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African Drum Ballet to Perform in Pine Bluff Feb. 27 |
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Feb. 16, 2010
Submitted by: The Arts and Science Center of Southeast Arkansas
The sounds of African Drum Ballet will fill the Arts & Science Center during a free performance 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Center, 701 Main St.
The afternoon’s activities also will include docent-led tours of the exhibit Expressions of African Culture, make-a-drum craft, face painting and fun in the exhibit Illusion Confusion following the performance of Zinse Agginie and his African Drum Ballet. The Center will be open 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27.
A 2008 Governor’s Award winner, Agginie was born in Ghana, West Africa. His African Drum Ballet includes storytelling and creative rhythm using drums. He uses hand drums for his storytelling and also as a percussive symphony.
The day’s events are held in conjunction with the exhibit, Expressions of African Culture, which will be on display through April 24 at the Center. The display includes approximately 250 pieces, most of which have never been exhibited in public before. The exhibit includes carved wooden ceremonial masks covered in antelope skin; wrought iron money; bronze, ivory and stone figures; heavily beaded crowns, thrones, stools and clothing; carved wooden statuary; wrought iron shrines and figures; ivory dance wands, harps and trumpets.
Agginie is also the Arts & Science Center’s Artist In Education artist for 2010. During this spring, he will work with 5th grade students from Oak Park Elementary. Several of the Oak Park students will be featured in his performance Feb. 27 as will dance students from Dollarway High School.
The drum ballet is included in ‘Class Acts,’ the 2006 national film documentary as one of the 10 most effective arts programs in America’s schools. The Drum ballet was also the strongest catalyst that brought the ‘Coming Up Taller Award’ to Arkansas, according to Agginie.
Through his Artist in Education programs, Agginie works with students on focus and concentration as students improve coordination through learning the challenging rhythms. The activities engage fundamental cognitive and problem solving skills and nurture creative thinking, he says. “It is appreciating and learning music in a way that is different and unconventional.”
About 10 years ago Agginie moved to Arkansas where he has worked as an AIE artist around the United States. He has written and produced plays at high schools and colleges and is also a member of The Gathering, the Arkansas African-American Living history program.
Sponsors of the exhibit include Simmons First National Bank, Entergy, Pine Bluff Sand and Gravel, The Sarah Creasy Endowment Fund for The Arts & Science Center, The Entergy Endowment Fund for The Arts & Science Center, the Arkansas Humanities Council, Arkansas Arts Council and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. The exhibit comes from the private collection of Dana and Laurie Mitchell of Memphis.
The center, located at 701 Main St. in Pine Bluff, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday and closed on Sunday. Support for the center is provided in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, contact the center at (870) 536-3375, info@artssciencecenter.org or visit the website at www.artssciencecenter.org.