 |
| They've Got Rhythm! |
| Two Students Start an ExCo and End
Up with a STOMP Ensemble |
by Anne C. Paine
June, 2002 |
 |
A bit of Broadway's come to Oberlin,
and students are stomping about it.
Stomping as in STOMP, the theater-movement-percussion
sensation that began in the early 1990s as street theater
in England and has since swept to worldwide acclaim.
 To
bring the phenomenon to Oberlin, juniors Jordan Balagot
and Marlana Carlson, both avid STOMP fans, organized and
taught a new Experimental College course this semester.
Response to their Oberlin STOMP course was tremendous:
from among the 50 people who applied for entry to the
class, the instructors chose eight and, over the course
of the semester, molded them into a collaborative, cohesive
ensemble. Members bring a wide range of backgrounds to
the group, including tap, taiko drumming, jazz, ballet,
theater, and modern dance.
The premise behind STOMP, said Carlson, is "the simple
concept of making music and rhythm with everyday objects.
It speaks to everyone in any language because there's
no language involved."
"I had seen STOMP and found it really fascinating.
It was very powerful because it made you want to get up
and do it," she continued. "It's been a dream
of mine, since I came here, to start a group." A
theater major, Carlson boasts an impressive background
in music and dance, including playing clarinet and studying
contact improv and capoeira.
Balagot, a composition major, first saw STOMP when he
was in eighth grade, and though he said he'd like to audition
for the professional group after he graduates, he wanted
Oberlin STOMP to go further than the Broadway show does.
"STOMP has only one choreographer and one composer,"
he said. "They don't change what they do. We wanted
to come from a place where all the students were writing,
creating, improvising, and incorporating new instruments."
As in the Broadway show, the members of Oberlin's STOMP
ensemble use a variety of nontraditional percussion instruments:
trash cans, buckets, glass jars, boxes of macaroni, steel
bowls, empty cans, and brooms.
In keeping with the collaborative nature of the class,
however, the instructors aren't always the teachers. In
a recent session, ensemble member Adam Brooks '02 taught
a routine using balloons. After everyone had inflated
colorful "Happy Birthday" balloons, he demonstrated
various ways to make pleasing sounds with these "instruments."
Once everyone had mastered the techniques, he taught three
different rhythms.
Finally, Brooks split the class into three smaller groups
and assigned each group one of the rhythms. He started
the first group, added the second, and then the third,
and as all three rhythms were played simultaneously, the
room exploded with sound and exuberance, energy and life.
Though the class session was devoted to learning music,
bodies began swaying instinctively. Communication flashed,
unspoken, from the eyes of one performer to the next as
all concentrated on the work of being an ensemble.
The Oberlin STOMP ensemble performed publicly twice during
the semester, and Balagot plans to offer the class again
next year.
"It's been a lot of fun," he said. "I definitely
want to focus more on percussion in my own composing work
now."
"It's been rewarding to see people be happy and know
that we did a good job," Carlson added. "It
would also be rewarding to see the group continue after
we graduate."
STOMP on! |
|
|
