Our Teaching Faculty
and Presenters
Drum and Splash at Four Quarters,
2009
Jim Donovan of Rusted Root:
Community Drum Circle, Drum the Ecstatic Evolution
Sogbety Diomande with Hamidou Kovogui:
Masters Ivory Coast Djembe, DunDun and Dance
Waking Dream:
Puppeteering, Masking and Interactive Performance Art
The Ohio Burn Unit: Setting Art
on Fire
Kenyatta: Master of the Jun's
Dr. Billy Bardo: Bohdran and
Hoop Drum, Fire Circle Magical Medicine Show Madness
Kevin and Cindy Ryan: Middle Eastern
Dance+Dumbek
Amara: the Beauty of Oriental
Movement
Jason Walker: Carribean Grooves
Alex Wedmedyk: Drum Building+Care,
Community Circle
Dr. Harry Pepper, PhD: Shamanic
Journey Drumming.
Marlenah Barker: Hoop Dance and
Fire Arts
Khalil Calavas: Morning meditations
and Yoga
Sweat Lodge: with Buffalo Heart
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Rusted Root's
Jim Donovan
Eat. Drum. Sleep.... Repeat daily.
Jim Donovan is a current
and founding member of the multi-platinum band Rusted Root.
Jim has released 2 ambient solo CDs as well as 4 instructional
drumming CDs. His newest Cd is an electro-tribal-dance disc
entitled "Revelation #9”.
Fulfilling his desire to share the power of
rhythm first hand to people, Jim has built an educational
drumming workshop program that he teaches across the US
at festivals, schools, universities and specialty venues.
Recently, he released four companion CDs for
these workshops, Rhythm and Drumming Workshop Easy, Vol.
1 and 2, Vol.3 These discs are simple, effective guides
for people regardless of their experience to learn hand
rhythms and develop their musical listening skills. An instructional
DVD is in the works for release in late 2003.
Jim is also a featured monthly columnist in
Drum! Magazine the worlds number one drumming magazine.
Email info@jimdonovanmusic.com
Visit Rusted Root online at www.RustedRoot.com
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Sogbety Diomande
with Djo Bi, and Moha Dosso
was born in the village of Toufinga, a small
farming community located in the Northwest region of the
Ivory Coast near the border of Guinea in Africa. He started
his career as a drummer and dancer at a very early age.
He trained as a stilt dancer with his uncle, Vado Diomande,
the reigning national stilt dancing champion. Sogbety has
been stilt dancing since the age of ten and possesses the
ability, through his stilt mask, to act as a mediator between
the world of the living and the spiritual world of the ancestors.
Sogbety’s most recent projects are forming
his own West African Drum and Dance Company, touring with
Jim Donovan's Drum the Ecstatic, and performing for schools
and universities. In February of 2005 he formed his own
troupe and performed for Black History events in Ohio.
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Waking
Dream
Waking Dream is live interactive
performance art, presenting works of giant puppetry, pageantry,
and stilt dance - all intended to invoke the imagination.
Waking Dream's performances and workshops encourage audience
participation in both performance and production, blurring
the line between spectator and spectacle. The results are
always unexpected and magical!
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Alex Wedmedyk
Drum Building, Care
and Drum Circle
EttiquetteAlexWednedyk is a
craftsman, drummer and facilitator,and has been building drums and playing them
since 1990. Over the years he has had many teachers and shares "the
jewels of knowledge" he has picked up along the way. All of his workshops
emphasize that the Eternal Spring of Creativity is our Spirit, and that we connect
to this source by enhancing our relationship with the Great Spirit. Our inner
strength and outer power is directly related to how well we move through our lives
"in rhythm". Through Earth Rhythm, he has created, with his wife Joy,
various workshops and events on self discovery & personal empowerment.
Alex has facilitated many workshops,drum circles and rituals throughout the Midwest.
He has created the annual Adventures in Rhythm Drummers Retreat and the Rites
of Spring Community Gathering of Ohio. |
Introducing the Ohio Burn Unit
We are a troupe of performance artists specializing
in making every event the hottest in town. All of our shows
revolve around the central theme of fire and flame, adding that
extra spice to every exhibition we are a part of. Our group
includes fire breathers, dancers, stilt walkers, and spinners.
We can cater to the needs of any venue or theme necessary, and
can provide anywhere from two to six professional performers.
The Ohio Burn Unit is dedicated to safe, unique
presentations of ornate skill. With the many different combinations
of routines and performances that we offer, we are sure to turn
heads everywhere we perform. www.ohioburnunit.com
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Kenyatta
Building the Base
Kenyatta brings a rare accessibility
and plain faced joy to the JunJuns, as the healing power
of the heartbeat. He has answered the call since the age
of five, when his father made presents to him of drums,
and replaced then as they were worn out!
Kenyatta has studied at The Iroko Drum
and Dance Society with Baba David Coleman. And performed
with M'bemba Bangora and Raymond Sylla; as well as with
the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and at The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. Kenyatta plays and teaches with elementary
and Middle schools in the Cleveland area and colleges throughout
the east coast
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Kevin
and Cindy Ryan
Kevin and Cindy Ryan have been Middle Eastern dancers and drummers
for the last decade and a half. Fourteen years ago, at the first
Drum & Splash, they turned up with these little dumbek whatjamacallits.
A couple of hours later, they were asked “How _do_ you
get that many sounds out of that tiny thing?!” They’ve
been coming back ever since... Kevin and Cindy drum, dance,
and teach in an assortment of venues, including several years
in their group Celtistan. Cindy is also a principle dancer in
the award winning Silk Road Dance company. And in the meantime,
they drum on any nearby surface that doesn’t object too
loudly, to the dismay of their cats.
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Amara
of The Moon
Over a decade ago, I took my first belly dance class for exercise.
Little did I know at the time the impact that studying and performing
this wonderful and much misunderstood dance form would have
on my life. As a means of creative self-expression, it has brought
me benefits beyond what I could have imagined. Special areas
of interest include North African dance (Guedra, Moroccan Shikkat,
Algerian Ouled Nail, and Tunisian), Turkish Roma and Oryantal
dance, and Central Asian dance. Several years ago, as a result
of my dance studies, I became interested in drumming. My first
drum was the dumbek, which I enjoy playing in drum and drum/dance
circles. Later, I became attracted to the resonance and richness
of sound of the tar and riqq and am currently studying these
instruments, most recently with Layne Redmond. In addition to
dancing and drumming, I also enjoy traveling and have been to
Turkey, Morocco, and Egypt.
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Billy Bardo
Master of the Fire Circle Medicine Show, with his healful tonics
and smile inducing tictures of merriment and madness; Doctor Billy
Bardo's magical Medicine Show will help you cure your ills. William
Thorpe is a master metalsmith, preacher, artist, musician, and
most importantly; husband and father.
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Jason Walker
Jason Walker is a 1996 graduate of the Hartt
School of Music under the direction of Ben Toth. Since graduating
he has used drumming in a variety of settings including: Therapeutic
intervention programs, workshops, concerts, as a dance accompanist,
and private teacher. In addition, Jason’s drumming can
be found on the 2004 Wammie award winning album “Elements”
by Verlette Simon and Michael Willis, 2004 album “Hard
Swimmin’ Fish” (blues band), and is on upcoming albums
by Wammie award winning singer/songwriter Rachel Cross, and
Saxophonist Dave Schumacher. Jason currently studies Afro-Cuban
drumming with master percussionist Sam Turner.
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Marlenah Barker
Marlenah Barker has been a self-taught hooper
for a year and a half. Despite having no background training
in dance, she has thrown herself into this form of creative
movement with passion and intensity. She was nominated for "Best
New Hooper of the Year" in 2007 by the international online
hooping community at www.Hooping.org. Marlenah seeks to bring
joy and beauty to the lives of those around her by teaching
hoopdance to men and women of all ages and fitness levels. She
enjoys performing with her LED and fire hoops at clubs, festivals,
and events throughout the Philadelphia area.
Marlenah Barker: Hoopdance Performance and Instruction
215.290.3738
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