Souleymane Camara (oNzelly photo)
PHILIPSBURG--National Institute of Arts (NIA) and Axum Art Café will be organising several music events about traditional West African drumming, dance workshops and performances this weekend.
Mariam Traoré from Burkina Faso will be giving dance workshops at the art centre on Longwall Road in cooperation with NIA. Traoré is a talented dancer and said to be a “patient” dance teacher, making her workshops a “thrill” to attend.
Drum classes will be given by Souleymane Camara, a multi-instrumentalist from the West African country Guinea, who was born and raised with the secrets of the djembe instrument. He will share information and techniques to play the djembe during his workshops.
The workshops are spread over the weekend and children are also welcome. Especially for them there will be dance workshops on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 11:00am. After that, moms and dads, dancing queens and kings of the island – with or without explicit experience – can join the dance workshop from 11:00am to 1:30pm. These workshops are accompanied by live music.
The drum classes will be given on Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 to 4:00pm.
For those who still want more, Camara will be performing at Axum, Front Street #7, on Saturday, starting at 9:00pm. Camara and well-known percussionist Julien Seguret will be performing traditional West African malinké music using several string instruments, among them the traditional kora, and drums. Performing with them will be singer Mariam Traoré and flutist Fabien Picard.
