Rhythm Rave

Tap Dance with Margaret Morrison

An exploration of tap dance, feet percussion and full body rhythm. Tap dance experience is not necessary but wear tapo shoes if you have them or hard-soled shoes that stay on your feet. Some loaner tap shoes will be available.

Liz Nania hosts “Dancing During Dinner” followed by the “Drum & Dance Jam” led by all the Rhythm Rave teachers.

All women are invited to join us for this festive celebration and culmination of the weekend’s classes. Dinner will be a buffet with chicken/fish/pasta and all the fixings.

After dinner each of the drum instructors will lead a portion of the drum and dance party with a rhythm to lead us into improv and solos. Dance teachers will play with us to move to the explosion of rhythms.

So here is your opportunity to dress up and let your spirits rise. Whether FUN, FUNKY or just FREE-SPIRITED attire, come and be FESTIVE with us.

EDWINA TYLER Percussionist, composer, vocalist, dancer and actress, Edwina Lee Tyler blends these entire elements into more than just a performance, but into jubilation. She has pioneered the playing of traditional African percussion instruments by women, a practice long thought to be forbidden in African culture. Her performances feature a combination of drum, djembe, songbey, conga, steel drum, calabashes, bongos, marimba, kalimba, shekeres, bells, conch shells, slit drums, as well as rattles and wood blocks. Edwina was the subject of Edwin Kim Kimber’s documentary, “To Be a Massai.” 

UBAKA HILL is an authentically original, energetic performer, composer, songwriter, recording artist, motivational speaker, conference weaver, teacher and facilitator of hand drumming workshops for more than 25 years throughout the United States. Her soul-vision and intention is to facilitate and inspire personal transformation, empowerment, healing and joy with music that moves you. 

ALYX LYONS Sambista extraordinaire. Alyx is a founding member of Sambatucada!, Burlington, Vermont’s own samba street band offering a contagious brand of Afro-Brazilian percussion since 1995. Alyx also plays percussion (conga, djembe) for several local musicians.

ANNEGRET BAIER Annegret grew up in Germany and received her classical music training in violin, voice and piano from the University of Music in Stuttgart. She has studied with master drummers from Guinea, Ghana, Cuba and Brazil.  She performs solo and with the bands: Inanna, Sisters in Rhythm, The Zulu Leprechauns, and the newest band Loopin’.

MARGARET MORRISON is a rhythm tap soloist, choreographer, producer and professor who teaches and performs across the United States, Europe and Brazil.  She performs with Tap City on Tour, which recently traveled to Armenia and Romania as guests of the US Embassy.  Her current projects include writing and directing “In Search of the Whitman Sisters” a text and tap exploration of the famed Vaudeville tap act performed in May 2009; presenting her research paper “Clothes Make the Woman: Women Tap Dancers and the Iconography of the Suit’ at the November 2008 Congress on Research in Dance; a two week residency in Moscow in May 2008 hosted by the US Embassy, teaching and performing in celebration of International Tap Dance Day.  In 2009-10 she will be studying for her MFA in Dance through the American Dance Festival/Hollins University.   Photo by Brad Fowler

LIZ NANIA Director of OUT to Dance school in W. Roxbury, MA. In twenty years, award-winning dance instructor Liz Nania has taught thousands of people to dance. Her relaxed, easygoing style and enthusiasm encourages even the shyest beginner to get out there and party on the dance floor. She has provided dance instruction for Harvard Business School, Simmons College, Boston College, the JCC, Bentley College, Boston University, Casa de los Artistas in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biogen Idec, Best Foot Forward, Wheelock College, Pine Manor College, Brookline Community Center for the Arts, Tufts Healthcare and countless nightclubs, events, and dance weekends.

COMMA WILLIAMS  One of Comma’s favorite things to do is to create space and facilitate experiences in which people can connect with the Divine and get guidance for their own transformation. The use of sound and rhythm are essential elements in those experiences. Comma is initiated in a Q’ero (Inca) healing practice. She has studied with shamans in Peru, Ecuador, and Tuva. She has studied Trance Dance facilitation with Wilbert Alix. She is also a Remo Health Rhythms facilitator. Locally, she facilitates a monthly Sound Healing Circle, a monthly Shamanic Journey Circle, as well as individual journeys, rituals and community Trance Dances. By day, she is an Organization and Development consultant where she brings in these aspects of transformation “in disguise” to help heal and transform corporate culture. 

WYOMA is a performer and facilitator of African and healing dance, as well as a body/mind consultant. For over twenty-three years she has taught and conducted workshops in a wide range of contexts throughout the United States. She has also worked in Africa and New Zealand. Central to her approach is the transformative and organic nature of African Dance, and the recognition of our body’s own inherent wisdom. Wyoma honors dance as a healing and spiritual endeavor, and has become a creative force for transformation among her students, audiences, and associate performers.  

MADISON ORANGE is a Hula Hoop Dancer, Fire Hoop Dancer, performer and instructor like you’ve never seen before! She has traveled around the United States working with many different artists and photographers, in a variety of venues. Madison will be performing and teaching her extraordinary art during Rhythm Rave, hoping everyone will participate in a workshop!