Azaad Arts recently participated in a community performance to celebrate May Day at the Wolverhampton Workers’ Day Festival. The day commemorates various rights for workers and the celebration is funded each year by local trade union branches. The performance consisted of a 10 minute routine which saw the Intermediate and Advanced groups performing together for the first time. The children played a 6 beat routine and confidently performed solo items too! There will be a few more performances for Azaad Arts within the next few weeks so it is a great taster for what’s to come.
Azaad Arts also took centre stage on Sunday 7th May in playing the Dhol drum to over 12.000 runners at Cannon Hill Park, where we were the on-course music entertainment. Although many people across Birmingham of course had their eyes on the coronation during that weekend, the run is one of the biggest events in the city calendar and it was a fantastic day with the sun shining down on the 12,000 runners who worked tirelessly to achieve their goals.
The students of Azaad Dhol Group enjoyed the experience of being part of this event and the parents came and supported the group and runners.
Azaad Arts are hoping to set up a taster Dhol session for anyone interested in Punjabi Folk Music, and would like to give this opportunity for ladies and girls. Vaisakhi happened in April, and the Mela and street procession were activities our Dhol players were involved in.
Azaad Arts have been involved with donating “free Indian Instruments” with a charity called “Harjeet Singh Music Bursary” based in Manchester.
The various Bhangra Fusion Ensemble groups included some new elements of their routines which were showcased in a performance on the 22nd March. For the advanced group, the students have been learning unique ‘solo items’ that they performed. The intermediate and beginner groups also learnt some new pieces collectively.
In addition to this, the groups will all be exploring the ‘Fusion’ side of the ensemble more over the coming weeks/months as they will begin to build confidence playing along to various songs and backing tracks. This will add some more variation to the groups’ performances as well as their repertoire.
One our Dhol students Harman is involved in doing a challenge of sleeping rough for one night, through the charity YMCA Black Country Group. This group are highlighting the issues of young people being turned away due to lack of beds.
Further information on how you could help support this great charity are here https://www.ymcabc.org.uk/