Crab Nebula, along with Cesca Waterfield, perform for Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. They prepare a fully interactional and educational program tailored to the school's curricula and program goals. They have performed and led programs for all age groups with much success and will be happy to provide references from school administrators and program leaders. The kids have a great time while learning, and faculty and administrators are often surprised at how enthusiastic and involved the students become, as they ask questions, sing, and play music, many for the first time.
Cesca and the band can design programs that implement lessons and exercises in music theory and history, American history, the Humanities, and more. Schools are especially eager to have the band perform prior to state testing, as interactive exercises like those in which Crab Nebula and Cesca Waterfield engage students are shown to improve test scores when presented shortly before testing.
For further information, please email [email protected]
| Photos and Article from The Coastland Times, North Carolina, February 1, 2004
According to Allyson Jackson, chairman of First Flight Middle School's Cultural Arts Program, "Research proves that exposure to the arts is vital to learning because it causes students to use a different part of their brains, and if they're not getting it, we're not addressing the whole child."
 Every other month, Jackson brings performers in all forms of art to First Flight Middle, giving the kids a taste of culture they can�t get in textbooks.
The most recent performance was, as Jackson puts it, �out of the box a bit,� but it was certainly one that none of the students in attendance will ever forget.
Crab Nebula, a renowned jam band from Norfolk, Va., has been making a name for itself up and down the east coast for years, bringing a unique style, which really defied definition by combining elements of virtually all genres of music, to audiences throughout the region.
On Friday, Jan. 16, they hit the stage in the First Flight gymnasium at 9 a.m. for what one band member said was �the earliest any of us have ever played in our lives.�
They opened the one-hour show with a few original instrumentals that mixed elements of rock, reggae, and funk. Midway through, the four-piece group brought singer-songwriter Cesca Waterfield on stage to do a few of her own tunes.
 In between songs, both the band and Waterfield talked to the students about the diverse musical backgrounds that each musician on stage came from, all coming together to create a new style.
Cesca then gave the kids a history lesson in how all of today�s most popular music can be traced back to the blues, being one of America�s earliest musical expressions of real emotion.
The highlight of the morning came when a number of students were invited onstage to help the band compose a new song.
First Flight�s Cultural Arts Program was started four years ago by parent Becky Lawrentz. Jackson took over this year and, while other area schools have similar programs, she has ambitions of eventually creating one county-wide program.
�It takes a lot of money to book these performers,� she said, �and it all comes from PTA fund-raisers and grants. We can lower theses costs through discounts for multi-bookings. I want all of Dare�s schools to work together to book some really quality acts.�
With that in mind, Jackson is putting out a call for volunteer parents, both to get involved with he program and to help organize a county-wide program.
Ideally, she said she�d like to have at least one representative from each school to work under one county-wide director, where each school�s representative would be responsible for setting up
One month�s program.
Anyone interested in getting involved with the Cultural Arts Program is asked to call Allyson Jackson in Kill Devil Hillls.
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