The Song Room
By Rebecka Delforce
The Song Room, with its motto "Helping Australians to sing!", is a musical not-for-profit (NFP) organisation with lots of lively little numbers. Founded by Australian opera singer Tania de Jong in 1999, this organisation achieves a lot more than merely helping Aussies 'hit the high notes'. With a stellar cast of talented and experienced performance artists, The Song Room brings song, dance and drama to children who are disadvantaged through economic circumstances, geographical isolation, disability or recent migration. "We work mainly with primary students from disadvantaged schools but also with teenagers who might have been transferred from their schools to special education units in order to get their lives back on track," said program manager Deborah Nicolson.
So how does The Song Room do it? "Firstly, we put on free live performances, where kids come along and experience the atmosphere, lighting, sound and thrill of a real theatre performance. We perform in major theatres or performing arts centres to give the kids an idea of what's involved and to inspire them to be interested in the arts," said Deborah. "What you need to remember is that a lot of these kids have never before had the opportunity to experience anything like this."
After the kids have had a taste of theatre, The Song Room pays them a visit. "We go into disadvantaged primary schools – ones where a high percentage of children are receiving education maintenance allowance or where English is not their mother tongue or where they've special needs. We hold weekly workshops at the school, where for 20 weeks we'll involve the kids in dance, song and drama performances – whatever the school might want us to do. We tailor our programs to meet a school's needs – for instance, we've just completed a workshop with a school that wanted a fairly physical performance art, so we introduced the kids to tap-dancing – it's body percussion. The kids are active, yet they're being creative and are free to explore at the same time. Sometimes schools want a mixture of dance, song and drama, so we'll create a program to cover all three."
If you're wondering how these workshops enrich the children, then Deborah could point you to the 'wads of files' she keeps showing the statistics and testimonials of the positive impact the workshops have on the children. "The workshops really seem to give children an outlet to shine," she said. "So often, we hear of kids that have been seen as troublesome in other classes, really coming into their own in our workshops. It gives the child a new confidence. Here is something they are good at, something that is fun – a reason to look forward to school, but importantly it also helps teachers and parents to see the child in a new light. Suddenly a child who was seen as difficult is now seen as capable and willing. And it seems that the team work skills learn flow into other classes."
Kids doing a workshop are required to stage a performance at the end of their 20-week course. And it works wonders. "These performances bring parents to the school," explained Deborah. "And often it's the first time parents have seen their child in a successful light. They are thrilled with the result - it's wonderful".
The Song Room also offers assistance to teenagers who have been taken out of school to attend special education units. "For the last few years, we've been active in setting up workshops that cater to these students," said Deborah. "We'll create a workshop of about 15 teenagers and get involved with a variety of performing arts. Maybe they'll learn to play drums or learn to act and, just like the primary students, we'll help them to stage a performance at the end of the workshop, whereby they invite parents and friends. The idea is that we help rebuild the teenagers' confidence so they can return to school, start at another school or even begin a TAFE course."
Although The Song Room pays its performance artists in order to maintain a consistently high standard, it's always on the lookout for volunteers. "We need volunteers to help out with our administration load and at our various events. We've a big gala dinner fundraiser this September and really need volunteers for that," said Deborah.
And yes, while The Song Room tends to stick with highly skilled performance artists, it's open to artists who might want to volunteer in the office with a view to becoming trained in The Song Room's teaching and performance art methods. For example, Jenny Isaacs, a 26-year-old graphic designer, has just landed herself employment with The Song Room after three months spent volunteering. Jenny said: "From the minute I started with the Song Room, it felt right. When I was travelling, I volunteered in a prison in South America and I've been involved with some youth programs in Australia but this project just felt like it was in tune with my life direction."
Jenny started volunteering a few times a week, eventually settling on one day a week. "I worked in the office and helped with all sorts of administrative tasks. I was doing a lot of calling around to different schools to attend performances."
Eventually Jenny convinced her mentors to allow her to hold an 'art therapy' workshop for kids during the school holidays. She basically created an art room, whereby the kids attending were able to unwind and express themselves through a variety of art-related activities. "We didn't get the paints out this time. We thought that might be a bit messy the first time around," laughed Jenny. "But I brought some fantastic off cuts of material and stuff so the kids could make artworks ... We did huge chalk drawings on the ground which were really successful and I photocopied some gorgeous mandalas for the kids to colour in. It was really free and open so the kids could wander in and out as they pleased but most of them sat with their heads down, completely absorbed in what they were doing. It was terrific."
Jenny's new role involves her being paid to run these art therapy sessions in school holidays but she says she'll continue volunteering in the office one day each week. "I just really like being involved in such a fantastic project!"
More information
To volunteer, donate instruments or to find out more, visit www.songroom.org.au
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au