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About
Services
Wula Drum offers a state of the art performance ensemble for concerts, events, parties, and more.
Wula Artists have years of experience presenting engaging multicultural Youth Programs for schools and camps.
With Wula Teambuilding for your workplace, we facilitate an unforgettable teambuilding experience through drumming - we have worked with IBM, MTV, and many other companies.
Wula partners with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) specialists to provide group drumming - a proven, effective healing method for many disorders./p>
Performance Group
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A great choice for any event:
- Stage Performances
- Corporate Team Building
- Corporate Entertainment
- Fashion Shows, Product Releases
- Birthdays, Weddings, Bar-Bat Mitzvahs, Private Parties
- Black History Month Celebrations
- Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa Parties
- Drummers Interactive w/ DJ
- Street Festivals
Take your next event to new heights with Wula Drum and Dance NYC
Wula Drum and dance ensemble is a multi-cultural performance group of up to 12 master percussionists and dancers. We have a large repertory of traditional West African drum and dance compositions and are available for any size performance, festival, or event. Our presentation can be adjusted to suit your needs for any type of venue or length of show. We find that the spirited drumming and dancing is totally uplifting and has the audience jumping out of their seats.
The Wula Drum Ensemble makes any event hot! We have an extensive repertoire and can present anything from 90 seconds to full evening productions. Playing in a multitude of venues over the years, we’ve drummed and danced everywhere and anywhere – in all type of situations – from performing arts centers, international festivals, hotel lobbies, universities, corporate product launches, packed night clubs, and kids venues.
Book Wula Drum and Dance NYC
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Youth Programs
Hands-on, multicultural enrichment
Steeped in the African arts, our programs are educational and entertaining for all ages and walks of life. Our instructors include world renowned master drummers and dancers from Africa with years of teaching experience. We are happy to design a custom program that fits your group’s needs. We love what we do and would love to show you how music and dance promote cultural diversity and build confidence through self-expression.
Our artists are ready to travel and bring an exciting program to you! Contact Us for Booking
“So many groups who perform here have interactive sections of their programs, but it is rare that I see the children respond in the lively and uninhibited way that they did with Wula.”
-Margaret Wages, Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Interactive Drum and Dance Performance
Our assembly program consists of group repertory performance, audience participation, and general history of the rhythms, dances and culture. To begin our program, we greet the audience with a call and response exercise. Then we introduce the instruments, dances, and the people. In West Africa, there are 3 main reasons why people drum and dance. To call the community, celebrate, to help people work. We show examples of this and have a great time learning about the culture and feeling the power of the drums and movement it inspires!
Program Outline
- Traditional African Drumming
- Call and Response Exercise with Audience
- Interactive performance
- Demonstration of Instruments
- Audience participation – dancing, singing, clapping
- Closing performance
African Drumming Class
Drumming is great for co-ordination, concentration, memory, focus, team work, and self expression. We provide drums for each student to play and build skills like sharing, responsibility, and teamwork through jamming together. We are flexible to teach any size group, but the ideal group size for drumming class is 30 or less. Students will play rhythms from West African and learn about the ethnic groups, history, purpose, and cultural context of the music.
Program Outline
- Greetings in African Languages
- Learn the sounds of the Djembe: Bass, Tone, Slap
- Call and response drum patterns
- Traditional African rhythms for the drum
- History of the music and people of West Africa
African Dance Class
West African dance is one of the most fun and high-energy activities on the planet. Participants will move, step, slide, and jump, to the rhythms of live drumming accompaniment. We will demonstrate how African dancing, drumming, and singing work together to create a sense of community and joy.
Program Outline
- Dance Warmup
- Meaning of African Dance and “The Break”
- Traditional African dance from start to finish
- African song to accompany the dance
- “Solo circle” – it’s all about self-expression
Drum Building
Discover the joy of crafting your own Djembe drum with Wula’s experienced drum-makers! Our workshops provide an interactive fun-filled learning experience for children, parents, camp counselors, and teachers! We start in Guinea, West Africa where our skilled craftsmen specially carve Melina wood djembes for your group. Our Wula drum-makers arrive at your location with the drums and materials prepped and ready for easy assembly.
Workshop participants are given the opportunity to pick their very own drum shell. The shell is the foundation of the drum-building experience – as participants will transform this into a playable instrument – as well as a work of art! We encourage each drum to be artistically decorated by students, parents and teachers alike.
Program Outline
- Learn the history of the djembe
- Decorate your drum shell
- Assemble, tune, and play your new drum
- Learn about the tuning and sound of your djembe
- Take a drum class with Wula
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Team Building
Wula’s facilitated group drumming is a great way to bring cohesiveness to your group, add energy to an office or event, and a great way to just have fun! We have worked with corporate clients such as MTV and IBM to bring some magic to the workplace or work event.
The Wula Drum Performance Group promotes team building through participatory, non-intimidating, and inclusive drum facilitation. Participation does not require any musical capabilities. Wula Drum will provide a drum for each attendee. Team building workshops strengthen and deepen relationships in both corporate and small business communities.
The Wula Drum Performance Group specializes in custom-size events, and can be worked into any business frame-work. Our philosophy is to identify the specific business problem/obstacle an organization is having, and then to apply the drumming program and experience to the workplace to specifically address and solve these problems. Each individual is given a drum and is taught to listen to each other and experience the team’s group rhythm together. Wula offers several specialized programs that deliver unique practices that help both large and small businesses get the results they want.
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Wula Wellness
Our Mission: To facilitate Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills acquisition by teaching West African Drumming to patients already enrolled in DBT programs.
We aim to have each drumming lesson parallel the DBT skill being practiced. The drumming exercises, and discussions, reflect applications of music as a metaphor of DBT therapy. Sessions are taught in a supportive, positive environment, and withpatience. The goal is to help facilitate a healing process by acknowledging both acceptance and change.
Programs are designed to augment treatment for a variety of conditions including:
- Substance Abuse
- Neuro Developmental Disorders Including Autism
- Conduct Disorder
- Anxious and Depressed Youth
- Alzheimer's
- Autism
- Stress Reduction
- Cancer Survivors
Other Benefits of Drumming
- Hand Eye Coordination
- Memory Retention
- Increased Energy
- Confidence
- Group Continuity
- Stress Reduction
- Self Expression
- Centeredness
Play Real Instruments
We provide real African Drums handmade by our team in Guinea, West Africa.. Our drums are made by hand to our specs by our team of master carvers. State side, we offer performances, classes, corporate team building, retreats, and drum wellness sessions. We have led programs for every age and walk of life. We can present one time programs, or long term residencies, as drums can be rented and/or purchased. We serve all populations, walks of life, and no program is too big, nor too small.
Your Facilitators
Michael Markus, BM, Co-founder and President of Wula Drum, has been playing, performing, and teaching African drumming for over 20 years. He is enthusiastic, patient, supportive, and believes that drumming can help improve focus, memory, and increase the energy required to facilitate healing.
Aaron Krasner, MD, is board certified for child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. Currently the director of the Adolescent Traditional Living Program at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, C.T., he is also the co-founder of The Wula Wellness Division. He is the assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.
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