African Dance & Drumming Assemblies
Cape Cod African Dance & Drum, including master West African drummers, offer an exciting educational program for school assemblies and family events. With highly favorable reviews, they have been presenting assemblies and workshops regularly throughout Cape Cod at public schools, libraries and family events. By watching and participating, students are exposed to the West African dance and drumming tradition. They take something very special with them: African dance, rhythm and song!

• Opening the show, the Ensemble performs the traditional dances and rhythms of Guinea, Mali, and Senegal, West Africa, in traditional costumes.
  
  
• The ensemble gives explanations and the cultural background of the African dance and drumming tradition.
  
  
• African drummers teach a beautiful call and response song from their homeland.
  
  
• Students then have the chance to try the African dances themselves! They may come up and dance with the Ensemble in a group, learning simple traditional movements.
  
  
• The audence may then participate in a Question and Answer session with the ensemble. This is highly informative, where students can learn many in depth details about African culture and history, as well as the dance and drumming tradition.
  
  
• Students may then sit with the drummers to try out the rhythms. Our drummers will teach several simple rhythms that the students can play as an ensemble. In this way, they can experience the multi-rhythmic nature of African drumming, where several rhythms play and interlock as a rhythmic whole.

Our assemblies are fun, hands-on and highly energizing for kids. Most of all, it is a valuable learning opportunity to experience African culture firsthand — through dancing, drumming, stories and song.

Afterschool Classes & Workshops

Turning Pointe Studio (Falmouth) dance students

Our ensemble teaches more in depth workshops on African dance and drumming for all ages of students, in many venues throughout the Cape. Drum classes focus on the rhythms and hand technique for drumming with djembe and djun djun drums. Dance classes highlight traditional dances from Guinea, Mali and Senegal, as well as basic African styles of movement.