Vineyarders moved their feet and hips to the rhythm of Senagalese drummer Aba Diop’s drumming with encouragement from Senegalese dancer Bakary Fall in front of Tisbury Water Work’s Tashmoo Springs Building. Thursday’s event was a collaboration between Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School and Pathways Arts in Chilmark.
“This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Leila Blackman, who recently moved to Martha’s Vineyard, said. Before coming to the Island, she was an African dancing and drumming teacher in New York and it “lifts my spirits” to see the Senegalese performers and the Vineyarders. “This is incredible.”
Diop and Falls also held dance workshops for the Charter School students at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury on Wednesday, Sept. 28. Steedman said the first batch of students to work with the artists were kindergarteners through sixth graders.
“The response from the students was immediate and joyous,” Steedman said. “It was almost like the cathartic release of joyous energy that permeated the entire room. Kids danced, and then they got the teachers dancing. It was just a joyous, joyous time for us.”
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