Meet Carla!

This year CIAMO is excited to have as Peace Corps Response Music Teacher, singer-songwriter Carla Seidl.  She teaches basic music at CIAMO as well as guitar and dance. She also plans to develop an interdisciplinary project at the center as part of her studies at Goddard College.

CiamoReport: Where are you from in the states?

Carla: I grew up on Long Island, about an hour from New York City. I have since lived, worked, and studied in Massachusetts, Iowa, Chile, Maine, Azerbaijan, and Togo.

CiamoReport: What is your background in the creative arts?

Carla: Singing and writing have always been important pursuits for me. Adding in foreign languages, storytelling, anthropology, and dance, I created my own major as an undergraduate called Expression and Culture Studies. Afterwards, I studied documentary radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and started working independently as a singer-songwriter, writer, and documentary radio producer. I am currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, so working among the myriad arts happenings at CIAMO is an especially good place for me at this time in my life.

CiamoReport: What inspired you to apply for your PCR post?

Carla: While working as a Girls' Education and Empowerment volunteer in Togo, I became very involved with a local cultural center and in collaborating musically with local artists. Perhaps the highlight of my service in Azerbaijan, too, was the work I did in the domains of music, dance, and theater with local students. So, shifting to work at a music and arts education center such as CIAMO was a natural fit.

CiamoReport: What are your initial impressions of CIAMO?

Carla: I like the way CIAMO stretches kids' imaginations and creative problem solving skills. I also think that the interest of this organization in furthering collaboration across discliplines is very important. CIAMO's goal of involving local artists and transitioning into a community-directed enterprise will be key to its future sustainability.

Meet Lydia!

Lydia Dambekalns has recently joined our team as our Curriculum Development Peace Corps Response volunteer. Peace Corps Response offers support to local and international organizations who need assistance in specialty areas. In this case, we really lucked out! Lydia is a fantastic addition to our team!

CIAMO Report: Where are you from in the States?

Lydia: I am originally from Virginia, we still have a family farm in the Shenandoah Valley. I went to College at William and Mary and then went directly into the Peace Corps in the early 1980s, first Benin for a few months, and then when the program fell through I was transferred to Kenya where I worked with Rural Women's Development and animal husbandry projects. I came back to the states where I worked as a regional recruiter for the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington DC, and then decided to go to graduate school at Penn State where I earned a doctorate in Curriculum Studies and Art Education. I'd always wanted to live out in the Rocky Mountains, so I applied for and got the professor job at the University of Wyoming where I have been ever since 1996. I love everything about Wyoming except the long cold winters. I have a ranch there in Laramie with a partner where we raise and ride horses (mostly Arabians). I have also worked with women's literacy projects in Nepal and did a Fulbright at the University of Latvia on my last sabbatical in 2004-05. My personal interests include travel, art making, animals of all sorts, dance, and reading.

CIAMO Report:  How did you get into the creative arts:

Lydia:  I started drawing with my older half-siter. My parents met ballroom dancing in Washington DC, so that was always a part of my childhood. I learned piano from my dad.  As a kid I always liked to make things out of other things, so I ended up double majoring in Studio Art and English in college. I have been involved with all different types of art, but now I like to focus on Fiber Arts the most.

CIAMO Report: What inspired you to apply to be a Peace Corps Response Volunteer?

Lydia: By luck I happened to look on the listing of opportunities and I saw this one which seemed too good to be true and a real match of my skills. Best of all, I am on academic sabbatical from my university for a year, so I really could come here. I have longed to get back to West Africa and thus it is so wonderful to have support from Peace Corps. I would love to learn about all the local arts customs here in the coming months, as well as give back any curriculum support that i can to the education community here.

CIAMO Report: What are you first impressions of CIAMO?


Lydia: Incredible energy! I cannot believe that someone like Sarah Dupont had a vision and was actually able to put all the pieces together and make it a reality. I really like the mix of talent and perspectives between African and PC instructors here. I am quite concerned that this place be able to continue in the future, so my goal is to see how much we can document this year in order to aid the directors/instructors in the future. John Mark and Sarah got things off to a great beginning, so extending their efforts is really important.  Especially impressive is the use of technology. I also hope to see us expand out into the community in other schools, but there is SO very much to do here that it is hard not to become "scattered". I personally would like to figure out some way to do teacher training before I leave.

Who are you?

Recently we asked our students and all of you to send us your self portraits. Here's the results!




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MiniCamp!

Last weekend, we put on a “Mini Camp” at CIAMO, a three-day long camp model that gave a group of 30 kids a taste of the full CIAMO experience.  Our hope is that the camp will entice the students to explore the arts as well as encourage their parents to understand the important role of arts education in the development of their children.  

Every day began with warm-ups that involved yoga and vocal exercises. In the domain of the performing arts, the children had the chance to learn traditional Mina rhythm with local artists Joseph Mahinou and Sim De Souza.  They also learned to tell stories and create skits in Fon and French. Each skit ended with a song that reinforced the moral of the story. They danced too! With both Sarah and Sim, the students learned country line dancing and some improvisatory dancing techniques too.

In the domain of visual art, the kids learned about color mixing by creating Mondrian style collages and by learning traditional cloth dying from Sarah and local artist Paschal Avokpo.  They also made trash into treasure by experimenting with paper bead-making and by doing decoupage on calabashes using old magazines. The last day, the kids used their newly acquired color knowledge to create beautiful paintings spanning 3 yards.

The experience ended with a closing ceremony. The kids were proud to show their parents everything they learned during the camp. Parents were equally proud and impressed with their work. They are already asking to sign up their children for the coming school year.  Mission accomplished! 

The Navy Band, Topside, Plays at CIAMO

It’s not every day that CIAMO’s students see a saxophone, a tuba, trumpets, and trombones played masterfully. Yesterday, August 23^rd, 2011, CIAMO had the opportunity to host Topside, a high-energy brass band of the U.S. Navy.  While the HSV-2 Swift is in town, the American Cultural Center has been taking Topside around to see the sites and play for appreciative audiences all over southern Benin.

They arrived at 11 o’clock for a workshop with a group of children at CIAMO.  The students learned the name of each instrument and had the opportunity to hear each one play solo before they went full force into a short concert. The energy was great and the children loved the music.

After lunch, seeing a few sites, and getting pythons wrapped around their necks, the troupes played a concert to an audience of about 150 people at the Python Temple, including the mayor of Ouidah, the director of the American cultural center, and the military community from the Ouidah Military Camp.

The concert consisted of American classics including Ray Charles, some Dixieland tunes and Michael Jackson as well as some African classics like Malaika and the Waka Waka.

The CIAMO team thanks American Cultural Center Director, Rhonda Watson, and the US Embassy community for their continued collaboration. We look forward to future opportunities to promote cultural exchange in Ouidah and throughout Benin.

International Music Council visits CIAMO

Traditional Percussion Demonstration

CIAMO was happy to host delegation of the International Music Council, part of UNSECO, on June 22^nd. Members from the delegation were from Kenya, Togo, Ghana, and Benin.  CIAMO presented the “traditional” and the “modern” side of its work in Ouidah.

First several students demonstrated what they had learned in Traditional Percussion class using Beninese rhythms, with emphasis on the use of the gong. After, a group of 15 students did a short lesson demonstration with director and music teacher, John Mark. The students showed the delegation that during just 7 months they had already learned the basics of “do re me” and note durations. The delegation was especially impressed by their rendition of “KoKoKo,” a song written by the children during a visit from artist-in-residence Leni Stern.

Children participate in class with a the delegation watching from behind.

After the demonstration, the delegation watched videos about the center and posed a variety of questions about the center. CIAMO is anxious to collaborate with the ICM, especially its Beninese counterparts. Here’s to a bright future for arts education in Benin!

John Mark accompanies "Ko Ko Ko" on Piano.