Posts Tagged ‘Yoruba religion’

About a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to teach a Youth Tribe Choreography/Performance class. I knew I was onto something, because my Youth Tribe Training class has some really inspirational dancers in it, and I really wanted the chance to work with them and other, more serious dancers on a deeper level. The Youth Tribe is like a mini-Sol Vida Dance Ensemble as evidenced by Fridays class at 5:30. So far, we only have two students, but these two managed to work in a delightfully, incredible way. We began with a Reggae music warm up, and proceeded to explore the world of Contact Improvisation, we worked with the concept of creating choreography without music–accapella style. Wow! After creating the choreography, I had the girls try it to three different styles of music–dubstep, electronica dance, and African drumming. Ironically enough, the piece which has the ability to go with almost anything, really came out when they did it with Fatu, Lady Drummer‘s African drumming, it was the essence of Fusion dance, as I love it. They played with speed, and worked on creating their own changes to make the choreography fluid–and they did an amazing job, and left class saying “that was so awesome,” making me believe that I may have landed upon one of my dream youth classes of all time.

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Songs for Yemaya are some of the sweetest and melodic in the pantheon of Orisha music. Enjoy this wonderful selection!

Well, Many have called and asked   why such a heavy article as Magic & Ritual Abuse:  Female Circumcision in Central and West Africa and how does this relate to women drummers?  The answer must be given in social and cultural context.  We wrote earlier on the history of djebe drumming in America, and that the djembe came to popularity in  the early to mid 70’s.   Many Africans began teaching traditional drumming in the  United States and later established drum camps in Africa frequented by many American and European students.

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The exchange of culture between West Africa and the United States  and Europe is mutual.  One of the greatest impact of western culture upon West Africa is the shift towards women playing traditional Drums of Power such as the djembe. The following clip shows a group of young women performing with their teacher on the djembe, a feat that would have resulted in severe repercussion for the women  and the teacher as recent as 15 years ago.  No doubt, the  fact that women are the greatest seekers of African  drum teachers in the United States and Europe is a prominent factor. There is significant income to made from women students.   Significant income has also been made by students, many of whom are women, traveling to Africa to participate in drumming intensives. Many benefit from these intensives including those who provide housing, cook meals, escort and teach.

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Women playing bata have been prohibited from playing these sacred drums.  It is said that this was not always the case. With the introduction of Los Reglas de Ocha, or The rules of priesthood, came the introduction of the Ceremony of Ana, or introducing the drums and drummers to the spirit of the the Dead or the spirit of Music, depending upon who you talk to .  the purpose was to make the act of playing to Orisha a sacred act.  Several Prohibitions were also introduced at this time; the prohibition of using non-consecrated drums in ceremony, the prohibition of non-priests playing in ceremony and most notably, the prohibition of women playing the Bata drums.

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