The Daksha Sheth Dance Company Residency Week consisted of various workshops for Primary School Pupils and for Youth Dancers from the MAC.

This blog will focus on the workshops which took place in Primary Schools, across the Midlands between the 9th-12th October 2017.

Schools include:

• St John’s C of E Primary School, Birmingham
• Caslon Primary School, Halesowen
• Russells Hall Primary School, Dudley
• Alderman Richard Allen Primary School, Leicester

This workshop was led by Devissaro and Tao Issaro and lasted from one to one and a half hours. The object of the workshop was to introduce students to elements of Indian music, culminating in teaching them a short song with vocal rhythmic accompaniment.

In Indian music, the voice is supreme, and irrespective of whether a person wishes to train in vocal music or in any Indian instrument, the basic principle is that all Indian music first begins with the voice. The voice is therefore the ideal entry into Indian music.

The workshop will cover the following sections:

THEORY: A brief introduction to Indian classical music and its similarities and differences to western music.

MELODIC: The workshop included traditional Indian vocal exercises aimed at developing pitch literacy and fluency.

RHYTHMIC: Tao Issaro, will begin by demonstrating and teaching the basic talas (rhythmic cycles) of Indian music. He will then give exercises that develop the capacity to improvise rhythmically in talam, using both body rhythm and Konnokol, the Indian tradition of vocalised rhythm.

The workshop finished with participants being taught one original song, which incorporated various practices they learnt throughout the workshop.