This project at The Glasshouse aims to inspire the next generation by providing professional musicians from the region an opportunity to engage with young people, fostering creativity, confidence, and self-expression through music and dance, particularly highlighting the importance of Black music pedagogy and representation.
Mind Map
คลิกเพื่อขยาย
คลิกเพื่อสำรวจ Mind Map แบบอินเตอร์แอคทีฟฉบับเต็ม
So the project is really important.
It's a new era for us at The Glasshouse.
A really great opportunity for professional musicians from the region
to inspire the next generation of young people within our community
here in Gateshead.
When I was invited to be a Glasshouse Partner,
the first thing I thought about was the young people and the local community.
You know, I love these buildings, like the audaciousness of the building.
It's on the river. It's so iconic.
And I also thought about how sometimes young people
don't feel like a place is for them.
And so I thought that it would be really good to do something
with The Glasshouse and with a local primary school.
I really feel like everyone, you know, has so much creativity
and young people have so much creativity
and how music as a place of self expression is really important
for young people to build their confidence,
their communication skills.
What it teaches them about their body, about consent, about their self-knowledge.
I feel like so much of that comes from music and dance training
and practice and improvisation.
I reflected when we were planning this that
so many of the important experiences I'd had as a child
kind of gave me the confidence
and the sense in my body that music was what I wanted to do.
And I remember that feeling of preparation for a performance.
Like at first it's chaotic and you don't know what you're doing.
You're kind of nervous,
but then just being able to practice and work on something
and building confidence.
I think I fell in love with that feeling,
the way that you can develop something that it starts from a seed
and grows into something really strong and powerful.
That feeling stayed with me
and it's really informed how we put this this together today and the last few weeks.
Inspiring the next generation
for me is the main reason why this project is so important.
And obviously that combined with having someone
as established as Corinne Bailey Rae was really the icing on the the cake.
The school is a really important school
Brighton Avenue School, and you see how diverse it is
and that school is a Sanctuary school.
It welcomes children from all over the world
and it represents to me what Britain really looks like, you know,
with so much diversity in terms of people's nationality, people's ethnicity.
I think that's so important for how we all sort of view ourselves
that we realize that we have common language,
in this case, music and dance and self-expression
and that it's very positive.
We have so much to learn from one another.
It was the first time that Black music and the pedagogy
behind the teaching and the way that we teach Black music
was really put at the fore.
As a music practitioner, for me that's incredibly important.
You know the the young musicians weren't using sheet music.
They were adding their own flare.
They understood how important in the teaching of Black music,
vocabulary is and using our voice and using our eyes
and communicating with everybody in the band on a much deeper level.
Just simply having Black role models in the room,
we know through role model theory that, you know, young people don't
understand that they can do a thing
unless they see somebody that looks like them doing that thing.
Oh, I love that!
At the end, even experiment and try...
Well, the whole concept of the project was based on one of Corinne's songs
about hopes and dreams.
So, it lends itself really well to dance
straight away because we've got a theme.
We've got something to work from.
So, the young people obviously have those hopes and dreams
I would like to be some type of doctor,
preferably a surgeon for brain.
A cheerleader.
A vet because I love animals and I want to take care of them.
I get to save people's lives and spread kindness around the rest of the world.
To see their confidence grow week by week
Every week we'd come in
and they were practicing before we even got in the room.
So that that's testament I think to their characters.
The school. The want to learn was there.
Gateway is a dance organization based on Gateshead High Street.
It makes perfect sense in partnership with The Glasshouse
because dance and music
that's the first thing you think of when
when you hear a piece of music you want to dance.
When you dance you want a piece of music.
When we first were talking about doing this project, you know,
our first kind of sessions at the beginning of this,
I felt really moved reflecting on the amount of times
that I, as a young person was involved in something like this.
You know, I feel so privileged to have had those kind of experiences.
So many people don't have that.
I think I was really reflecting on that in this in the first session
we had which was without the young people
and I was really emotional about it
because I thought you know this could be just one of those things
you know, one of those moments
for them. An adult sort of looked in
and said what you do is valuable
what you do is special
what you do is unique
[Music]
To get up in front of an audience like this just phenomenal for me
It made me feel so very, very proud of them and just to see their faces
the enjoyment that they get and the sense of achievement
they got from the performance just amazing. It's just brilliant to watch.
[Music] "I hope you get your dream. Just go ahead let your hair down"
I hope the children will remember how they felt.
I hope they'll remember the joy of performing.
I hope they'll remember how nervous they might have been
when they first started
and then how bold they were
by the second time we've done the performance today.
I hope they'll remember the relationships that they made.
I hope they'll remember how they were able to ask questions,
how the adults were respectful to them.
For me, I really hope that the confidence hopefully
they can take it into all of the things they're doing,
but they're already very much on their way.
You know, just having chosen it, you know, they're on the way.
One of the things I love the most
was seeing the children spot their parents in the audience.
You know, I really remember that as a young person,
this kind of pride at what you had done,
that they've done things they didn't think that they could.
I thought, "Oh, they're really proud of this.
They really own it.
[Music] "Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
[Music] "Just go ahead, just go ahead! Baby, put your hair down. Put your records on, tell me your favourite song"
[Music] "Just go ahead let your hair down"
[Music] "Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down"
I kind of felt happy and almost like nervous.
I felt like I made myself proud.
Before I felt nervous, now I actually feel proud of myself.
I was nervous and excited at the same time.
[Music] "Hope you get your dreams. Hope you get your dreams. Hope you get your dreams."
Projects like this, I think, really show what's possible
when we work together as a region.
With support from the Mayor and the North East Combined Authority,
we get the opportunity to connect amazing artists
with young people here in Gateshead.
And it's for everyone,
whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever your background,
