Time to get rhythmical with Ace Dance and Eternity Percussion
Last week Thursday, I took a trip up to Birmingham to teach a rhythm workshop with Ace Dance and music, and Eternity Percussion.
Ace are a national touring dance company and are internationally recognised for their work in Contemporary African and Caribbean Dance. Combining African & Caribbean movement aesthetics with contemporary techniques they create high quality innovative performance pieces.
Eternity are a percussion group based in the Netherlands. They have a strong talent development program which enables them to provide various exchange schemes. These schemes see them performing at workshops, events, and functions all over the world.
What did we get up to?
The first half of the day was mainly about assessing the strengths and weaknesses in the group. While still introducing them to new ways of thinking. This lead to some fun filled rhythm games and an introduction to rhythmical improvisation. The main focus was to get the drummers thinking about movement, and the dancers thinking about making rhythms while moving. This was challenging for the whole group, as most wanted to veer back to their safe style, but this wasn’t an option. There’s nothing like being out of your comfort zone to discover new things.
The Challenge
The challenge for the second half of the day was to create a music and dance piece without using a sound system for music. The main group of about 30 was split up into 4. Each with a mix of dancers and drummers. The groups only and a short time to form their masterpieces. But this meant everyone and to work together to achieve the goal. As you can see from the video below all the groups rose to the challenge and the final pieces were great!
All in all it was a great day and and a great experience. I wish both groups success in all they do and thanks for having me.
