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.