IN PRACTICAL TERMS THE SCHOOL

• organizes monthly folk dance events by mixing each time two distinct cultures (eg. Kurdish and Irish) with the local one (eg. Finnish).
• manages a list of teachers worldwide but does not influence on their teaching methods (eg. Suzuki, Orff, etc.) the teachers remain independent on their teaching methods (teaching directly to the student) but having content guidelines on the next dance event to which the student should prepare for
• creates open publications of their work
• organizes one on one music classes online and locally
• offers artistic residencies at Hyrsylän Koulu (Finland only, from 2019)
• promotes and organizes music workshops and camps
• supports ethnomusicology research

FILLING IN A GAP

The WMS fills in the gap between the many high level teaching Institutions and the informal music sessions spread out around the country. Finland needs such a school because exploring music traditions of other countries and continents will not only increase participants knowledge of different cultures but also strengthens everyone`s own cultural tradition. The WMS will contribute to development of social capital, new cultural skills and mindsets for future Finland.

THE TEACHING METHOD

1 – We mix experts with beginners, where rules are added later and incrementally.

2 – As a language, students use immediately what they learn, performing from day one to improvise and make mistakes. To achieve that, we use folk dance music because:

• it uses easy to pick up tunes through their repetitiveness and simple arrangements
• it focuses, not on the musicians, but on the social gathering itself, taking the pressure away from the learning.
• It offers room for more experienced players to improvise showing to the novice its power as means of expression
• it gives an immediate recognition effect (as in games)
• it enhances the body language (via dance) decreasing the need for a common native language

3 – We increase the student’s knowledge by focusing on the “words” (instruments and repertoire) they like most. For that we generate income from the monthly public dance folk events where students play with others. That money is used to subsidize further private lessons. Students can choose from our list of teachers worldwide and via video-conference, they learn their favorite “language” so they can come back to the dance events and perform further and even teach others!

4 – We document the process in a systematic and interactive way to promote further improvements. The events content and outcome is documented via the latest available technologies such as Virtual Reality 360 Cameras, to allow a multitude of exploration and participation of the public and of students.

HIGHLIGHTS