Spring is finally here, and your children are probably eager to return to their outdoor activities. In the meantime, the NAC Orchestra has something in store this April that will ignite the sheer pleasure of movement, discovering the exciting world of body percussion, and the various associated musical styles.
Yes, the entire body is a musical instrument! Through this series of fun and energetic virtual workshops, from April 11 to May 9, your children will be introduced to flamenco, Irish dancing, beat boxing, and gumboot! You can choose to join a workshop, a series of workshops, a concert or a little of everything!
These five musical creation workshops are offered in a virtual format and will prepare audiences for the concerts Giggle and Stomp! (ages 4-6) and The Beginnings of Bing Bang (ages 7-12) on May 16.
Let me tell you more about these workshops!
The first workshop will have your children explore “Natural Pulses” by discovering parts of our body that make rhythm like a drum: the heart, the breath, the steps. With “Palmas / The Flamenco”, children will get to try out some hand clapping, called “palmas” in Spanish, which is used to accompany flamenco music and dance. Do you know what podorhythmia is? In this third workshop, the focus is on the art of “foot tapping” which accompanies the violin, accordion and singing in traditional French Canadian festivals. Then, children get to practise gumboot, a dance music created by the miners of South Africa. Finally, they will explore their voices, trying to imitate the sounds of the drums with their mouths for the last workshop called “Human Beat Box.”
How Does it Work?
The five virtual workshops are offered in French or English for the 4-6 age range or the 7-12 age range, are on Sunday mornings and are approximately 30 minutes. French workshops are at 9:30 a.m. (ages 4-6) and 12:30 (ages7-12), English workshops are at 10:30 a.m. (ages 4-6) and 11:30 (ages 7-12). Each interactive workshop will be led by a professional musician and will teach elements of the music your family will enjoy at the concert. The workshops are a combination of live host and pre-recorded performance. When families sign up, they will receive a unique link to access their event the day before their event. You only need access to the internet to join in the fun from any device: no downloads or webcams are needed. None of the audience members will be able to see each other for privacy reasons. If you miss a workshop in the series, you can easily catch up by watching the recorded session. Access to all the recorded sessions in this series expire (May 23, 2021), so your little ones can watch multiple times if they want!
For more information, please contact the NAC Box Office at subscription@nac-cna.ca or at 1-844-985-2787 (phone lines are answered Monday to Friday: 10a.m. to 5 p.m.).
The workshops and concerts are all sold separately.
