Mongolia
From September 16th to 28th, 2019, four Hip Hop artists traveled to Mongolia. DJ Excess, MC A. Billi Free, Beatmaker Aaron “DJ A-L” Ladley and Dancer Stuntman were joined by site manager Kane Smego to perform for audiences and collaborate with local artists to promote cross-cultural creative exchange and conflict transformation.
Their first day there, they kicked off the Next Level Academy Workshops at Ulaanbaatar Ensemble, a cultural arts center run by the city government. There was great diversity of experience and skill levels, artistic styles/disciplines, and geographic diversity of participants at the workshops. Student-collaborators arrived from 11 different provinces, with some from Inner Mongolia (China) and from Russia. Topics they covered included arts education, conflict transformation and entrepreneurship.
The Next Level team also performed at the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Open House Day in Sukhbaatar Square. The event welcomed cultural performances and groups from various countries’ cultural representatives who all danced and waved along to the music.
During a Jam Session, the Next Level team worked with five musicians that were members of Ulaanbaatar Ensemble and a dancer. The musicians involved all represented various traditional instruments and musical styles including a horse-head fiddle player, a zither player, a dulcimer player, an upright horse-head bass player who was also a throat singer and a long song singer. Together, they created a song that they performed at the final concert.
Team Mongolia also organized a block party event for youth and residents of a local community. Young members of the community from ages 3 to 15 came to experiment and play with the deejaying and beatmaking equipment, for some hands-on fun, learning and exchange.
The final concert was held in the UB Ensemble auditorium and featured performances from the Next Level artist-educator team, student-collaborators, traditional musicians involved at the jam session, and local Hip Hop dancers of various genres (popping, locking, breaking, etc.).
NEXT LEVEL ACADEMY PARTICIPANTS
