MAGICAL DRUMS with Pashyo
African Drumming - African Dance - Chants
Children - Teenagers - Adults
I have been leading Workshops for African Drumming & Dance in Europe, India, Canada and the US for 25 years. It is my pleasure to share the richness of African rhythms & dance with you, creating a tribal experience of joy beyond the limits of the mind. |
Magical Drums Workshops Learn to play African rhythms on djembe drums and move your body in new and exciting ways to the rhythm. Experience the magic of the drum beat and let yourself be carried into a joyful reality. Expand your creativity and sense of rhythm. Connect with others, learn new skills and experience aware presence. Mixed level groups. Drums are provided on request. |
|
||||
Live Music PerformancesI perform solo, in duet or with SangomaBeat World Music. We play African, Brazilian and World rhythms. We have a full program with lots of variety. We can keep it very ethnic and acoustic with a few drummers. I can bring in some jazz musicians and create World Music Jazz. Or I bring my friend DJ Bosco and we create a fusion of Electronic turn table music, drums and vocals. We play at gallery showings, birthday parties and at festivals, for dance classes, yoga classes and Shamanistic Healing sessions. TestimonialsIndeed "Magical Drums"! I think it has been over 20 years that I had last been seen danicng - due to multiple hip replacements. Suddenly I found the drums carrying me, seducing me...it just happened and i started dancing - much to my own surprise! Thank you for making this little miracle happen! "Pashyo and Sel are great performers who understand how to get the children involved. When Pashyo first started beating on the drums all of the students went silent. I have never seen my students so in awe! The best part was when the children were invited to stand up and dance along to the music. They were able to pick up on the children's enthusiasm and energy, which accelerated the entertainment and rhythm in everyone's hearts." "I have been practicing drumming with Pashyo for over a year now and am loving it! Pashyo understands the fears a beginner faces and with patience gracefully leads you to overcome these and become a confident drummer. I drum with her weekly and I look forward to every evening we get together. The classes are fun, experiential and there is a free spirit energy which makes you feel comfortable to express who you are. Thank you for your knowledge, patience and compassion!"
Past Drum Circles & WorkshopsBenjamin Franklin Elementary, Glendale |
Upcoming Workshops"Magical Drums & Dance"3rd Saturdays, 2:00 - 4:00 pm "Magical Drums Session"Tuesdays, 7:30 - 9:30 pm Magical Drums for Kid's
|
Services offered in Los Angeles:•Drum Circles •African Drum Shows
LEARN
|
||||
Past Shows
Instructional Book
and CD
|
|
|
DRUMMING AND THE NEW TRIBES
"I like to travel and am a passionate djembe player. Drums are not so easy to travel with, though. A good djembe is rather heavy, has a delicate skin. If you like to travel and drum, your best option is to buy a drum wherever you go and make connections with the local drumming scene around the drum shop. Right from the start you get connected.
Drumming moves your energy into ecstasy, brings you back into the groove of life and gets you out of the confinements of your mind into the vastness of the hear and now. It may also bring interesting people into your life.
Through drumming I met my husband Sel, through drumming I made new friends when I moved to Los Angeles, through drumming people can see more of the real me and feel my energy. It was drumming that broke the ice between my husband’s teenage son and me, his step-mom. It was drumming that made me a welcome guest at native Indian music gatherings and helped me survive the coldness of the winters in Montreal.
What a surprise to notice that people play the same African rhythms in different parts of the world. In Montreal people meet Sunday afternoons at Mount-Royal Park in the middle of the city to drum and dance. It is very well organized, has great musicians and is a pleasure to listen to. Here in Los Angeles – since it’s a spread out city - drummers meet at Venice Beach, at Griffith Park and at Leimert Park. In Berlin they drum in the Hasen Heide and at the Tiergarten. I am pretty sure that in every major city of the world people gather in the summer for outdoor drum circles.
Traditionally dances, songs and music define the culture of a geographical area, of an ethnic group, of a nation. Music and dances are expressions of a people’s uniqueness. Their rhythms are particular to their culture. African rhythms sound and feel different from Cuban or Arabian rhythms. They function in different ways. The rhythms from Ghana have a distinctively different flavor from the rhythms of Guinea or Senegal, although they are all part of West Africa. In Ghana itself the rhythms of the Fanti tribe sound different from the rhythms of the Gha tribe. I have heard that a master drummer in Guinea from one village cannot easily play with the people of a different village. He just doesn’t know the rules of their drumming tradition.
On the other hand an international world tribe of drum enthusiasts has developed. People form all walks of life join in drum circles: From the beaches of Goa to mansions under the Hollywood sign, from the dessert gatherings of the Burning Man Festival, to City Parks all over the world. Wherever the environment tolerates that kind of noise drum circles make, they mushroom into existence. May be drum teachers are sought out to teach the basic skills, some interesting rhythms to start from or how to become the best solo player in town, but the rest is up to everyone’s creativity.
Drumming has become a party language, a language of ecstasy and of self-expression, a language that connects those who want to go beyond the confinements of their societies and escape the passivity of just being a consumer of entertainment products. We are rediscovering the shamanistic qualities intrinsic in drumming. We experience that the drum carries you easily to spaces beyond the mind, to some deeper levels of your being. No drugs needed! And these spaces can be shared with others. What a gift!"
Pashyo S. Sarkin