Mountain Storytelling& Spontaneous Visual Art Dance, Song, and the "Canhouse Band"
Presenting The Ammons Sisters
“Heritage ALIVE!”
Stories of the Scotch-Irish Heritage of Southern Appalachia come alive through music, dance
& song, mountain storytelling, a colorful mural created before your
eyes with a fun-filled Canhouse Band!
The Ammons Sisters present “Heritage Alive,” a unified presentation through Storytelling and Spontaneous Artwork that exemplifies the left (speaks with words) and right brain (speaks with pictures), as we bring our mountain heritage alive for our audiences K-12. With 18 years of experience, we have performed throughout the South, and just about anywhere within the school environment—stage, gym floor, playground, class room, media center...even in hallways for smaller audiences. Our stories stem from our own childhood within the Scotch-Irish heritage of Western North Carolina and 7 generations of family stories passed down. Along with storytelling and spontaneous visual art, the performance includes music and song with interactive dance and the fun-filled Canhouse Band. Included within the storytelling is the touching poem “I Ain’t Nobody,” and it’s inspirational reprisal “I Am Somebody!” Time is provided for the students and teachers to carry the stories away for future reflection with “autograph time,” an opportunity to purchase our books and art prints (great for Author’s Day, Visual Art Day or Heritage Day).
$600 plus travel & per diem (1 hour entertainment) Negotiable for more than one performance in reasonable time frame
Facilities: Auditorium or gym floor; sound system, microphone, tables for books & art prints display Availability: Flexible--year round Contact: Doreyl Ammons Cain or Amy Ammons Garza Phones: 828-293-2239 or 828-631-4587 Email: artist@doreylsart.com or v.ammons@mchsi.com
King Elementary School
Girl Scouts
LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION
To Whom It May Concern:
The Ammons sisters of The Spirit of Appalachia have performed their Heritage Alive! program nine times at Swain County Center for the Arts. They did a public performance and four school assemblies for grades K-2, grades 3-5, middle school grades 6-8, and high school grades 9-12 in December of 2000 soon after this facility opened. They were invited back to perform four more school assemblies of Heritage Alive! the fall of 2004 for the same age groups.
At all of the performances the children and adults were spellbound by Amy’s stories and Doreyl’s spontaneous pastel drawings of the stories as they unfolded.
The stories and the object lesson of the stories were specifically geared to the age of each audience with members of the audience invited up to participate in a ‘Can House Band’ toward the end of the performance. The performances were quick paced with singing, dancing, storytelling and large-scaled drawing. At both the 2000 and the 2004 performances, the Ammons sisters received a standing ovation from the high school audiences due in part to Amy’s poem that focuses on self-worth.
After the first series of school assemblies, an ongoing relationship was established with these two wonderful women with their rich diversity of talents and knowledge of local history. We collaborated with the Ammons sisters in March 2001 for them to bring the fourth grade students from Jackson County to Swain County Center for the Arts to perform “Samantha Bumgarner and the History of Mountain String Music” for Swain County students in grades 3-5. This performance was the result of a residency they did for the Jackson County fourth grade students, who wrote, produced, acted and created the sets for the show. The production included elaborately drawn sets under the direction of Doreyl Cain, costuming, dancing, singing and storytelling, all beautifully choreographed. The public was invited to attend along with the Swain County elementary students, so there was standing room only for this delightful and educational performance.
In November 2003, and again in 2005, Amy and Doreyl organized and presented a Celtic Evening of Art, Music and Storytelling at Swain County Center for the Arts. It included a silent auction, musicians, singers, an art exhibit and readings from student work that came out of their recent workshops, and a reception. Those who attended the event were impressed by the quality, the presentation and the organization of the various aspects of the evening.
It has been my pleasure to get to know and work with these two gifted women over the past five years. Their unparalleled energy and vision for preserving and passing on the heritage of the mountains of western North Carolina have had a significant impact on those whose lives they have touched. Any donations or grant money they receive is used wisely and for the intended purpose. I continue to be amazed by how much they are involved in and how much they accomplish.
The stories and the object lesson of the stories were specifically geared to the age of each audience with members of the audience invited up to participate in a ‘Can House Band’ toward the end of the performance. The performances were quick paced with singing, dancing, storytelling and large-scaled drawing. At both the 2000 and the 2004 performances, the Ammons sisters received a standing ovation from the high school audiences due in part to Amy’s poem that focuses on self-worth.
In November 2003, and again in 2005, Amy and Doreyl organized and presented a Celtic Evening of Art, Music and Storytelling at Swain County Center for the Arts. It included a silent auction, musicians, singers, an art exhibit and readings from student work that came out of their recent workshops, and a reception. Those who attended the event were impressed by the quality, the presentation and the organization of the various aspects of the evening.
