TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Alexandra Nikolova
This project was designed in accordance with the general Erasmus+ objectives and met most of the aims of the learning mobilities:
>>To provide participants with a theoretical framework of music and its influence on our body and our emotions. Youth workers will be introduced to a rich set of exercises and tools such as the music theory basics, digital music production using Ableton Live, recording and editing sounds and compiling all those into educative activities for youth.
>>To support the professional development of youth leaders and improve the quality of youth work across Europe through the improvement of digital literacy and innovation. In order to reach this objective, we are planning to introduce youth workers with a rich variety of tools that explore usage of digital tools for recording and editing music and sound.
>>To facilitate the personal development of the participants and their target groups. Participants will experience an exploration of voice and body resonance, body percussion, practical understanding of basic music theory and learning professional tools for recording and sharing simple musical pieces. All of these tools will boost their personal confidence and creative expression.
>>To raise the awareness of the influence and the impact that music can have (both positive and negative) in the participants’ feelings and perceptions, during the development of non-formal educational activities (NFE). Throughout the project, youth workers will experiment with co-creation of music and will be introduced to different impacts the music elements can have.
>>To focus also on the follow-up and learning outcome from the training course. The youth workers will co-create a musical educative booklet and also a performance which will be recorded and disseminated within their networks.
We selected 25 artivists who were interested in experimenting with music and sound as part of their future educational and collaborative activities. We were looking for youth workers and leaders, cultural workers, educators, music & sound artists and practitioners who would have liked to actively co-create the workshop with us.
▶ Where from: Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Greece, Ukraine and Bulgaria
The trainer team was my colleague from Spain, Bruno Morera and I.
About Bruno:
Musician, Clown, Street Performer, Acrobat, Bruno has a huge experience in itinerancy and nomadism. He has toured for almost 10 years with nomad companies. He works clown for individuals and improvisation for groups in all three practical levels: directing performing and coaching. He participated to the research-action of Ser’p’art in the field of collective improvisation in the public space and worked on this topic with many directors (Loco Brusca, Virginia Imaz, Jango Edwards, John Melville, Jef Johnson, Juan Carlos Muñoz…). In his interest for the physical body on stage, he also trained contemporary dance butoh, acro yoga, standing acrobatics, Thai massage and vegetarian cooking.
The workshop was designed in 5 main parts, building up a beautiful opera as a whole. In the Overture we spent two days into creating a bond among the participants. During our first Act, we made our first short Opera pieces in small groups and performed them in front of the others. Our Act II was about creating a sound publication and Act III to experimenting and putting together elements from Act I and II. Finally, during our Requiem, we reflected on our experience, we evaluated the project and learned more about the Erasmus+ programme - especially how to create such projects ourselves.
During the training course, the participants created several performances, a collective sound publication and a final street parade in Burlats.
As one of the two trainers, I was responsible to co-create the programme of the 2-week experience with Bruno Morera. We divided the facilitation work and care of the group equally during the whole period. I was coordinating the project of creating the sound publication. In addition, I wrote the final report of the project for Nomadways that was sent to the National Agency and the Erasmus+ programme.
Together with Alexandra, we implemented Music Moves You[th] project in France in 2022. During the project, she was a core member of the team, co-creating the programme, co-facilitating the workshop, and summarising our work in the final report.