Song of success

Meet The Song Room, a group which brings performance arts, laughter, learning and opportunity to students who might otherwise miss out. Rebecka Delforce reports on the power of music to transform.

You can see why the children get drawn in. The atmosphere at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts’ (NIDA) theatre in Kensington, New South Wales, is electric. The school-uniformed audience wriggle and squirm in their seats, and guffaw at the antics of the five colourful performers on stage. In unison, they scream answers to the entertainers’ questions, squeal when the theatre lights dim, and clap to the beat booming from the baby grand on stage.

Welcome to theatre – and to the audience’s first live theatre performance. Clearly, the primary schoolers adore it, but so they should… the show has been specifically designed to enrapture them, to hook them on the performing arts. It’s all part of a grand plan, from which, say the planners, the kids will benefit greatly.

The plan belongs to The Song Room, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for bringing this lively troupe to disadvantaged schools around the country. Founded by Australian soprano Tania de Jong in 1999, The Song Room comprises a cast of stellar performance artists, who bring song, dance and drama to school children who’ve been disadvantaged through economic and geographic circumstances, disability or recent migration.

Tania says she originally came up with the concept for The Song Room after giving a series of performances with her band Pot-Pourri. “We’d been giving paid performances to private schools, before eventually performing for a government school,” she says. “We quickly realised the kids had never seen a live performance – they were so excited by it. Not long after, I had the opportunity to meet Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s son-in-law, John Calvert-Jones, and was telling him about this experience when he suggested I begin a charity to address the fact that about three out of four Australian government schools don’t have access to music programs – beyond a teacher switching on a CD player. Music is so much more than that. Straightaway, I knew the idea was a big one – and it was something I was to become very passionate about. It seemed amazing to me, with more than twenty years’ musical experience, that music lessons didn’t seem to be a priority. I started the charity, and soon research came flooding in. Worldwide evidence shows that students who participate in arts programs gain self-confidence, learn to express their emotions, communicate more effectively, learn to work as a team, and perform better in other classes.”

How it works
“We start by putting on free live theatre performances,” explains Deborah Nicolson, program manager of The Song Room. “School children come along and experience the excitement of real theatre: lights, costumes, music and drama. We perform in major theatres or performing arts centres to give the children an idea of what’s involved in professional performance, and to inspire them to be interested in the arts.”

After the children get a taste for theatre, The Song Room pays them a visit. “We go into disadvantaged primary schools, where a high percentage of children are receiving education maintenance allowance, or where English is not their first language or they have special needs. For twenty weeks, we hold weekly workshops involving the kids in dance, song and drama performances. We tailor our programs to meet a school’s needs: for instance, we’ve just completed a workshop with a school that wanted a fairly physical performance art, so we introduced the children to tap-dancing. Sometimes schools want a mix of dance, song and drama, so we’ll create a program to cover all three.”
Cool choirs

When Erskineville Public School in Sydney signed up with The Song Room in mid-July 2006, it was quick to tailor a program towards music. Principal Gai O’Neill says, “We didn’t have a music program or a music teacher. Each classroom teacher worked music into her schedule, but it’s difficult if you’re not trained.” Along came Amanda Kelly, performance tutor with The Song Room, bringing her studies in voice, music and expressive therapies, and bright smile. Before they knew it, Erskineville Public had a choir of 110 students: half the school! “But not a conservative, church choir,” Gai is quick to point out. “This is a really hip, groovy choir – they sing pop songs and do all sorts of movements.”

Another element to The Song Room’s involvement with Erskineville Public School is the music workshops Amanda runs with the help of Donella Cobb, the school’s newly appointed music teacher. Today, the first-grade class is bouncing with enthusiasm over $2,000 worth of brand-new bongo and djembe drums The Song Room has donated. Chaos ensues as the first-graders with sticks begin drumming the floorboards, the legs of the nearby piano, and each other – but the lesson is not lost.  Amanda “absolutely loves” working with these kids – and those at Athelstane Public School in Arncliffe, New South Wales. “I love watching them develop the confidence to tackle problems, to get up in front of the class and play a drumbeat or sing. One little boy at Athelstane, where ninety per cent of the students speak English as their second language, tells me he’s going to play guitar now. None of these kids ever had anything to do with music, yet they took to it immediately. If I can impart any knowledge to these kids, I’d love to show them that they are creators; that they can create their own world – any world they want. I think this is really what the world needs at the moment: people who have the courage and confidence to look for new, creative solutions to some of our problems.”

Another first for Erskineville Public School is the school holiday program the staff implemented at the end of spring term. “All sorts of specialised performers from The Song Room came to the school to conduct holiday workshops,” Gai explains. “The kids were able to try out puppetry, acrobatics, choreography, drama, sculpture… they had an absolute ball!

“They’ve done so much for our music, I’m thinking I’d love to get them involved in our drama,” Gai adds. “They’re turning us into a mini NIDA!” At the moment, Donella and Amanda from The Song Room are busy finetuning the end-of-year musical the kids will stage for parents and the local community. “This is an important part of the process,” explains Deborah. “While the workshops really give children an outlet to shine, the performance in which all workshops culminate helps teachers and parents see the kids in a new light. Suddenly, a child who was viewed as ‘difficult’ or ‘troublesome’ is seen as capable and willing. These performances bring parents into the school, and often it’s the first time parents have seen their child in a ‘successful’ light. They are always thrilled with the result – it’s wonderful.”

Stars in the making
Because of the special relationships The Song Room has been able to create, they’re now able to help foster natural talent when they see it. “We have very strong ties with Western Chances, an organisation that nurtures talent in the Western suburbs of Melbourne,” says Deborah. “By partnering with them, we are able to give some of our children who show promise an opportunity to receive scholarships to take singing lessons, learn to play an instrument, to take acting classes – whatever the child is interested in. You can imagine how this can change a child’s life.”

Yet, says Tania, looking for stars isn’t what The Song Room is about. “Sure, we’re bound to dig up some stars along the way, but really we’re not about that,” she asserts. “We’re not looking for stars; we’re looking for participation!”

The benefits of music

A US study of 25,000 students over a 10-year period found that the arts:

• Reach students who have become disengaged.
• Connect students to themselves and each other.
• Transform the environ-ment for learning.
• Connect learning experiences to the world of real work.
• Engage community leaders and resources.

The study also found that high participation in the arts:

• Levels the playing field for the disadvantaged.
• Encourages self-directed learning.
• Correlates with success in other subjects.

The study concluded young people need opportunities to participate, explore and create. Through music and arts, children can become involved in experiences that engage their bodies, minds and hearts.

 

Words: Rebecka Delforce. Photography: Andrew Lehmann, Sam McAdam.