AMERICAN FALLS — Nearly a hundred students poured into the classroom of American Falls High School teacher Daniel Lammers last week, many of whom had to stand and crowd together as he instructed them on how to make fake blood on a budget.
Just down the hall in the gymnasium, Idaho State Civic Symphony Artistic Director and Conductor Nell Flanders instructed students on the rhythm and movement of Argentine Tango and Dance.
During that same hour, sitting in a circle in the commons, students beat on bongo and cajon drums as J.R. Simplot Elementary School music teacher Kyra Finner taught them about African instruments and how to properly use them.
In all, hundreds of students from rural Southeastern Idaho flocked to AFHS for District 5’s performing arts day clinic on January 23, which was hosted by the AFHS music department and brought classes ranging from African Drumming Circle to Blood and Guts Make-up to Broadway Dancing and Singing to the school.
“It’s a really fantastic opportunity as the small school chair rep for the state of Idaho for music (education) to be able to offer this opportunity for a larger number of rural schools,” said Music Department Chair for School District #381 and AFHS music instructor Robbie Hanchey at the event. “In fact, every school that’s here today is a rural school, and they would never have the opportunity to get to go to a tango class and a didgeridoo Australian music (class) all on the same day at their own high school. And we’re able to bring everyone to one place and then bring in all these expert teachers and expose them to amazing things.”
The performing arts clinic is held every year, with many teachers and musical professionals chipping in to teach their knowledge regarding the musical arts to these students. Scholarship opportunities are also discussed, and students get a glimpse of what a future in music could look like if they choose to pursue it.
For Sherilynn Farnes Goodworth, band director for Marsh Valley High School who taught Songwriting 101, seeing students from around the area set school rivalries aside and join together in learning and creating music is what she most treasures about the clinic.
“Because I’m in band, I deal with a lot of athletics, and if I name our rival schools I get hissing and spitting even from fifth graders,” said Goodworth. “I love these events because when our whole district comes together to create and to make music, they make friends and get phone numbers and meet up after school and come into Pocatello and go to a movie. That happens because of music. That happens because this is a non-competitive, trying-to-be-better type thing. This is more of a collaborative thing.”
Collaboration was also key for Lammer’s Rasa box class, which taught students about acting out different emotions to their audience and to each other in a variety of impromptu situations.
“Rasa boxes is a theatre style and it’s a theatre and I think dance technique as well,” explained Lammers, who teaches speech, drama, and debate at AFHS. “And the idea behind rasa boxes is the ability to feel these flavors of wine in a condensed area. And so when I teach these kids, I teach them you don’t act with emotion, you act and the emotion follows. This is their chance to say, ‘Okay. This is what I feel when I flavor running with, say, ‘fear’. Because running in fear is different than running with courage.’ It’s the same action, but the way we flavor it changes the outcome.”
Other students got to focus on music that would help them on a more internal and individual level. For Snake River High School senior Adam West, who attended last year’s Songwriting 101 class, returning to this year’s clinic after taking notes and applying what he’d learned last year helped him learn more about what Goodworth taught this time around.
“I’m in the chambers choir at my school, and we have music theory in that class, so I’ve definitely learned a lot more,” said West, who has plans to at least minor in music and write music for fun in his future. “And now that I’ve learned a lot more and came back, I understand a lot more of what all of the teachers that came here are laying down, and so I’m able to understand it better and it’ll help me get started with writing my own music.”
Cultivating musical learning, exploring how music can have an impact on your life, and connecting with strangers through music, are part of why the clinic is such a powerful day, said Goodworth.
“I love that about this music clinic because there are so many different ways (to connect),” said Goodworth. “like when they go pair off with their individual instruments, for example, there was a trombone and bass class, and they get to see people from all over East Idaho that do the same thing they do every day. And so they don’t feel as much like a lone wolf. They might be the only trombone in their whole school because that’s sadly the way it is in Idaho…so it’s nice for them to be able to think, ‘I’m not alone, and there’s other people that are like-minded out there, and I feel cool in this environment.’”