KIKI & PEACHES TRY AFRICAN HAND DRUMMING
- Kiki Larue
- Jan 21
- 2 min read
Last week found Kiki and Peaches facing the curse of middle age. Vowing to grab the bull by the proverbial horns, we decided to fight society’s stigma to the end by taking on new and exciting challenges.
First step was aliases that better reflect our true personalities, and Kiki and Peaches were born.
We decided to start slow with this new journey of rebirth by attempting hot yoga, which proved to be a little more than challenging, but we are happy to report that we have returned for more stretch, and even more heat.
But now it was time to crank it up a notch and get our party on.
Scouring the Internet over coffee, we Googled our two favorite words — fun and free — and were pleasantly surprised that illegal activities were kept to a minimum.
After some investigation we stumbled upon Hand Drum Rhythms, which offered a free monthly workshop in African Hand Drumming, along with regular classes for all levels and ages.
We made our way to the Church Hall, fully expecting a crowd of 10 young hippies sitting in a circle passing around something other than a cigarette, and would most likely motion to us that Bingo was down the street.
Instead, we were met with a full house of approximately 70 people of all ages, from mothers with young children to seniors. One woman who easily had 40 years on us rode in on her bicycle.
We blended in seamlessly.
We were all given beautiful djembe drums in impeccable condition. The instructor gave us a brief introduction, and we were soon on our way to banging our drums like there was no tomorrow.
Instructions were clear and easy to understand, and our instructor was interesting and animated, with a great sense of humor. His assistant was our guide.
We followed his exaggerated gestures on even larger drums, and he did an excellent job of keeping us all on track. (And ladies, the fact that both men were easy on the eyes had us concentrated and focused — on keeping the beat, of course!)
We learned a series of different beats, practiced each series at a comfortable pace, began to put the beats together, and the last 20 minutes of this workshop had 70 people in almost perfect unison, bringing the house down with a djembe drum concert.
The church hall was shaking, and we’re sure the Bingo players down the street must have been envious.
It was 90 minutes of pure fun, therapeutic drum thumping and soul-rejuvenating joy
that we highly recommend.
By Kiki Larue . First Published in Island Gals Magazine . 2011 . Volume 1 . Issue 2
