Fall/Winter-2006/2007

The instructors for this course are Robert Kpogo and Wisdom Agorde.

This year's teaching assistant is Stella Marangu.

Important Information

• If you did not come to the first class and audition, you may not register for or attend this class. Registration and participation are based on the audition and meeting for consent. Please de-register if you have registered, but were absent for the audition.
• All students are required to pay a fee of $80 for instrument use and repair. This fee also includes an WAME T-Shirt, which is to be worn at all ensemble performances.
• There are 16 keys available for the instrument storage cupboards in the classroom. These will be distributed at the discretion of the instructor, Robert Kpogo.
• To access the classroom, you will need to encode your One-Card. Encoding will take place on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in Fine Arts Building 2-11 from 10:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00. This is your only chance to encode your One-Card, so don't miss it.

Course Syllabus

Important information from the syllabus will appear here.

Ewe Music/Dance Styles

Here you will find information about the music/dance styles that have been taught in the West African Music Ensemble over the years.

Gota

===Atsiagbekor=== - also called Agbekor

September 13, 2006

Today's class started with a song & clapping game. For the words to this song click Kani Wa

Quote of the day: "In all the dances that we do, the dancers communicate with the drums...that's why it is important to learn the drum language." -- Wisdom

Gota

• Wisdom and previous students demonstrated Gota to the class.
• Wisdom taught the basic movement, the transition and the freeze position.

Video

Video from today's class will appear here in 10 minute segments. Each file is relatively large, so it will take several minutes to download.

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3
• Video 4
• Video 5
• Video 6
• Video 7
• Video 8
• Video 9
• Video 10
• Video 11
• Video 12
• Video 13
• Video 14
• Video 15
• Video 16
• Video 17

September 20, 2006

Warm-up

• Today we started with a clapping game song, Seni Wa, which goes with the same clapping rhythm as the song we learned last week, Kani Wa (Boom Ba Boom Ba Ba).
• We numbered off into groups. These groups will be our groups for the rest of the year. Each week one group will be responsible for setting up and putting away the drums. Stella will make a schedule for next week.

Gota

Today we split into pairs. We will keep the same partner for the rest of the year. We learned 3 signals from the lead drum: starting signal, transition signal and freeze/end signal. We practiced a bit, then each pair danced.

Bobobor

Today we learned the bell and rattle parts, and the basic steps of the dance.

Drums

(links to recordings will be posted here.)

1. Bell

2. Rattle

Dance

Description to be posted.

Video

Links to video from the class will be posted here.