Portland observer., March 11, 2015, Image 9

March 11, 2015
Page 9
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Portland’s Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe works to preserve the cultures of the people of Africa.
Culture
and
Learning
African dance
troupe integrates
arts with education
O LIVIA O LIVIA
T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
The deep smoldering sounds of the
Djembe drums rumble in the distance,
and a chant is called back and forth
between the children. The Kúkátónón
BY
African Dance Troupe moves through
yet another rehearsal in Portland, rekin-
dling a love for African dance and mu-
sic.
Kúkátónón has been in Portland for
over 30 years and has successfully taught
African cultural traditions to hundreds of
student performers, while exciting hun-
dreds of thousands of audience mem-
bers with their unique artistic dance and
drum program.
For the upcoming year, Kúkátónón
has decided it will start expanding its
dancing and drumming lessons to inte-
grate performing arts with math and
science.
The group is collaborating with arts
education specialist Wendy Thompson
of Whkeena Arts and Education to work
with its teaching artists to design a pilot
curriculum that integrates dancing and
drumming with science, technology, en-
gineering, and mathematics, or the STEM
fields.
The goal is to give the students a well-
rounded school-based learning program,
using the intersection of arts and STEM.
A study by the National Endowment for
the Arts demonstrates that students who
actively participate in the arts tend to
score better on science and writing tests,
and are more likely to feel motivated to
go to college.
The curriculum will fall in line with
state and federal Common Core stan-
dards, as well as Kúkátónón’s artistic
work and connection to West African
culture.
According to Thompson, the chil-
dren can expect lessons on
Polyrhythms, which focus on rhythm,
dance, and mathematics; as well as
the science of West African dance
and drumming which provide insight-
ful lessons on the laws of motion and
the physics of sounds.
The versatility and flexibility of this
new program will allow students to ex-
plore learning in a non-traditional, cre-
ative setting. Math and science have
always been intrinsic in dancing and
drumming; now the children of
Kúkátónón will get to experience that in
new and exciting ways.
For more information, visit the dance
group’s website kukatonon.org