Apprenticeship Program Participants
Round 6
(2005-2006)
Krysta Wright (San Jacinto) will study African American
quilting and doll making with her aunt, master artist Allyson Allen (San
Jacinto). Allen uses traditional patterns, colors and hand sewing
techniques to create pieces that she uses as a storyteller to illustrate
African and West Indian tales. She learned quilt and doll making and
storytelling from her older sister, mother and grandmother, who were born
and raised in Jamaica. Wright and Allen have been working together
for many years and participated in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in
2001. Allen will now introduce Wright to more elaborate hand appliqué techniques
and Wright will create a quilt and puppet based on the African legend of
the spider weaver.
Agbi Ladzekpo (Castaic) will study traditional drumming
of the Ewe people of Ghana with master artist Kwashi Amevuvor (Los
Angeles). Amevuvor comes from a traditional Ewe drumming lineage and
learned drumming from his father when he was a child growing up in the Volta
region of Ghana. Ladzekpo also comes from a Ewe drumming lineage
and he had the opportunity to learn drumming from his father. During
this apprenticeship Ladzekpo will learn advanced drumming techniques so
that he can teach other students and prepare for performances.
Red Dagum (Beaumont) will study Filipino eskrima with
master artist Crispulo Atillo (Beaumont). Eskrima is
a non-aggressive weapons-based martial art rooted in Filipino history and
culture. Great Grandmaster Atillo began studying eskrima as
a teenager with his father and with Great Grandmaster Teodoro Saavedra. Dagum
will work with Great Grandmaster Atillo on hand and footwork and stick fighting
techniques.
Ali Luna (Richmond) will study Puerto Rican bomba with
master artist Roman Carrillo (Oakland). Bomba is
a uniquely Puerto Rican form of music and dance with African, Spanish, French
and indigenous influences. Raised in Puerto Rico, Carrillo began to
learn bomba as a teenager, studying with Rafael Cepeda Afiles,
founder of Familia Cepeda. Already an experienced drummer, Luna will be
refining his skills on percussion, as well as learning to sing and dance.
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Ho Chan (rear) and Sokheartha Chhim
(front) playing Cambodian pin peat music.
Photo courtesy of Ho Chan
Sokheartha Chhim (Canoga Park) will study Cambodian pin
peat ensemble music with master artist Ho Chan (Long
Beach). Pin peat is a wind and percussive orchestra that
performs at religious ceremonies or accompanies Cambodian classical or
folk dance. Chan’s grandfather began to teach him to play
the traditional Cambodian instruments when he was a young boy in Battambang,
Cambodia. Chhim and Chan have been working together for many years. Chhim
will now expand his repertoire of dance music, and refine his skills on
the roneat (wooden xylophone).
Gladys Ka Wa Liu and Zenon Anderson rehearsing “Dang Ma,” a Kunqu dance
piece.
Photo courtesy of The Academy of Chinese Performing Arts.
Gladys Ka Wai Liu (San Ramon) and Zenon Anderson (Cupertino)
will study Chinese Kunqu dance with master artist David
Chen (Fremont). Kunqu dance comes from the Kun Opera,
which originated in the Kunshan region of Jiangsu Province more than five
hundred years ago. Chen began to study Kunqu as a teenager
with the Shanghai Opera and Dance Theatre. Liu and Anderson are both
advanced students who will learn to perform a Kunqu piece called “Dang
Ma,” which is based on the story of two Yang Generals of the Song
Dynasty.
Laura Sanders (Orleans) will study Karuk basketweaving
with master artist LaVerne Glaze (Orleans). In addition
to weaving techniques, basketweavers must also know when and where to gather
plant materials as well as how to process them. Glaze began learning
to weave over thirty years ago from mentors Ella Johnson and Lee Peters. Sanders
has woven miniature baskets and will weave her first full sized acorn soup
basket under Glaze’s instruction.
Lucina Rodriguez (El Cerrito) will study son abajeño rural
mariachi dance with master artist Julian Gonzalez (Richmond). Son
abajeño is a pre-commercial mariachi music and dance style from
rural Jalisco, Mexico. Julian Gonzalez grew up in rural Jalisco,
and learned son abajeño from his father and uncle. Originally
from Jalisco, Rodriguez danced banda (dances performed to Mexican
big band music) and zapateados (foot stamping done in a counter
rhythm) since she was a child and has been learning son abajeño from
Gonzalez for the past six years. She will continue to learn the traditional
repertoire and will also focus on improvisation and garment usage.
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Phillip Hagopian (Fresno) will study Armenian folk music
on the oud (short handled lute) with his grandfather, master artist Richard
Hagopian (Selma). Richard Hagopian started learning the oud as
a child and had the opportunity to study with Kanuni Garbis Bakirgian. He
was named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in
1989. Phillip Hagopian took an interest in the oud at the
age of four and started to teach himself how to play. Now an intermediate
player, he will work with his grandfather to refine his fingering and picking
techniques and learn the modes and notes of Armenian music.
Master artist Holly Hensher (Orleans) will teach apprentice Paula
Allen (Eureka) to make a Karuk women’s maple bark skirt. Used
in tribal ceremonies, Karuk women’s maple bark skirts are made from
the innermost layer of bark of the big leaf maple trees found within the
Karuk ancestral territories. Hensher began weaving when she was
sixteen years old and learned the art of making maple bark skirts from
Lyn Risling. Raised in a traditional Karuk and Yurok family, Paula
Allen has participated in ceremonies primarily as a dancer and singer. Last
year she assisted Hensher in the construction of a maple bark skirt, and
during this apprenticeship she will learn each step of the process, from
the initial gathering of materials to the skirts’ care and preparation
for ceremonies.
Winnowing tray woven by Bertha Mitchell, featured in Brian Bibby's
The
Fine Art of California Indian Basketry.
Photo courtesy of Bertha
Mitchell.
Nadine Mitchell (Willow) will study Wintun basketweaving
with her aunt, master artist Bertha Mitchell (Arbuckle). Bertha
Mitchell learned the art of basketweaving as a child from her mother, Lydia
Wright. She began to teach her niece Nadine basketweaving about two
years ago and during the apprenticeship she will continue to teach gathering,
processing and weaving techniques to create a coiled basket made of willow,
sedge and redbud.
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Master artist Glenn Moore, Sr. (Hoopa) will teach his
grandson, Glenn Moore, Jr. (Hoopa), to make a Yurok hand-carved
redwood dugout canoe. Used in Yurok and Hoopa ceremonies, master and
apprentice will carve the canoe from an Old-growth redwood tree. Glenn
Moore Sr. learned to carve canoes as a teenager from his older brother,
Haines Moore. Glenn Moore II helped his grandfather when he carved
his last boat several years ago and this time he will have the opportunity
to learn all of the techniques and skills used to carve a canoe.
Shahrzad Moghadam (San Jose) will study classical Persian
music and theory on the santour (hammered dulcimer) and zarb (goblet
drum) with master artist Mohammad Nejad (San Jose). Nejad’s
father taught him to play the ney (Persian flute) and zarb when
he was a little boy in Tehran, Iran. He later earned a Bachelor of
Fine Arts in Musicianship and Performance from Tehran University. Moghadam
has been studying with Nejad for three years. She will now refine
her fingering and performance techniques so that she can perform at an advanced
level.
Bita Sharif (Los Angeles) will study Persian tonbak (goblet
drum) with master artist Houman Pourmehdi (Los Angeles). The tonbak is
considered the chief Persian percussion instrument and uses elaborate finger
techniques to create a variety of sounds. Pourmehdi learned to play tonbak thirty
years ago when he was a child in Tehran, Iran. His mentors were Master
Effetah and Master Morteza Ayan. Sharif began studying with Pourmehdi
three years ago and during this intense period of training she hopes to
move from an intermediate to an advanced level of playing.
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Isis Raele (left) and another Capoeira Mandinga Academy student
play capoeira.
Photo © George Ancona 2005.
Isis Raele (Oakland) will study Brazilian capoeira with
her step-father, master artist Marcelo Pereira (Oakland). Capoeira is
the only indigenous martial art of the Americas and was developed by African
slaves in Brazil. Mestre Pereira started playing capoeira on
the streets of São Paulo, Brazil, as a child and later studied with
Mestre Suassuna of the Cordão de Ouro Capoeira Academy. Raele
has been studying capoeira with Mestre Pereira for several years. She
will add advanced elements and sequences to her repertoire of capoeira movements
in order to move to the next belt level. She will also learn to play
and sing new songs, as well as make the musical instruments that accompany capoeira.
Madhvi Venkatesh (Irvine) will study South Indian Bharata
Natyam dance with master artist Viji Prakash (Los
Angeles). One of the classical dance forms of India, Bharata
Natyam was originally practiced as a form of worship in temples. Prakash
began studying Bharata Natyam as a young child with Guru Mahalingam
Pillai and Guru Kalyanasundaram of the Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharata Natya
Kala Mandir in Bombay, India. Venkatesh has studied with Prakash
for eleven years, since she was five years old. Because she already
has a good grasp of the technical elements of pure dance (nritta),
Venkatesh will now focus on the interpretive and dramatic aspects of
the dance form (nritya) in this intense period of study.
Pomo baby cradle woven by Luwana Quitiquit.
Photo courtesy of Luwana
Quitiquit.
Master artist Luwana Quitiquit (Nice) will teach her niece Elaine
Quitiquit-Palmer (McKinleyville) to weave a Pomo baby cradle. Originally
made to carry and protect children, Pomo cradles are made with willow
and dogwood or hazel. Luwana Quitiquit became interested in basketweaving
thirty years ago when she had the opportunity to take classes with renowned
Pomo basketweaver Mabel McKay. Because she lives far away from other
Pomo weavers, Elaine Quitiquit-Palmer has learned some Yurok, Karuk, Wiyot
and Miwok basketry techniques. She will now have the opportunity
to work with her aunt to learn Pomo gathering and weaving techniques.
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Nitya Venkateswaran (Berkeley) will study South Indian Bharata
Natyam dance with master artist Vishal Ramani (Morgan
Hill). Bharata Natyam dancers use movement and expression
to depict Hindu mythological stories and themes. Ramani began studying Bharata
Natyam at the age of three with Guru Kuppiah Pillai, Sri Govindraj
Pillai and Sri Mahalingam Pillai at the Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharata
Natya Kala Mandir in Bombay, India. Venkateswaran has studied
with Ramani for twenty four years. Already an accomplished solo
dancer, she will use this apprenticeship to learn the theories and
techniques behind choreography so that she can choreograph her own dance
pieces.
Ferenc and Mária Tobak performing on the Hungarian furulya.
Photo courtesy of Mary Tobak
Mária Tobak (Fort Bragg) will study the Hungarian furulya (fipple
flute) with her father, master artist Ferenc Tobak (Fort
Bragg). Ferenc Tobak began playing the furulya at an early
age and also began to play the duda (Hungarian bagpipe) as a young
man. He sought out teachers where he lived in the Transdanubia region
of Hungary and also traveled to Transylvania and Moldavia in Romania to
find musicians who could teach him traditional Hungarian folk music. He
learned to make bagpipes and received official recognition from the Hungarian
government for his work as a traditional instrument maker. Mária
Tobak has been studying furulya with her father for six years and
will now refine her playing techniques and increase her repertoire of dance
tunes, laments, and holiday music.
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