Cultures Club is a youth-led arts organisation; in our first two years we have been providing high quality arts opportunities for children and young people, particularly those from groups under-represented and low-engaged in the arts, those from Black and minority ethnic communities and those with disabilities. They have been working with innovative and exciting professional practitioners, including actors and directors from Unpacked Theatre Company and singer songwriters from the Brighton based band Kiina, who can motivate young people and inspire them to take risks, be innovative and strive for artistic excellence.
Trainees aged 13 to 19 are mentored by artists and meet weekly for training in Total Theatre skills. They have opportunities for work experience, supporting artists in running workshops with younger children.
How the songs were created:
The music group tutors Katarina and Steve (from Brighton-based band
Kiina) played examples from pop and different genres of songs expressing the emotions on the cards, from the Picture Emotions pack that came out of the Euphoric Flash workshops, and members discussed how positive and negative emotions can be expressed in lyrics and music. Members divided into two groups and the four who are in a band called Void decided to write a song about how performing music can help them to escape from reality, forget their negative feelings and feel good about themselves.
It's called Energy and they performed it for our One World Show 12 Oct.
The other group are trainees who are currently helping the junior 'World Theatre' group create a pantomime and they decided to write a song for the characters they play in the panto (Peter Pan); two of them are Wendy's brothers Jake and Josh and they are supposed to work in the Darling family music shop but spend their time playing music and dreaming about being rock stars, so their song also expresses positive feelings, about their success as a rock group and escape from reality!
They will perform it with the other two who play Wendy and Mrs Darling (The dame) for the panto on Monday 15 Dec 4.30pm. All the participants said they enjoyed working on the emotions theme, which gave them plenty of ideas; their songs appear to have helped to raise their self-confidence and self-esteem.
The Void – Energy
Verse 1
I can feel the energy rising, rising in my veins,Butterflies in my stomach, feels so insane,I’m waiting backstage, to see the massive crowd,I can’t wait to be incredibly loud!
Chorus
Energy, Energy, Energy,I can’t wait to escape reality,Energy, Energy, Energy,I finally found the keyHeavenly, Heavenly, Heavenly,I like these freaky beats!This music has got control of me!
Verse 2
I can feel the energy rising, rising in my veins,Butterflies in my stomach, feels so insane,I’m waiting backstage, to see the massive crowd,I can’t wait to be incredibly loud!
Chorus x 2