10 MAY 15,2012
Smoke Signals
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signal ilitff writer
They came from England to teach
Tribal youth a little something
about the performing arts and the
lessons exploded in Grand Ronde,
giving youth the tools of self-expression,
self-knowledge and im
promptu public performance.
Harrie Perrott is one of six per
forming arts, music and dance
students graduating this spring
from the University of Chichester
in West Sussex, England. Through
personal contacts at Western Or
egon University, he and the other
students came over to teach Tribal
members what they know about
performance.
"They've been in contact with us
for some time and wanting to set up
a program," said Travis Stewart, a
Tribal member and Cultural spe
cialist working in the Youth Edu
cation program. 'They came out in
the last couple weeks and finally we
were able to get them out this week
and working with the kids."
"OK," Perrott said to the
group, but to Tribal member
Kyoni Mercier, 14, in partic
ular because she was going
to play this part. "You're at
the beach and trying to dig
the biggest hole you possibly
can dig. The others," who
in this skit included Tribal
members Heyaza Brien, 15,
and Kailiayah Krehbiel, 10,
"are not helping. OK, go!"
Kyoni pretended to dig,
and Heyaza and Kailiyah
loitered around, sometimes
whistling, sometimes look
ing up as if at the sky, doing
everything but helping.
"OK, cut! Cut!" said Per
rott. "Now you have the
hiccups, and do the same
scene."
Kyoni had that little addi
tion down. Her hiccups were
irresistible as a performance
technique.
At some point, though, the
hiccups got to Heyaza, who told
Kyoni to get some water. After a few
more minutes, Perrott broke down,
too. "Cut! Cut! Now sing while you
go about digging the hole."
And on it went as the Tribal ac
tors came up with spontaneous
song and jig-type dances to go with
the digging.
And then, Perrott again: "Ok.
End scene. Very good."
The program was filled with
games and alternating roles, so
that students sometimes directed
and sometimes acted, and the same
with the university students.
One game used for everyone to
introduce themselves required each
to come up with a physical move
ment to go along with their names.
Others used the physical action
each time the name was spoken.
For Heyaza, his motion was run
ning his hand back through his
hair, so everybody ran a hand back
through their hair when using his
name.
Tribal member Andrea Grijalva's
action was shooting a basketball.
University student Sadie Brown's
action was shimmying her hands
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back and forth on either side of
her head.
'They were really good, actually,"
said Alex Neumann, 25, another
of the university students. "I was
quite pleasantly surprised. They're
really responding well to our drama
games."
Another game was "wolves." In
that game, all start out in a circle
with their eyes closed. A leader
picks two of the group to be wolves
but nobody else knows who they
are. The job of the wolves is to "kill"
two villagers, who are those still
sitting with their eyes closed. The
wolves get up secretly and "kill" one
of the others by touching him or her
on the shoulder and then sitting
back down in the circle.
The leader says, "There's been
a death in the family." With eyes
open, each asks others questions to
see if they can figure out who the
wolves are. Finally, there's a vote,
and if the one with the most votes
is actually one of the wolves, the
group has won. When both wolves
are caught, the game ends.
It gives the kids "a voice," said
Neumann, "to say how they feel and
how they fit in among the Tribe. It's
a forum to speak out to each other,
not to adults. It should translate
into their being able to talk about
relationship things."
Heyaza said he developed talking
skills and how to do different things
in a group.
"We're learning about healthy
relationships: trust and that kind
of stuff," said Kyoni. "We're also
learning about England, a lot of
different words and vehicles. Ev
erybody's cool here. We're having
fun making skits."
"When we play games together,"
said Heyaza, "some are similar to
ones we've played and some are
different in some way, and that's
cool."
The goal was for the Tribal mem
bers to use these skills for address
ing specific social purposes.
"We're trying to have them devise
a sketch about whatever issues
they're concerned with: respect,
communication, trust," said Neu
mann. They made posters that say what
healthy relationships are, Kyoni
added, "and we talk about un-
Photos by Michelle Alalmo
Tribal members Kyoni Mercier, right,
and Heyaza Brien, second from
right, practice movements during
prep work with a group of students
from the University of Chichester at
Youth Education on Monday, May 7.
The group came from the university,
located in West Sussex, England,
to teach Tribal youth about the
performing arts.
Tribal member Heyaza Brien,
right, "walks the runway" as
Tribal member Kailiyah Krehbiel
hands clothes for University of
Chichester student Alex Neumann
to put on as they perform a skit,
in which Krehbiel is the designer
and the others are models, at Youth
Education on Monday, May 7.
healthy relationships."
"It's awesome," said Kailiyah,
who popped into the room and
jumped into the conversation on
her own.
A light was in her eyes.
Likewise for Heyaza, when he
showed how he brushed his hand
back through his hair.
For part of the time, you could not
see the light in Kyoni's eyes. She
was already wearing her Hollywood
sunglasses.
"Going up there and performing,"
she said, "you get that good feeling.
All eyes are on you."
Grand Ronde students partici
pating were Tribal members Ni
kia Mooney, Anthony Simmons,
Kailiyah Krehbiel, Kayla Grijalva,
Andrea Grijalva, Reece Eben
steiner, Kyoni Mercier, Heyaza
Brien, Hunter Latham and Kay
lene Barry.
Youth Education staff members
Travis Stewart, Chris Bailey and
Matt Zimbrick, all Tribal mem
bers, and Jacinthia Stanley also
participated.
On Thursday evening in the Youth
Education building, the group put
on an impromptu performance for
families and community. Nobody
knew what it would look like until
the "curtain" went up. B