The Chinese Association of Greater Kalamazoo is hosting their 31st annual Chinese New Year celebration tomorrow evening in Chenery Auditorium. More than a dozen different groups will showcase traditional Chinese music, dance and martial arts to celebrate the upcoming year of the dragon. Lorraine Caron reports:
Last Friday, at the first of only two full rehearsals for the celebration, David Bosak led eight students from the Modern Chinese School as they worked a routine with their brand new 30-foot-long paper-mache dragon.
Bosak and two other drummers work the Chinese drums as the students practice a large figure-eight with the dragon’s big head, and red and gold-cloth body suspended overhead on wooden poles. The dragon weighs about 25 pounds.
Younger students wait their turn to show the dragon how fierce they are by screaming and going through martial arts moves. A figure carrying a lighted, jingling orb joins the routine, dancing in front of the dragon:
Bosak directs the Kalamazoo Lion Dance Troupe. The members already know how to make traditional Chinese lions dance, each with two people inside it, but this is their first time working with the larger dragon:
[David Younger] “It’s the year of the dragon so we wanted to get one made. Plus, it’s very traditional in Chinese culture for a dragon to open ceremonial events. So we did research on building a dragon, and that’s what we did.”
Last year’s Chinese New Year celebration drew a diverse crowd of 900 to Kalamazoo’s Chenery Auditorium and Bosak says organizers expect a similar turn-out on Saturday.
[David Younger] “Anybody can come and watch the dragon and lions dance. There is relatively little Chinese Language in the ceremony.”
The Kalamazoo Lion Dance Troupe formed about 25 years ago, soon after the Chinese Association of Greater Kalamazoo began operations. Bosak says took over leading the troupe because he just happens to have a musical skill that helps the dancers find inspiration.
[David Younger] “These are the Chinese drums…a bit different than western drums, you can’t tune them and they have a rim that you can beat on. I’ve been playing drums since the third grade and it’s really the only reason I’m now leading the group…I know the drums.”
[David Younger] “The story is that in ancient times China was full of bad spirits and they had to invent things to drive the bad spirits away. Lions are one invention. Another thing is the dragon and another is firecrackers and noisemakers. They are brought out for all sorts of occasions and the Lion Dance Troupes are all over in China, with many troupes patrolling different parts of a city.”
Bosak says there are at least two reasons for the Chinese Association of Greater Kalamazoo and the Modern Chinese School to host the Chinese New Year celebration. One: it’s fun.
[David Younger] “And two, I think and their parents think it’s important for the students to learn in this way. They learn to be in front of people and to memorize things…and it builds confidence and they like it and that’s why we continue to do it.”
The Chinese New Year celebration begins tomorrow night at 7 in Chenery Auditorium. General admission tickets will be available at the door.
Musicians Elden Kelly and Carolyn Koebel use ancient musical traditions to make fresh new sound
A mural of three Middle Eastern women dancing in the sand decorates the stage wall at Zooroona Restaurant on West Main Street in Kalamazoo. This scene only half prepares you for what you are about to hear.
Zooroona gets a little crowded on the weekends, but duo Elden Kelly and Carolyn Koebel have a way of capturing an audience. This could be because the crowd never knows what they are going to do next...not even down to the next note.
[Elden Kelly]“It’s a little bit of an overload for a lot of folks cause it’s not really what they’re used to getting in a restaurant environment. The amount of musical richness and material in there, and also the amount of ideas, is a little bit over the top for some folks, but we kind of take them on a journey starting with something they can relate to which is a groove and a simple melody line. And then I try to take them on a journey through and improvisation.”
It’s hard to describe what Kelly and Koebel play in words, their music definitely has elements of jazz, grassroots, and Middle Eastern folk.
Kelly is a trained jazz musician, but he can also play the oud and the glissentar, fretless stringed instruments used in the Middle East. He says, though jazz and Middle Eastern folk music may seem worlds apart, both styles are all about creating music in the moment.
[Elden Kelly] “The need to have spontaneity and surprise be in there. But that’s present in many other traditions in north Indian classical music and Middle Eastern art music. There’s that spontaneuous rendering of the music, it’s unfolding on the spot. It’s not a fixed composition that sounds the same each time. It’s like an evolving musical idea. That’s a traditional thing but it’s evolving into the future and that’s why that traditional music always sounds fresh to me even though it’s ancient.”
Kelly says he also appreciates traditional Middle Eastern music for its spiritual themes. Some of Kelly’s lyrics are actually texts from the Ba’hai faith, a religion that believes all world religions are connected. Carolyn Koebel says she enjoys playing music that helps people of all faiths to have a spiritual experience.
[Carolyn Koebel]“I haven’t found any style of sacred music that doesn’t speak to me. People are very enlivened by what I contribute to the music. It helps to bring them to a stronger place of connectedness in their practice. I found that’s really valuable for me as well.”
Though both Koebel and Kelly jam with other musical groups, Koebel says she likes playing in a duo because there are fewer restrictions on where you can take the music.
[Carolyn Koebel] “Really living in the moment, taking risks, and beautiful things emerge and occasionally surprises of all sorts happen. We surprise each other and sometimes you land together in really magical ways and that’s just a beautiful thing to witness I think. It’s beautiful to witness art being made.”
Elden Kelly and Carolyn Koebel say they are planning on releasing a full album in future. For now, you can catch the duo at Zooroona this Saturday night at 8. They will also be at the March ArtHop in Kalamazoo on March 2nd at Terrapin World Wide Imports.
