#memoriesat60 #missing community
My children were young. We were still relatively new to Billings. I was seeking out ways to connect deeply with others. I had already participated in a women’s spirituality retreat with Jean Shinoda Bolen at the Feathered Pipe Ranch west of Helena, but the rest of the participants were from out of state. Something intrigued me about the idea of going back to the ranch to build and learn to play an ashiko drum with the Drum Brothers. In 1997, I went and a new passion was born. The simultaneously diffuse and focused attention required to play polyrhythms. The waves of rhythm filling the room and my body. The pure joy of being so intensely present and connected. The sweet high when our hands and souls were in sync within the music. And the freedom in the dances accompanying these songs. This rhythmic journey and its communities took me to retreats and workshops, found me buying a djembe, a set of djun-djuns, congas, frame drums, a doumbek, a tambura in Venezuela, shakers and sticks and learning how to move my body in expansive ways. I was grateful to have amazing drumming and dance teachers: the incomparable Nigerian Babatunde Olatunji, master drummers Abdoul Dumbia from Mali and Joh Camara from Guinea, master dancer Youssouf Koumbassa from Guinea, Bangoura, a member of WOFA, the dance and drum from Guinea that performed at the ABT and came to our house for dinner and, so much learned from the Drum Brothers of Missoula and Arlee. I created a drumming circle in Billings and my dear friend Robin and I began teaching free gatherings so that we could recreate the magic locally. We played on the Rims before remembering that the drums were designed to send their sounds miles away. {My apologies to those who lived below.} Robin and I played in front of the Sun'e Eye in Monument Valley. We played for an outdoor wedding, for church services, Vicki Coffman and Bess Fredlund’s improvisational theater and dance performance at McCormick’s Café, and casually, at my house, with the Puentes Brothers from Cuba. But, mostly for each other. It was a glorious adventure and exploration. And then ... I learned to weld… and a new passion began to eclipse this one. Now, my steering wheel is most often my instrument as I play along with songs in my car. The rhythms, though, are forever part of me.
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Synchrony, sustaining a rhythm together, group music making... fosters pro-social commitment, communion, caring for each other, supporting each other, and bonding among diverse groups of people. (I encourage you to watch Mathew Marsolek's TedX talk below for a brief introduction.) My enjoyment of building community was expanded and enriched in 1997 when I first discovered polyrhythmic drumming with Matthew and the Drum Brothers at Feathered Pipe Ranch. This path took me to drum and dance retreats, workshops and classes with the Drum Brothers, Babtunde Olatunji, Abdul Dumbia, Joh Camara, Youssouf Koumbasa and others. Perhaps the most powerful and rewarding experiences were several summers at the Boulder River Rhythm Retreat. |
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