Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Master African Drummers

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The dancers in yesterday's post were backed up by these drummers and their colleagues. The man above was the leader. He said that he studied and worked for many years with with the great dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham, who lived for many years in East St. Louis, Illinois. He left to study dance, music and culture in tropical West Africa, then returned to East St. Louis and formed his troupe. I did not learn his name. The MC referred to him as Sun or Son. He played with ferocious intensity. That concentration and dedication has been passed on to his student, below.

WHAT GOOD STUFF IS ON FOR TONIGHT: leaving for Seattle this evening.

TOMORROW: not the last dancers but the last of these for now.


2 comments:

Sharon said...

I love his intense eyes!

Layrayski said...

you captured passion in this photo. Love it.