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Zinse Agginie works with students from Morehead Middle School during AIE 2011

Lesson Plans tied to African Drum Ballet with Zinse Agginie

Arts & Science Center provides African drums for students

The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas has purchased approximately $1,000 worth of African drums for the students at Robert E. Morehead Middle School as part of its spring Arts in Education Program.

Zinse Agginie taught African Drum Ballet to 7th graders at the school over six weeks in April and May. The Arts in Education Program is funded in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The AIE program initiates new arts programs in schools and local arts agencies and enhances existing ones by providing direct interaction with working artists in residencies. Emphasis is on exposure to the creative process through direct contact with professional artists.

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 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.