We are Alokli West African Dance, a community dance-drumming club based
in Marin
County, CA (just north of San Francisco). We teach and perform Anlo-Ewe
and other West African music & dance styles from Ghana, Togo, Benin, and
Nigeria. Recently we've become a publisher as well, with a new African
songbook w/ CD available and more goodies on the way.
You'll find a lot of articles, photos, audio and video material here -all related
to West African music, dance, and song. So take a look around - and if you're
in the area, we invite you to visit us and join our growing community of eclectic
artisans. Enjoy your stay!
Traditional African Music & Dance?
Yup.
Over the years we've been mistaken for a goddess drum circle, male and/or female
empowerment group, bongo jam session, religious cult, aerobics class, hippie
commune, 12-step program, trance dancers, travelling circus, and ethnic fashion
show -- to name a few. We are none of the above. Well ok, we're a little of
all of the above. Mostly we're a community of diverse people brought
together by the power and beauty of traditional African music and dance. Sound
like fun? Read on!
Our new African songbook w/CD
is shipping, and the response has been terrific. Learn to sing over 80
traditional African songs from Ghana, Togo, Benin & Nigeria in 6 languages,
with in-depth translations and performance notes. There's nothing else
like it! You can view sample songs, chapters, and audio clips from the
book right here. You may
also want to visit our online store
and learn about other stuff we've got cooking.
Site News & Performance Schedule
Feb 24, 2005 : good news for fans of our video page. Our server has been upgraded to allow more bandwidth, which means we can keep our entire video collection online. For those who have been asking for particular clips, they're all back.
August 3, 2004: video selections have been rotated on our video page. Also, our songbook will now be sold exclusively through Amazon.com for retail sales.
June 4, 2004: video selections have been rotated on our video page.
May 30, 2004: Geepers, I'm an East Coast guy now. If you're having trouble getting in touch with us, please note our new Philadelphia contact information. I'm just getting settled in Philly (and loving it) so there won't be classes offered here for several months, in case you're wondering. And of course we no longer teach in the Marin area, but you might want to check out Gabe's Web Site for classes in Marin (Djembe/Guinea music).
December 15, 2003: Danny's moving to Philadelphia soon, so there will no longer be classes in the Bay Area. It's been 20 great years teaching in this area and I'll miss the gang, but I'm also looking forward to mixing it up with the east coast dance-drumming scene in the near future. Change is good, embrace it!
September 23, 2003: Aoccdrnig to a rseearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng
is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef. Amzanig, huh??