What is Afro Stylie Dance?
"Afro Stylie Dance performances are energetic and lively often featuring theatrical dance and dancers drumming. Afro Stylie Dance classes are a great way to
build muscle and burn fat! It's also about having fun and learning to move your body
confidently and beautifully while stepping in time with live drumming.
Deeply rooted in traditional west African culture, each Afro Stylie class begins with a strengthening warm-up that incorporates modern Hip Hop inspired movements, then moves on to the fundamentals and technique of traditional west African dances.
All my life I've been deeply in love with the art of dance. Growing up I spent hours in my room with the record player blasting, dancing in front of the mirror and studying my reflection, experimenting and creating choreography. I began playing the rhythms because I believe that rhythm and movement are the most basic components of each and every aspect of our lives. Music is valuable in all aspects of African culture; those working in the fields, sowing and reaping, often are accompanied by drummers. Our every movement has rhythm: getting out of bed, brushing our teeth. Everything. No life without rhythm. No rhythm without time..." -Marilyn
All my life I've been deeply in love with the art of dance. Growing up I spent hours in my room with the record player blasting, dancing in front of the mirror and studying my reflection, experimenting and creating choreography. I began playing the rhythms because I believe that rhythm and movement are the most basic components of each and every aspect of our lives. Music is valuable in all aspects of African culture; those working in the fields, sowing and reaping, often are accompanied by drummers. Our every movement has rhythm: getting out of bed, brushing our teeth. Everything. No life without rhythm. No rhythm without time..." -Marilyn
Afro Stylie's 'M'
With a natural inclination for rhythm and dance, "M" left university to answer the call of the drum and immersed herself in traditional west African music and dance studying extensively in the US and in west Africa with Master Drummer Abdoulaye Diakite, Alasane Khan, Alseny Souma and a myriad of others who have helped shape her style, precision and expertise in this inspiring art form. For twelve plus years she has lived by the drum, developing her own unique style of percussion and choreography while teaching the traditional rhythms and dances the way in which she has learned them.
I met Abdoulaye Diakite in Santa Cruz, CA where he was teaching djembe & dundun classes every Monday. I had moved to Santa Cruz leaving university to pursue dancing and drumming. I had a djembe with me that I had named "Zohar".
I met Abdoulaye Diakite in 1995 in Santa Cruz, CA where he was teaching djembe/dundun classes every Monday night. The spirit of the drum called me there in the end of 1994 after acquiring a passion for West African drum and dance in taking a college course by the same title. I had moved to Santa Cruz after I left university to pursue dancing and drumming. I arrived with a djembe named "Zohar", the name of the first man I had ever seen play a djembe or a dundun. Zohar was also the person who introduced me to the basic sounds of the djembe, "tone, "bass" and "slap". I fell in love with West African music and culture right away, but I had very little money to pay for classes. Yet I faithfully attended Abdoulaye's classes to watch and listen. My heart was filled with joy after every class. Then one Monday, I had arrived early and sat playing a djembe when Abdoulaye arrived. Then when class was about to begin, I began to put the drum away. Abdoulaye asked why I didn't take the class; was I scared? I replied that I didn't have any money. He replied, "Today, you be my guest." He opened his heart showing me the real spirit of the drum. From that day forward I became a dedicated student, and ever since my life has been enriched by the spirit of the drum.
In Bambara (pronounced bamana) the language of my teacher Abdoulaye Diakite, the word for what Europeans and westerners call the djembe, is "jebe bara". "Jebe" means unity, "bara" means drum. Unity drum. In order to learn the djembe or the dundun you must "...open your heart," Abdoulaye always tells us. He says you'll never learn if your heart is closed. It's true. Thank you, Abdoulaye, for teaching me. I am honored to be your student. I hope my every strike of the skin honors you.
..........."M"
In Bambara (pronounced bamana) the language of my teacher Abdoulaye Diakite, the word for what Europeans and westerners call the djembe, is "jebe bara". "Jebe" means unity, "bara" means drum. Unity drum. In order to learn the djembe or the dundun you must "...open your heart," Abdoulaye always tells us. He says you'll never learn if your heart is closed. It's true. Thank you, Abdoulaye, for teaching me. I am honored to be your student. I hope my every strike of the skin honors you.
..........."M"
I would like to thank the teachers that I am grateful to...Thank you, Koumbana Conde (Artistic Director of Les Percussiones du Guinee from Guinee, West Africa) for the rhythms and the technique you shared with me...Thank you, Youssouf Koumbasa (Baga--Guinee), Ken Doumbia
(Senegal), Moustafa Bangora (Bambara--Mali), Marie Basse (Mali), Mariam Faye (Senegal), and so many others for being so open and generously sharing the rhythms of your cultures and the beautiful, powerful and graceful ways the peoples of your cultures move their bodies...
Ultimatley I would like to thank Abdoulaye Diakite who is my teacher in the truest sense of the word.
Thank you, Abdoulaye for taking me under your wing and teaching me and continuing to guide me on this journey with the drum.
Ultimatley I would like to thank Abdoulaye Diakite who is my teacher in the truest sense of the word.
Thank you, Abdoulaye for taking me under your wing and teaching me and continuing to guide me on this journey with the drum.
