Workshops

Heather Summers and Miranda Betts have been leading Community Arts workshops for many years. We have worked with a wide range of community groups including children and young people, the elderly, women's groups, people with learning difficulties, mental health service users and those with visual and hearing impairments. We work in innovative ways which allow participants to experience and develop new skills, whilst working creatively within a group setting. Individuals discover that they have a unique contribution to make, and can find ways to share and express themselves within a creative environment that is supportive, fun, and empowering.

Workshop Menu:

Please browse through our menu and see which workshops appeal to you or which you feel will suit your groups. All our workshops are fun and accessible, whilst giving new skills, increasing confidence, and offering great team building opportunities.

They are suitable for those with no previous experience in music or dance, but can be adapted to suit the varied requirements/ability of any group.

We have a wide range of instruments from all around the world, tuned and un-tuned percussion; an ever - increasing collection! They include all different types and sizes of hand drums, hand percussion, chimes, boom whackers, ballaphons, and xylophones. We sometimes use keyboards and other electronic equipment. We bring these to any of our workshops that involve music making. If groups or schools have some of their own instruments, these can only complement our own collection.

* Body Percussion with Voice and Rhythm

Here we use the body and voice as instruments to make rhythmic and percussive sounds. This is a great way to explore rhythm, and to use the voice in interesting ways that don't require you to be a singer. Excellent fun, as well as providing accessible ways into music making.

* Playing with Rhythm and Melody

This workshop includes the above, but also uses tuned and untuned percussion and drums. We explore musical texture using melodic arrangement, layered rhythms, cross rhythms, and the use of space and silence to enhance texture. A wonderful chance to make music with others, and develop listening skills that will inform and inspire your own musical play.

* Free your Music

Clear and easy ways to develop your improvisational skills to free your musical potential, and develop a freedom in your playing.

* Loop the Loop

Using simple, state of the art technology, small groups (also one to one) can build layers of musical texture, to make soundscapes and instrumental/vocal pieces, or whole songs. These workshops give an opportunity to try out ideas, new instruments, vocal lines etc, riffs, melodic lines, etc, record them instantly and then experiment over the top of this music with improvisation, rap, vocal texture.

* Contact Improvisation

This exhilarating movement style, explores the principles of weight, gravity and momentum as we use the body in new and dynamic ways. Using mainly partner work it builds confidence and helps to develop trust between individuals working within a group. Great fun, and a useful device for making dance theatre.

* Make a Piece of Dance

Find out how any movement, however simple or small can be transformed into dance using key choreographic techniques. We will discover how material for creating dance can be drawn from practically anywhere. We can see how to make dance using everyday movements, or drawing from a favourite painting, poem or piece of music... We will work individually, as well as with a partner, and as a group.

* Improvisation and Choreography

Using spontaneous and structured improvisation we will create movement with which we will work. Choreography is the crafting of movement into dance. We will explore and experiment with different choreographic ideas to see how they effect movement and impact on the development of a piece of dance. We will work individually, as well as with a partner, and as a group.

* Making a Song & Dance of It

Using structured improvisation, we can work as both musician and dancer exploring the relationship between these two roles and the ways in which they can influence and inspire each other. We can create soundscapes that offer catalysts for movement, which in turn give musicians impetus for sound, thus setting up a dialogue between the two. These improvisations can lead to a dynamic, and fluid exchange between dancers and musicians where the boundary between leader and follower becomes blurred.

* Songwriting

Here we look at song structure, essential and potential ingredients, and ways into writing lyrics using various techniques to give us source material. We also look at the different types of song including ballads, a capella, rap, pop, folk, dance, etc and what has worked for well known songs and why. We will also look at melody, and the rhythm of melody as essential considerations when writing a song.

* Acoustic Band Project

We will cover all the ingredients needed to form and develop an acoustic band: Choosing a name/identity, instrumentation, song writing skills, melody, rhythm, chord progressions, riffs structure and arrangement, dynamics and tempo, style. The band will gain a good understanding of all these components, and depending on the length of the project have created one or more fully arranged songs. Digital effects boxes and loop station can add texture and exciting possibilities.

* Rap 'n Roll

Words - We will look at words in relation to music and dance, and see the ways that they can influence and shape one another, using any or all of the following: rap, poetry, story and song.

Dance – We will look at how our everyday thoughts and feelings are expressed through the body (body language), and will begin from our own/group observations and experience, (our material). We can then play with some of these ideas in order to make dance theatre using some simple choreographic devices.

Music – We will play with rhythm and melody using body percussion, voice, tuned and un-tuned percussion. We will find ways to create moods and atmospheres based on feelings, by making soundscapes (ambience), as well as strong rhythmic patterns, (African, hip-hop, drum and bass etc). These will provide the backdrop or container for words as song, poem, story or rap.

Issue-Based Workshops

Some of the above workshops particularly lend themselves to working with specific issues, and can provide participants with a forum to express themselves in a safe, supportive and constructive way. We can explore and help unravel issues relevant to a particular group or area of study using the creative mediums - dance, song writing, rap, poetry over music etc. We can discuss requirements beforehand to create tailor-made workshops.

If a group already have particular themes that they are working with in other ways, these can also be used as a starting point for the creative process.

Your requirements

Workshops can be offered as two-hour, half-day, whole day, or two-day sessions. Obviously, the longer the workshop, the more in-depth the work can be. Two-day (sometimes one day) workshops can work towards performance. We also offer residencies over longer periods of time. We can discuss your personal requirements.

Contact Meerkat

Please call 01559 362082, or e-mail us at: mail@meerkatmusic.org

© Meerkat 2007