The absolute most fun I had in Ghana was attending an all day drumming and dancing workshop with other SAS students and LLL’s. The performers were all delightful, gracious and helpful when teaching us some basics. We learned that children in villages who do not or cannot go to school become dancers or drummers even though the tradition is slowly dying. That is most unfortunate. That may be due to the building of new schools and/or the natural development of the country and its inhabitants. I was surprised to learn they have drumming and dancing competitions around the country. Those must be exciting to watch! We learned through a question and answer session near the end of the day that the performers we saw had other jobs besides dancing or drumming. Some made and sold beads, some sold tiger nuts or other produce, and some made and repaired drums. Most were married.
I have always enjoyed the sounds of African drumming. Several different size drums along with a few other hand made crude instruments called bells make their music. Actually, it is the basis of all music. Africa is where humanity began. The drumming became more intense and the dancing started! It was exhilarating! One could easily imagine being in the jungle centuries or just years ago watching these performers communicate their tales. I thought of my mother and what she would say – she would not appreciate this dancing unfortunately, but I welcomed her presence anyway.
During the day, the dancers performed seven dances from Ghana, Kenya, Jamaika, Guinnea, Senegal, and North of Ghana, but my favorite was the fastest, most vigorous shaking dance from Zambia. If you watched “So you Think You Can Dance,” you might have seen last Spring’s winner, Lauren, do this dance in a blue and white feathered costume. Lauren was fabulous and so were our performers. At times some of the students were brought in to drum or dance with the professionals.
We were divided into two groups which took turns between the dancing and drumming lessons. They taught us five dance steps and three drum beats. Then we took turns dancing and drumming for each other. We even danced individually in the circle too. It was so invigorating! We all came home(to the ship) with great enthusiasm for our day of dancing and drumming and a little bit of Africa.
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