Ladysmith Black Mambazo Monday, February 16, 2004 Theater Etiquette and Experiences

A Performing Arts Series For Children PRESENTED BY THE MADISON CIVIC CENTER Ladysmith Black Mambazo Monday, February 16, 2004 Theater Etiquette and Experiences We have a wonderful opportunity at this performance to help youth learn about attending live performances. Sometimes young people do not realize how a live performance differs from watching a movie or television show. Please discuss the following with your students: 1. A live presentation has not been pre-recorded with the mistakes edited out. This makes it riskier for the performer and more exciting for the audience. It also means the audience contributes to the overall event. Each audience member affects those around him/her as well as the performer. The audience gives energy to the performer who uses that energy to give life to the performance. 2. An usher will show you where to sit. Walk slowly and talk quietly as you enter the theater. 3. If necessary, use the restroom before the performance begins. 4. Once you are seated, you may talk quietly to the people next to you until the performance begins. 5. When the lights dim, it is the signal that the performance is about to start. Stop talking and turn your attention to the stage. 6. Stay in your seat throughout the entire performance. 7. During the performance, listen quietly and watch closely. Talking during the performance will distract others around you, and the performers may think you’re not interested in the show. 8. LAUGHING IS APPROPRIATE. (Teachers, please do not hush the students while they are laughing.) If something is funny, it’s good to laugh. If you like something a lot, applaud. This will let the performers know that you are enjoying the show. 9. At the end of the show, applaud to say thank you to the performers. The performers will bow as you applaud to acknowledge your appreciation and say thank you for coming. 10. When the lights get brighter in the theater, the show is over. Stay in your seats until the Onstage! Coordinator dismisses your school. 11. Please remember also that: • Taking photographs and using recording devices are strictly prohibited. • You are only one person among several hundred in the audience. Please respect the performers and your fellow audience members! Please inform your adult chaperons that ushers will be available to help you throughout the performance if there are any difficulties. LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO Greetings from South AFrica! TO: _______ FROM: Ladysmith Black Mambazo Here’s what you’ll find inside Keynotes: Welcome to Keynotes, a performance guide Meet the Performers page 2 Look for the music created by the Education Department of the What’s That Sound? page 3 note next to activities State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. These Activities: Listen, Move, & Write! page 4 What is Zulu? page 5 and discussion Keynotes are designed to be used before and Welcome to South Africa page 6 questions. after attending the performance of Ladysmith South African Roots page 7 Black Mambazo. Creating Zulu Art page 8 Resources/About the Civic Center page 9 Meet the Performers 2 Joseph Shabalala (b. 1941), the group’s lead singer, grew up near Ladysmith, South Africa, on a farm owned by a white family. He had seven brothers and sisters and the family was very poor. But Joseph remembers his parents teaching him about his family’s Zulu culture. The LADYSMITH BLACK Shabalala household was filled with traditional MAMBAZO songs. “My mother and father used to sing for us,” he says, “because that was the better way to Joseph Shabalala make the son grow up in peace.” Msizi Shabalala Today, Joseph says, “Love yourself, love your Russel Mthembu ideas, love your voice—especially your voice... Albert Mazibuko Singing and talking, they are two different Jabulani Dubazana things. Talking is good, but singing is better Thulani Shabalala than everything.” Thamsanqa Shabalala When he was a teenager, Joseph Shabalala Sibongiseni Shabalala sang with a group called The Blacks. But in Jockey Shabalala 1964 he had a dream about a new kind of music, Abednego Mazibuko one that combined the kind he heard in church Although they were already popular in South Africa, with Zulu traditions (see pages 3 and 4). With Ladysmith Black Mambazo took off in the United States his family and friends he formed Ladysmith after Paul Simon recorded with them on his Graceland Black Mambazo, choosing Ladysmith for his album in the late 1980s. Since then, their other America hometown and Mambazo, which means “axe” in projects have included soundtracks for The Lion King Part II Zulu, because the singing group could “chop and Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America, as well as various down” all of their competition. television commercials. Ladysmith Black Mambazo has recorded over forty albums, and is the best-selling group in Africa. What’s That Sound? 3 Joseph Shabalala says, “our sound is called isicathamiya (is-cot-a-mee-ya), traditional South African choral song. Ladysmith Black Mambazo performs this music—the beloved music of our ancestors—to help preserve and promote the wondrous culture of South Africa.” Isicathamiya comes from the Zulu word meaning “to tiptoe lightly.” Its roots reach back 100 years ago when large groups of black men left their homes and families to live and work in camps near South African gold mines. They received very little pay and couldn’t afford much entertainment, so on their one day off each week they would compose music and dances late into the night. They had to dance softly, “on tip toes,” so they Make Some Noise! wouldn’t disturb the white labor camp guards. Sit in a circle with your class. As you go around the circle, each student will come up with a different sound, using only mouth, Just Themselves! hands, feet, etc. When everyone has a unique sound, put them together into an Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings a cappella, that is, ensemble using interesting rhythms and without musical instruments accompanying them. (A repeating patterns. cappella means “in chapel” in Italian; hundreds of years ago, church music was sung without any musical instruments.) Although they don’t use instruments, the The music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is performers create rhythmic sounds by clapping, stomping, contemporary, but it draws heavily on the and other movements. traditional rhythms, melodies, and vocal Movement is an important part of the group’s styles of South Africa. When Africans were performance. Look for the distinctive choreography brought to America as slaves, they also (movement that is made up ahead of time) that developed their own music that had roots in accompanies the music. African traditions. Listen with your class to Many of the songs are in the call-and-response form. A some different types of American music with solo singer (usually Joseph Shabalala) will sing a phrase, African origins: jazz, ragtime and gospel, for then the entire group will answer him, almost as if they are example. What similarities and differences having a conversation. Call-and-response is also frequently can you discover between Ladysmith Black used in African American music, such as gospel. Mambazo’s music and American music that came from similar roots? Activities: Listen, Move, & Write! 4 Circle Rhythm Game Create a Dance To play this popular African playground game, everyone Get together with a group of your sits in a circle while listening to the music. You will be classmates and choose a song you like. You passing several small balls or beanbags counter-clockwise are going to create choreography (a set of around the circle, following the beat of the music. (Try it movements that you plan out ahead of time) once without passing a real ball, to learn the hand for the song. Start by listening to the song a movements.) few times to get some ideas for movements The hand movements follow a pattern of two beats. that would go well with the music. As you On beat one: plan your choreography, here are some • Put your right hand towards your right things to think about: neighbor, palm down. If you have one of • Will everyone in the group do the balls, pass it to the right on this beat. If the same movements at the you do not have a ball, just do the hand motion. same time, or will each • Put your left hand toward your left neighbor, person move differently? palm up. If the ball is coming to you, take it • Experiment with different on this beat. levels and shapes: high and On beat two: low, circles, lines, and • Put your hands together. If you squares. Try different types received a ball on beat one, pass it of movement: sharp, soft, from your left to your right hand. curving, straight, big, little. • If you don’t have a ball, clap when Rehearse your choreo- you put your hands together. graphy with the music and Once you master these basic hand movements, then perform it for the rest of you can add other ones to make the game more difficult. the class. Deep Down in the Mines GOLD MINE Ladysmith Black Mambazo dedicates this song to the men who dark tired dangerous dim work in the South African gold mines, a dangerous job for which they pick haul slog earn little pay. Create a shape poem about the mine workers. The poem will have four gold dirt lines and ten words, arranged in an upside-down triangle shape. (See the costly example on the right.) Make a list of four adjectives that describe work in the mines (for example, dangerous, dirty, etc.), or how the workers might feel.

Load more