Thank you all for creating a very happening scene last Saturday night at the multi cultural show on Halloween night.

You sounded awesome drummers!

The dancers were right on time and looked beautiful!

Here is a link to one of hopefully many videos from the show,  African dance and drum show

Put October 30th and 31st 2009 down on your calendar because it is going to be a super fun weekend if you like African drumming and dance.

Friday night, Ra is teaching an African dance class at Centennial Hall from 7.30 until 9.30 pm.

Saturday, Ra is teaching an African dance class during the day at the Caledonian Hall from 11 am to 1 pm, and then at night we are performing 3 African dances with heaps of drummers and dancers on stage.

Also that night there will be a marimba band playing and a fantastic Japanese Taiko drumming troupe

After these performances the House of Pleiades band will be topping off a great night of entertainment.

This is all happening in Christchurch at the Caledonian Hall, 135 Kilmore St.

Here is the poster,

Here is a short video of the first rhythm and dance we performed at CPIT in Christchurch on Saturday August 8th as part of multicultural event to raise money for Kids Can Trust. Nika, the name of the rhythm and dance, represents the earth and it comes from Zimbabwe.

Special thanks to Rich the digitalsadhu for making this video

Special

We have been playing a rhythm called African Samba in our Tuesday night drum class. We also played it during the show at the Loons Club on July 3rd. Donald Duck dances the Samba to drums from 3.30 to 4.15 of this video

“Donald, now you’re in the spirit of the Samba”…. more Donald dancing the Samba in Brazil, the land of Samba and drums, 5.40 through 8.06 of this video

Here is a short video of Kpanlogo from our show at the Loons Club

Here is a short video of the Earth Rhythm, Nika from our show at the Loons Club in Lyttleton

We are having a fun, relaxed, no pressure African drum and dance show on Friday, July 3rd 8 – 10 pm at the Loons Club in Lyttleton.
Ra McRostie, www.korudance.com, has taught us several African dances over the past year. Three of them she has taught two times each.

We are going to be playing these rhythms and dancing these dances for the first half of the Friday night show. The second half of the night we will be joining the House of Pleiades band to rock the night away.

Kate Hamilton, will be organising the dancing. If you are interested in participating, we are having a practice on Monday night, June 29th at 8 pm. Contact me and I will forward your email to Kate.

see you soon,

Jeff

House of Pleiades is the name of a band we are playing with on Friday July 3rd at the Loons Club in Lyttleton, 16 Canterbury Street. This show will be celebrating cultural diversity and unity, using music as a medium. The show starts at 8 pm, $10.

House of Pleiades is more than a band. It is a house with a foundation. There are pillars inside and all peoples and cultures come together inside this house. We can all play music together in one band, or occupy one of the pillars inside the House.

One of the interesting and real unifying aspect of the pleiades is the connection of these stars to many cultures through their mythology and history. Jimmy Brennan and Tini Te Rangiita have created this band/project with an ancient ancestor, the pleiades, as a core inspiration.

To learn more about Corporate drumming and drum shows for schools visit Connecting People Through Rhythm

Last Friday it all came together…..    Anton Ritani, myself, and John Boone (the founder and the force behind rhythminteractive) presented an interactive drum show at Jade Software Corporation Ltd in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Imagine 230 men, women, and children sitting in chairs, each with a drum in front of them, wondering what’s going to happen next. We were all there to participate in a drum show. The keyword is “participate”. Everyone was involved in the show, there were no spectators.

The folks at Jade Software  jumped in and over the next hour gave it their all. It’s a beautiful thing to watch everyone open up and get into it.

When we were finished one of the senior directors shared with me, “At first, you were in the minority if you started to drum, but then everybody started to play and you were in the minority if you weren’t participating. And then everybody was going for it.”

The show went really well and all the elements came together. Good enviroment, good people, and heaps of fun.

I love it when a plan comes together