Today we were lucky enough to have the Bamidele Dancers and Drummers come visit us. They are a group composed of musicians and dancers from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States that travel around to share the music of the African culture.
At the beginning we were introduced to the members. We got to meet Marilyn who is from the United States but has studied African and Caribbean cultures to better understand the music and the people behind the music. She now knows it so well that she teaches it to others at college. We also got to meet Sekou who is from Guinea, West Africa. He was a master dancer there before moving here to Massachusetts. He told us all about his native language which is called Sou Sou. We learned that to say “yes” you would say “eeo.” We got to answer “eeo” to a lot of questions by throwing our hands in the air and saying it.
From the beginning they got all of us involved. Quite a few students were called up throughout the course of the assembly to take part in singing and dancing with the performers. At the end of the show they even called up all the teachers to dance! We have to say, Mr. Avery’s dance skills are not quite on par with his blogging skills (don’t tell him though)!
We have a quick video for you so that you can see some of the students dancing along with some of the instruments that the Bamidele group brought along.
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Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite performance was when Ooch came. It was really funny sometimes and other rimes it was really serious. Also in that video you can see Aiden acting really weird in it.
Sincerely,
Heston .H
Dear Mr. Avery,
I LOVED this! It was SO much fun! Most of the (I forget what it’s called… auditorium meetings…please write it in for me 🙂 ) are very boring, but this one I think most of the school liked their preformence. I hope we get to do something fun like this again!
-Rebecca A.
Dear Mr.Avery,
I really liked the dancers by far the funniest part is when the teachers had to dance (no offence you dance great 😉 it was a great experience the video Ashley took we have to show at graduation.
From,
Kaylee
Dear Mr. Avery,
It was funny when they asked the kids to come up to the stage and play songs. I think that was relly nice of them to do that.
Sincerely,
Ben S.
Dear Mr. Avery,
I thought that the Bamidele Dancers were really cool. I really wasn’t expecting it. What did you think of it?
Sincerely,
Olivia Y.
That was very cool, and fun. Sounded like you learned some new things. What as you favorite part?
Dear Isaiah,
My favorite part had to be in the beginning when they invited up different students to play different interments. I got to go up and play a bell it was a great experience.
From,
Kaylee
Dear Mr. Avery,
I liked Ooch. Remember the guy who came in with the yo-yo and said Oooooocccchhhhhhh?
From,
Jacob B.
Dear Jacob,
I definitely remember Ooch. I know a lot of you really liked him. He definitely kept us entertained! He travels all over the place. I know he’s been to schools in Sandwich too because all of the kids talk about him all the time! I hope you have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
The dancers were really cool. They seemed to really impress everyone. The instruments they brought in were very different from anything that I’ve seen. I loved how they took up people to dance and sing.
I have say I think you have some pretty good dance skills. It was funny to watch all the teachers dance.
From,
Ari 🙂
Dear Ariel,
I thought the dancers did a great job. I thought it was really cool how they taught everyone their words but did it in a way that let them move around a lot too! We have had some great presentations in school the last few years. I wonder what kind of presentation we’ll have next?
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery