Articles About Project Philippines 2012

This is just a quick post about some of the articles and online posts about our trip, from certain fund-raising events through the trip itself. Please follow the links below.

http://thefilam.net/archives/6625
This is a great article summarizing the project and what we intended to accomplish on our trip. It also included some great pictures, including one from our Kickstarter video! The team agrees that we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish from this article.

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/45625/reaching-out-from-the-us-with-dance
This article was published shortly after the previous one, outlining more of our goals and summarizing the trip in a little more detail. Also includes some wonderful headshots of our dancers!

http://leytesamardaily.net/2012/06/welcome-to-eastern-visayas-juilliard-school-artists/
This article talks more about our trip to Catarman and mentions Erick Brocoy, one of our new friends who helped show us around Leyte (mentioned at the end of this post). Erick also introduced Midori and Brian to "balut", which they actually enjoyed! More on that in a later post... One correction to this post: Juilliard is not actually known as the "Harvard school for the arts." Maybe they meant, the "Harvard" of arts schools?

Erick Brocoy

http://philippines.ucanews.com/2012/06/08/juilliard-dances-to-boost-cultural-ties/
This link is similar to the last, but it's included for completeness sake.

http://xavierlobos.blogspot.com/2012/07/julliard-school-of-new-york-reaches-out.html
This is a really great post by another friend of ours, Xavier Lobos, who paints a really great picture of what we set out to accomplish, and why we were doing this project. Thanks, Xavier! (Same correction about the Harvard school of the arts.)

http://wencano.com/music/uplb-artists-exchanged-ideas-with-project-philippines-2012-volunteers/
This is another great post from a blog by one of the students we worked with at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, focusing more on what Brian and Midori taught the musicians. It does a really great job of explaining what we taught, and the whole concept behind the (Pa)Salubong. More on the (Pa)Salubong in a later post!

http://www.lawrence.com/news/2011/dec/29/musical-heirs-son-ku-sax-professor-performing-reci/
This is a wonderful article written about Brian Gnojek's musical family, including mention of the benefit recital he did with Midori Samson. The Gnojek family is truly a part of the musical community in Kansas, and thanks to Brian and Midori, they've expanded their influence to the Philippines as well!

Individual Expression and Empowerment

by Kendra Samson

My broad goal was to empower individuals and to feel empowered by the end of this trip, and it was a goal we absolutely accomplished. In Samar, I had an opportunity to assist in creative movement classes and teach a Limon class. The creative movement class is inspired from, and would progress from humane values such as exploration, trust and respect. It would play between investigating movements as a group, then with partners and finally into the individual. It was incredible to observe their experiences as they deviated from their comfort zone of being part of a group or having a partner to discovering creativity for themselves. It was a proud moment for me. In the Limon class, I intended to teach the sectioned exercises as part of one long phrase which I would teach in detail. With the technique being quite far from their usual doses of popular forms like hip hop, it took them a while to understand the philosophy of harmonizing breath, of embracing weight and of utilizing less muscular effort in movement, however it was precious to see when they eventually did. I treasured our experiences in Samar – even the random ones of judging for the pageants and talent shows!

In the city of Manila, I taught improvisation and the Taylor technique collaboratively with Chelsea. Since our students at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) had more training in art and dance, we challenged them more with exploring past the boundaries of technique and in discovering their core identities through the art of dance. They were still very self-conscious during our first classes and would hardly communicate any questions or thoughts. When they started seeing us more as their contemporaries, I found that they opened up more, however they were still generally reserved. Their dancing also became more uninhibited as our classes progressed, and as we also got to know them better, which made us so happy. Our teaching days would often begin with either a game, or a circle warm-up, followed by either a technique class or an improvisation class and the remaining time would be spent in rehearsing for our culminating performance ending with journal-writing.

While teaching at PHSA, we were invited to do a workshop for one day at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. Our experience at UPLB was one among many experiences that stood out for me since we were able to speak and relate with influential teachers and artists. 

 

Our culminating performances in both Samar and at PHSA were some of my most memorable experiences from this trip. It surprised me how the act of performing really brings out the most in a person in the truest moments of their lives. What other kind of experience can replicate this? I was particularly proud of our last-minute planning to make an improvisatory dance score with our PHSA dance students in collaboration with the music students. As a PHSA student, I never performed to live music or was challenged to improvise to a piece that was made within a day! It was so thrilling to offer them such an experience.

As a former student of both PHSA and CCP years ago, I really wanted to share the broadness and joys of moving and exploring identities that I learned during my experiences in New York. I wanted them to fall in love with dance and I hope that I was able to influence and encourage them because they in turn have made me feel inspired to re-discover my love for dance during this process. Their pure motivations for learning and in pursuing what either interests them or what they love, without complications of income or status – things that I find usually hinder a contemporary artist – are truly inspiring. Teaching such limitless young minds and bodies also taught me the potential and unique individuality of the self in creating something of beauty and good. Outreach programs such as this are truly relative acts of giving and receiving. I love our team and what we were able to make in 4 weeks. There were definitely challenges, but how it all unfolded was something beautiful and profound…Let’s keep on doing this!

Musician's Perspective: Week 2

by Brian Gnojek and Midori Samson

Week 2, Day 1 (June 11, 2012):
Teaching was a little difficult today at the Catarman SPED Center, because they were doing some kind of workshop at the main auditorium where we had taught last week. We were able to find an outdoor area to teach, and we taught a basic musical staff (only three lines), with each staff corresponding to a sound you could make with your body (clap, slap, stomp). By the end of the class, the students were reading basic music, and COMPOSING music by relating the high and low sounds to the cadence of words their teachers use: "Sit, down! Sit down!" "Pay attention, Pay attention," "Do you homework…" etc. We extremely impressed with the progress these students have made in essentially 3 days of class.

Day 2:
We spent today making musical instruments (shakers) out of plastic bottles, filled with sand, rice, and rocks, and decorated by them with colored pencils and pastels. One of our students wrote in her journal at the end of the day, "Today I learned that you can make a musical instrument out of anything!" :-)

Day 3:
Today we began planning for the end-of-the-week performance. Because the students do not have instruments besides their new shakers, we have decided we are going to sing and use our shakers and bodies to make the accompaniment. As it happened, at different points in the last week, we heard the SPED students singing "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye, and the CNHS students sang "12:51" by the Philippine group Krissy and Ericka, so those are the songs we decided to perform. After assigning who would sing solos/duets (just a few lines of music per person), we began with some breathing exercises and vocal warm-ups to get the kids going, as well as some call and response to work on singing on-key.


The day ended with a brownout, but we got to see how beautiful the night sky was when there was no light pollution from the city. The team spent some quality time out on the back porch doing what we do best: goofing around and making each other laugh.



Day 4:
Today was the day we really started to put the music together for the performance. We used what they had learned about rhythms to write out accompaniment figures for the shakers, and for those that didn't have their shakers, we just did clapping and stomping feet, which was an important part of the music!


Day 5:
Today was the dress rehearsal at our performance space, the Catarman Municipal Auditorium. We ran everything a few times and did our best to get the students to SING OUT! By the end of the day, we felt pretty confident that the performance would go (relatively) smoothly. We were treated to a wonderful dinner by Marissa, the principal of CNHS, whose birthday was July 15. We (Midori and Brian) have been enjoying the food here, and this dinner was no exception: fish dip, flan, pancit, chicken wings, and a big birthday cake! We also had some mango salsa made by one of the only other Americans in Northern Samar, Lauren, who we were introduced to by our friend and part-time guide, Brenfred Romero. It was a really fun gathering, and reminded me that one of the best parts of this trip so far (and would prove to continue through the end of the trip) was the amazing people we met. Everyone was so friendly and helpful and supportive. Our jobs would have been extremely difficult if not impossible were it not for them.

Day 6:
The big day! The morning rehearsal went well, though it was a little tough keeping the kids in line with so much going on. The performance went very smoothly, and the students performed fantastically. The performance space was a large outdoor space and the town theater in Catarman. The stage was beautifully decorated with props donated by the teachers of CNHS and SPED including flowers, balloons, posters that the students created with our visual art teacher, Tighe, and a huge banner with a photograph of the governor of Northern Samar. It said that he, along with the mayor of Catarman supported Project Philippines and was decorated with the 4 words we incorporated into our lessons throughout the workshop: expression, trust, individuality, and respect. The amount of effort that both schools put into the performance day really showed us how much it meant to them that we were there. This was also made clear when we reflected on how much our students had grown in the last 2 weeks. We remembered how much they struggled to speak up during "Shabuya" in our first class. But during the performance, each student showed no hesitation to sing their solos loud and move with the music. We were extremely proud. Midori and Brian were also able to each do a solo, and we played the Poulenc Sonata as well, which was new (and I think a little confusing) to our Philippine audience, but very well received. After the concert was over, the team was treated like rockstars. Almost every student wanted their picture taken with us, our autograph, a "remembrance", or at least a hug. It was very touching, and many of the students had made us remembrances of their own. We ended the day with a well-earned night out with Brenfred, and Julius and Ray, who had helped us the entire 2 weeks with transportation, meals, and anything else we needed. Unfortunately, Midori had caught a Philippines cold with a high fever and had to stay home to get some rest. We all had to turn in fairly early because our flight out the next morning was at 6:30am.

Day 7:
Just a quick note to finish our trip to Northern Samar. We woke up at around 4:30am, packed our stuff and drove to the airport. We got out of the car only to find that several of the students from the Catarman National High School were waiting there to see us off! In addition, they sent us with a large piece of paper, about 4'x4', covered with notes and pictures and letters to us. It was a wonderful, beautiful gesture, and it is something we'll never forget. We were able to see them on the other side of the fence until our plane began takeoff. What a wonderful way to end the first two weeks of our trip.

 

Musician's Perspective: Week 1

Sorry for the lateness of our blog posts! Internet in the areas where we were teaching was sparse at best. We have also been so busy it’s been hard to find time to breathe! This post is written by Brian and Midori about their first week of teaching.

Week 1, Day 1 (June 5, 2012):

Flying went very, very smoothly, both the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Manila. Who knew that the shortest path from Chicago to Hong Kong is through the North Pole? It’s always been my (Brian’s) dream to be met at a gate by someone with my name on a card, and it finally happened!

Day 2:

After 2 hours of sleep, we went back to the airport to fly to Northern Samar, our first stop on the trip. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise over the islands of the Philippines from the airplane, a real treat.

The airport at Catarman is the smallest I’ve ever been to, and some of the residents were on the runway to watch the airplanes land. The only gate area they had was made of lawn chairs and all that separated it from the security “checkpoint” (a guard who quickly looked through everyone’s bag) was a thin plexiglas wall. Very different from the US!

Runway side of the airport

Parking lot side of the airport

We got to the house, and it is gorgeous, right on the water. It’s hard to not feel guilty staying here when there is so much poverty surrounding us. It helped to remind ourselves of how much we’re going to help these kids. We were all very tired, so instead of teaching today day, we decided to go and just meet the kids. The kids at the Catarman SPED School were very polite and gracious, but there were a few more than we had planned on. We decided to split the 60+ kids into 2 groups to make teaching easier. These groups would alternate between music and dance classes during the next two weeks. The Catarman National High School was an experience: the students had prepared a whole dance sequence for us, and it was simply amazing. 

So much talent. Kendra, Leo and Chelsea are going to have a lot of fun teaching them! And we’ll have fun, too, because in my experience if you’re a good dancer, you have a pretty good musical foundation, too. After a great seafood dinner with Julius, one of our hosts (including what would become one of our favorite foods, pancit), we finally got a chance to sleep!

Day 3:

Today we taught an introduction game called "Shabuya", where you get in a circle, and everyone says their name and three things about themselves. The students were understandably shy at first, but we were able to get through the game with all groups at both schools. We also taught a game called "Zip, Zap, Zop" where you pass those three words around the circle and try to stay in rhythm (and say the right words!). We ended by playing part of the Beethoven Duet for clarinet and bassoon, and asked the students what they felt while we played. We emphasized that music (and all art!) is all about communicating a mood, idea, or story, and that you can change the way you play music according to how you want the listener to feel.

We ended this day with a performance at the Governor's Ball. In addition to the governor, the mayor of Catarman was there, and the contestants for the Miss Northern Samar 2012 pageant. It was a real treat, and great to eat freshly cooked pork carved off of a whole cooked pig! Midori and Brian performed a movement of the Poulenc duet for clarinet and bassoon, and a American folk-style piece that Brian arranged called "Till Dawn". Both were well-received.

Midori and Brian with Gov. Paul Daza

Day 4:

Today we visited the market to get supplies for the rest of our 2 weeks in Catarman. Grocery choices were limited, but we were able to get about 60 eggs for about $3, ingredients for chicken adobo, spaghetti, and some basics like bread and rice. The best part, though, was the fresh fruit: mangos, pineapple, and bananas! Like everything else at the market, the price of the fruit was unbeatable. We bought half a dozen mangoes for about $.60. Added to the fresh coconuts we were able to get near where we stayed, we were in produce heaven.

The music team continued teaching rhythms using the "Zip, Zap, Zop" game as a basis. The students grasped the concept of half, quarter, and eighth notes very quickly! We finished by playing an arrangement Brian did of Mark O'Connor's "Appalachia Waltz", another American folk-style tune reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring.” As we played we asked the students to draw a picture as if we were the soundtrack to a movie. They came up with some very interesting ideas, from remembering a pet who had died, to wind blowing through hanging laundry in the summer. I hope to be able to scan some of the drawings and send them to the composer!

Day 5 and 6:

Midori and I woke up early to see if we could catch the sunrise over the ocean. It was beautiful.

The rest of the weekend was spent traveling all the way down the island, across a bridge to Leyte, finally settling in Palompon. On Sunday we went to a beautiful island near Palompon called Kalanggaman before traveling all the way back.

 

It was a long, winding, hilly drive, but we really got to see what the countryside in Samar is like, and it is beautiful.