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MISSION STATEMENT
Drumming, Dancing, and Singing in the Global Village
With Geoff Johns and Carol Lutra-Johns
Drumming, dancing, and singing together can be a powerful way to create community feeling, express joy in life, synchronize and entrain movement and energy, foster cooperation, enhance communication, spread joy and happiness, and provide positive social activities.
During the past 50-100 years, our society has achieved tremendous progress. Hundreds of millions of average, middle-class workers in North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, and other parts of the world take for granted many things that were considered luxuries only a few generations ago. We live in spacious homes with electricity, plumbing, central heating and air conditioning. We enjoy instantaneous worldwide personal communication via telephone, radio, the Internet, and television. It is commonplace for individuals to own cars, boats, and even airplanes. We have unprecedented freedoms and opportunities, including widespread access to ever-higher levels of education.
Yet something is missing. Social scientists report that more and more people describe themselves as unhappy, depressed, and lonely. Communities and families are breaking apart. Millions suffer from alcohol and drug dependencies fostered by their misguided attempts to relieve pain or find happiness. Over half of Americans are now considered obese. We have become the passive consumers and spectators of our world, rather than its creators and participants.
What's missing is joy. The joy of being alive, curious, enthused, connected. The joy of self-expression and the joy of connection. The joy of sharing. The joy of movement and of song. The joy of rhythm. The joy of belonging. The joy of shared accomplishment.
Our ancestors have passed down to us treasures of great value and wisdom in the form of traditional arts. These community-based art forms can provide a way to address many of the unmet needs of our modern world. They can bring people of all ages and abilities into a community of shared experience. They can foster a heightened sense of individuality and group solidarity, self-expression and cooperation. They encourage active, energetic participation. They are accessible and affordable, built upon the recognition that everyone can sing, everyone can dance, and everyone can play simple rhythms on percussion instruments. These traditional art forms are both primitive and sophisticated. Individuals who wish to develop their skills have an infinite realm of possibility. The forms are designed to accommodate the raw beginner and the child along with the advanced student and the old master.
Wonderful insights arise from making connections between the arts and other fields of study. Rhythm and music can be understood through math and the science of sound. Movement can be understood through kinesiology and anatomy. Traditional arts lead us to examine their historical development and the pluralistic nature of modern society. But music is not just another way to learn math, nor is dance just another way to learn anatomy.
We provide professional instruction in authentic rhythms, percussive music, songs, and dances. These traditional forms stress values of participation, inclusion, and community. By performing, we share our experience with the larger school community, model new possibilities, and inspire emulation.
Our mission is to enable both students and teachers to see themselves as creative, artistic people, and to empower them with the tools they need to sing, dance, and play percussion instruments in traditional forms. These forms are designed to be accessible to the general population and to encourage collaboration. The drumming supports the dancing. The dancing makes visible the rhythms, and inspires the musicians. The songs provide cultural meaning and messages. All serve to connect our academic understanding to our sensory experience.
An education that is limited to the study of texts is impoverished. The medium of the printed word creates a false sameness among all subjects. All experience is turned into "reading about". The arts provide a much needed remedy. In this case, an experiential encounter with other cultures through music, dance, and costuming.
Our programs are premised on the value of multicultural education, which itself can be thought of as a journey abroad. On such a journey we learn about the larger world beyond our own culture, but we also gain insight through comparison, we see our own culture (and ourselves) in a new light. We learn to question our assumptions and to scrutinize that which we previously took for granted.
RhythmJoy
Geoff Johns & Carol Lutra-Johns
10354 SW Mukai Circle, Vashon Island, WA, 98070
Tel - 206.567.5822
Designed and programmed by
TerraRhythm
Engineering Global Media for Vibrant Change
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Caixa Drums at the Vashon Strawberry Festival Carnival Parade