West African Drum and Dance Workshop

By Zaipo Oula from Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

2 weekends

Saturday Sept. 2^nd and Sunday Sept. 3^rd (Labor Day Weekend)

& Saturday Oct. 7^th and Sunday Oct. 8^th

Drumming, Dance, and Folk Chanting of Ivory Coast

Cost:

1 workshop: $15 / 2 workshops: $25 / 3 workshops: $40

All 6 workshops: $50

Reservations: 410-836-5153 / 443-616- 5685

Location: All workshops held at the Community Bon-fire area.

Ivory Coast phenomenal entertainer Zaipo Oula brings us 6 1-hour long workshops spanning the weekend on Ivory Coast Drumming Rhythms, Dance, and Tribal Folk Chanting. African rhythms for dance classes plus authentic Zahouly, Agbodent, Themate and more. Bring a drum – preferably a Djembe or other African if you plan on attending any of the drum workshops.

1.) Dance Class I – Saturday 11:00am (1-hour)

Themate ( a dance of joy depicting dally live in primitive setting. a dance create par youth of Woebay and yakouba tribes of Man city's villages the west of Ivory coast in West Africa Themate is one country's trade marked use to greet diplomats and others. In the village sitting Themate is dance by girls but in dance schools it is treated like any other sport every body dance it. Themate is parfait dance for beginners because each movement mimic a household or farm activity. As students learn movement they learn chants from the tribes.

2.) African Drum Class I -- all levels – Saturday 2:00pm (1-hour)

African rhythms for dance classes plus authentic Zahouly, Agbodent, Themate and more.

Bring a drum – preferably a Djembe or other African if possible.

3.) Dance Class II – Saturday 6:00pm (1-hour)

Zahouly Dance, the number one dance of our pride culture of Ivory Coast It is a dance that Horner lady Djelalou Zahouly it founder from the Gouro tribe of central Ivory Coast.like the music/ zahouly drums the steps symmetrical with amassing partner. it is equivalent then running in one place when moving the lower part of the body and when the legs are still the upper body (arms) move as if once plays drum by mimicking the previous foot work .

Zahouly is a mask with female face. each zahouly is identified by it power symbol on it head. That symbol can be interpreted as Eagle, Elephant, drummer or else...good for beginners as well..

4.) Dance III -- the “AGbodent" – Sunday 11:00am (1-hour)

Dance to celebrate harvest; day when every villager layout his/her harvest to share with the Kings and Queens and the people. a great gesture of kindness . with dancers hands position,like if he/she is holding on to the even and the earth; he/she has an imaginary funnier, wealth, pride,and respect for oneself, the pears and the crown. as the dancer bowl at the end of each transition he/she gives thanks.

the foot work is very simple to avoid lifting the dust as a respect for the earth and the livings and the dead. but the hips and upper body with the songs always fill the blanks

this is a dance of the Shanty tribe descents of the central and Eastern part of Ivory Coast. The Bahoule tribe .

Bahoule mining the child is dead, The queen on the run with her tribe long ago from enemies tribe had to scarified her loved son to the River Gods/ as a pay off to get her people across into the Ivory Coast main land.

5.) African Drum Class II – all levels -- Sunday 2:00pm (1-hour)

African rhythms for dance classes plus authentic Zahouly, Agbodent, Themate and more.

Bring a drum – preferably a Djembe or other African if possible.

6.) Tribal Folk Chanting of Ivory Coast – Sunday 8:00pm (1-hour)

ABOUT ZAIPO OULA

Vincent R. Oula (aka Zaipo Oula) was born in Cote D'Ivoire in West Africa.

Zaipo studied and toured with Les Guirivoires Dance de Rose Marie Guiraudwhich led to his touring the United States with Chuck Davis and the Brooklyn Accademic

Music Group in 1988.<br> Zaipo taught music and dance at Spelman College, GA. in 1989 as well as at San Jose university, San Jose City college until 1994 than joined Garth Fagan Dance in Rochester, NY in 1995. Zaipo is a lead dancer and former founder of Savage Jazz Dance Company, CA.

In 1999 he moved to Maryland where he is raising his family while teaching in schools in the inner city When teaching African culture, Zaipo focuses on teaching children and adults from different cultural backgrounds to learn Authentic African Rhythm and Dance, weaving African cultural and historical meanings of African rhythm, dance

and craft, into the teachings.

Students are taught the ancient ways of communicating and socializing through movement, clapping, chants, footsteps and storytelling of Africa. Zaipo is trained in Ballet, Modern and Jazz Dance and brings his own West African tribal dances to the United States. In 2002, he founded Zebra Kids INC. to promote cultural awareness and he developed a program to reach out to all community members. Zaipo is current V.P. of the Baltimore International Rhythm and Drum Societies (BIRDS):

http://www.drumtogether.net