July 10

                Another exciting drumming and dance class today with Johnson. He is such an incredible teacher. It is really nice to have someone finally break down the subtle torso movements. All through WAME this past year, I was very conscious that our movements were not the same as our instructors, even though we were doing the steps correctly. Even dance includes subdivision and cross rhythm in this music. There is a constant pulse kept by moving the hips and torso, which Ghanaians seem to just do naturally. It is still a learned skill, but when you’ve been imitating it literally since birth you really don’t give it much thought, you just do it. This is why we westerners struggles so much with it and why most of our instructors don’t think to teach it.