West African Dance
My first 3 days in Shetland was happily spent island hoping (To Yell, Unst and Fetlar). When i came back to Lerwick, I saw a post advertising a drum circle on Wednesday afternoons.
I went along, and to my happy surprise, there was a drum circle of 30 primary school children all tapping funky beats on djembes, sabar, and conga drums!
This was the creation of the wonderful JOY DUNCAN - an inspirational and passionate human being who has soaked up the rhythms of West African and Cuban music and dance. The kids in the class were very proficient in percussion and more importantly having a brilliant time with the rhythm based games and exercised that JOY had prepared for them.
Afrer the kids class, I was even more overwhelmed by the Shetland West African Drum & Dance group that JOY had founded; Aestaewast
With over 15 drummers and 30 dancers, they were preparing for the Midsummer Carnival on the 21st June. It seemed like too much fun to miss out on, so I joined in!
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wow andy! its amazing what you find when you google certain words!! i'm one of the drummers in the group,(a link to our myspace site is on my blog) and i can tell you we're still talking about you!! your dancing at the cross (on the saturday afternoon) was fantastic,(you were a real crowd puller eh!) i hope you have some pics from that and the carnival? i dont have any as i was on the truck trying to stop the djuns-djuns falling over while playing at the same time. i never got to speak to you and meet you properly, but thanks for joining us, you were a real pleasure to have with us, keep in touch.
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