Life Up Here: Music camp!

Before we moved up here I knew I would need to get the kids involved in some activities this summer--we'd be arriving in August, and school doesn't start until September. A month of no friends, few toys, and no activities would have been....well....let's just be polite and say "difficult". What's a kid to do in Iqaluit for the summer? The resounding answer? Music camp!

Sporting new camp T's

Every summer the Iqaluit Music Society runs a hugely popular week-long camp. Campers get to choose from various musical activities: Inuit drum dancing, xylophone, recorder, fiddle, percussion, throat singing, accordion, choir, and bagpipes. (For those of you not in "the know", throat singing is a hugely popular traditional Inuit form of breathing/chanting. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I)

Coraline has always wanted to learn to play the violin, so she was easy. Signed her up for the two strings: fiddle and guitar. DJ was trickier. Although very musically inclined, he has the attention span of a gnat and mostly just wants to run around and kick balls. So.....Inuit drum dancing it is! The way I saw it, he would get to bang something and move around. Perfect! Plus, Inuit drum dancing sounds exotic and cool. Since I had to select one more activity: percussion. More banging on things.

Registration. Note the sealskin in the background.

Throat singing is extremely popular among the girls.

This camp is extremely well organized with volunteers flying in from around the country to help out every year. The best part about camp? Its FREE, so no one is excluded. (Even the instruments are supplied to the students with no rental fee.) This makes it available to everyone in the community. (Donations are graciously accepted but not expected.)


Coraline working on art with new friends.

The camp runs two community events in the evening. The first was a "Community/Family Inuktitut Dance". This was scheduled to start at 7pm. Being the ignorant southerners that we are (please see previous posts), we arrived 30 minutes early for this. It seemed everyone in town was talking about this event, so I wanted to make sure we got good seats! We all arrived, filled with anticipation, and realized no one else was even in the building yet. The band wasn't even there. We have since learned that in Iqaluit nothing starts even close to "on time". One of our neighbours laughed her head off when she walked in and saw us just sitting there in the empty school gym.

That's Coraline standing by herself waiting for other people
to show up for the dance.

At about 7:25 the music finally started. Two local Inuit were assigned the task of leading everyone in the dances. As I sat there watching and listening I suddenly realized I knew one of the people up dancing. It was CORALINE!! Now, everyone who knows Coraline knows that she is the last person anyone would expect to spontaneously get up and dance in front of a crowd. She's the very definition of a wall-flower (like her introverted mother). But there she was, with her new friend Lilith, joining in with the dancing. I couldn't have been more proud.

And later, joining in, to our surprise.

Friday evening the camp culminated in a 2 hour concert. We knew upon arrival this would be a special event. First, people were getting there on time. Second, nearly every seat in the place was taken. I can't believe I'm saying this about a kids' music camp concert, but it was FANTASTIC. Traditional drummers, fiddle players, accordion, and of course the kids. I have been a mom for 7 years now, and I've politely sat through any number of children's performances. I've always been proud of my children for having courage and getting up in front of a crowd to perform. Let's face it though, you (or maybe its just me?) mostly attend this type of event to cheer on your own kid and spend the rest of the time bored. Not this concert. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it: even when my kids were not on the stage. (Please excuse the fuzziness of photos, my iPhone didn't do well in the low-light of the gym.)