1-week songwriting workshop for 16 underserved youth from over a half-dozen schools from Leicester, UK. With the help of Karen Huntress from PAS London, we arranged a performance on the last day to debut the origi-nal song they produced before an eager audience of parents, family and teachers.

This program reached out to the target audience of youth, pro-moting Mission Goal of Cultural Exchange by involving at-risk youth in healthy activities through the arts. The program’s 2-prong approach of working directly with children, but also producing daily social media was chosen to use music as a means of promoting self-esteem and creating a sense of community in the classroom and online. The project encour-aged musical creativity, risk taking, self-discovery and an appreciation for American culture, while also promoting a positive image of the US.

The unique approach of MIMA pro-grams is the use of improvisation as a teaching tool.

OUR MISSION By Christoph A. GeiselerM

IMA

Top row: Kevin and Caleb arrive at the Judgemeadow Community College; students warm up with “Shake out;” Kevin builds excitement for music-making; Middle row: Leena creates a rhythm during “Oh eh le le”; Caleb, Leena and Samson listen to student observations; Norton creates a rhythm for the song; Bottom row: Sophie and Elizabeth create a melody for “World Apart”; Sophie practices before recording her part; Himalay anchors the group on drums.

The MIMA Methodology is a four-step process designed to en-gage a group of students, lead them through a communal learning and creation process, and celebrate what they were able to accomplish to-gether. The four steps are inspire, transform, create, and celebrate.

In Leicester, we also utilized the MIMA Music Curriculum, which is a set of milestones and cornerstones of specific learning goals that is linked to the National Standards for the Arts. Our goal is to ensure that fundamental musical skills and knowledge are being taught, in addition to developing inter and intrapersonal skills throughout the week.

The unique approach of MIMA programs is the use of improvi-sation as a teaching tool. Throughout the week, we led the students through a series of ever more challenging exercises designed to gradu-ally acclimate them to improvisation and develop a new confidence in their creative ability. The implementation of our method lead to the final creation of the song, “World Apart.” During this process, students de-fined musical elements, reinterpreted traditional American folk songs, analyzed the role of music as a communication tool, and searched for universal human experiences that linked them together despite their diverse backgrounds.

According to a survey conducted at the beginning and end of the week, creative confidence increased 34% among the participants. In the end, the most memorable moment to me was seeing the entire group record the chorus of the song: “I would sacrifice my life a million times for you, and I don’t care what I have to go through.”

OUR METHODBy Kevin WenzelM

IMA

SOCIAL MEDIA 7 DAILY

1-MINUTE VIDEOS

ANTICIPATION mimamusic.org/videos/165Samson Dada express his excitement after watching MIMA’s music video from Bristol, UK, called “Talk of the Town.”

EDUCATION mimamusic.org/videos/164MIMA lets student Rosie Olivier-Heggs jump into a “teacher’s” mindset, which reinforces musical skills acquired during class.

OBSERVATION mimamusic.org/videos/162Karen Huntress observes the magical pro-cess that takes place during a MIMA class when students improvise in a circle.

RECORDING mimamusic.org/videos/161MIMA gives students like Leena Pala the opportunity to record in a professional studio setting.

POTENTIAL mimamusic.org/videos/160The MIMA Method unlocks the creative po-tential of students of all ages.

PERFORMANCE mimamusic.org/videos/195The recording process reinforces the role that each individual part plays in the final group composition and performance.

REFLECTION mimamusic.org/videos/194Each program provides the envoys with a new set of challenges and rewards.

As cultural envoys, we understand that we are de facto represen-tatives of U.S. culture—an awe-inspiring responsibility to say the least. When we conducted a survey at the beginning of the program in Leic-ester, we asked the students what first came to mind when they heard the words “American culture.” Each student answered differently, and yet, with 16 participants in the survey, the answers hardly scratched the surface of “American culture.” On the flip side, we understood that with 16 participants, we were assured of many different perspectives on British culture. Though we have the title of envoys, we understand that cultural exchange is not unidirectional. We are messengers for a facet of our own culture, and we are sponges for the culture(s) of oth-ers. We work to create an enriching educational experience in each program, just as we aim to learn ideas (musical and otherwise) from participants so that we can broaden and strengthen our educational repertoire.

A collective songwriting experience is an ideal venue for cul-tural exchange, and our MIMA week in Leicester is evidence of this. The students learned about one another, they learned about us, we learned about them, about different social, religious, and education-al backgrounds. And everyone learned about music and its power to bridge cultures. More accurately, we witnessed the creation of a cul-ture through the growth of a community. In five days, 16 individual students first became a group of musicians and then became a band. They wrote music and lyrics as a group, and they recorded and per-formed an original composition for friends and family.

Culture and community are not products. They are processes. Many students fell in love with music. Others realized a passion for songwriting. Still others developed greater self-confidence and made new friends. Such a young and dynamic community is more valuable than any single recording or video. Though the song these 16 mu-sicians wrote is impressive in its own right, the music they recorded is more valuable when recognized as part of an experience. Making music with individuals from different schools, different socioeconomic backgrounds, even different countries—this experience of individual development, of cultural exchange, and of community creation will be with all of us, students and teachers alike, long after we forget the chord progression or lyrics to the song.

The unique approach of MIMA pro-grams is the use of improvisation as a teaching tool.

OUR MUSICBy Caleb DanceM

IMA

© Creative Copyright 2012.

WORLD APART ORIGINAL MIMA SONG

Why did you leave?I’m down on my knees.Another chance please.

What about me?

We were a world apart,But it was worth the while.

Yet the more we share a heartI love to see you smile.

We went through troublesAnd yes, there were many.

We’re different but the same,Like two sides of a penny.

I would sacrifice my lifeA million times for you.

And I don’t care what I have to go through.It wouldn’t hurt to try again,Won’t you take a chance?

If music be the song of love,Join me for a dance.

We were best friends togetherLike two verses in a song.

We wrote a bridge to last forever,But the rhythm has gone wrong.

We were two songbirds,Humming in a tree.

Now that the season’s changedWe have a broken melody.

I would sacrifice my lifeA million times for you.

And I don’t care what I have to go through.It wouldn’t hurt to try again,Won’t you take a chance?

If music be the song of love,Join me for a dance.

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