DRUMS & DANCE 2025
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Drums & Dance 2025
JUNE 24 to JULY 5 2025 - 25th edition
Our intensive "Drum and Dance" 2025 intensive workshop series will start on June 24th with its distinguished guests, as usual.
This year, Mohamed N’Diaye, Elli Miller Maboungou, Zora Snake, Chris Walker and Zab Maboungou, join our musicians, Bruno Martinez and Hendry Massamba to animate and transmit all the art of drumming and movement.
Objective: Address the techniques of contemporary African dance, their rhythmic cultures and the styles of the artists and teachers who represent them.
A very good summer to you!
Schedule
Rates
All rates are in CAD ($) dollars.
OUR GUEST ARTISTS
Elli MILLER MABOUNGOU
Elli learned to drum before he could walk, with Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata, where he grew up. He is the company’s most recent and valued “memory”, having refined his style and technique alongside the great drum-masters. He is the designated musician for the training program in contemporary and traditional dance, rooted in African and diasporic sources.
In 2013, he formed his own Afro-jazz group, Jazzamboka, which won the Stingray Award for Best Music Composition at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2017.
Mohamed N'DIAYE
Mohamed was introduced to the art of percussion at the age of five in Conakry, Guinea, his country of origin. A percussionist and dancer, he trained with some of the greatest masters and continued his dual artistic development under the guidance of his father, Oumar N’Diaye, whom he joined in the National Dance Company of Guinea (Ballets Africains de Guinée). Later, they settled in Quebec, where Mohamed expanded his choreographic language by exploring contemporary dance with Ghyslaine Dôté’s company, Virtu’O.
His journey then led him to Mexico, where contact with the Afro-descendant culture of the Veracruz region allowed him to reconnect with his roots by highlighting the cultural fusion between West Africa and Mexico.
Zora SNAKE
A child of Cameroon, for whom belonging to the Bamiléké community is also a living reminder of the struggles waged in the fight for independence. The dance in which he has “forged” himself draws from ritual and is connected to Hip Hop—whose African essence is itself a reminder of an ongoing struggle for liberation.
Dance, performance, and theatre intertwine in his works (“L’Opéra du villageois,” “Le Départ”), eventually leading him to found the international festival MODAPERF—a space for dialogue, consciousness-raising, and critical reflection, engaging the youth at every level.
Politics, poetry, and spirituality serve as the driving forces behind this choreographer and performer, who continues to expand his presence across Africa and Europe.
Chris WALKER
A former Director of the Division of the Arts and founding Artistic Director of the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chris Walker is currently a professor in the Dance Department and serves as Special Advisor to the Provost on the Arts.
He is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist from Jamaica whose creative research reengages the technology at the core of the traditional and urban ritual practices across the African diaspora.
His work examines African Caribbean dance as a lens for environmental activism, social justice, and cultural preservation, bridging performance art and ritual practices.
Walker was a 2023 Jamaica Dance Umbrella honoree.
Zab MABOUNGOU
An outstanding choreographer, dancer, philosopher and trainer, she is also the general and artistic director of Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata (1987). According to a holistic contemporary approach, she advocates for an art of movement that is both innovative and rooted in the African sources of music and dance, from which she extracts and formulates the principles and technicity (the LO.KE.TO).
Heralded as “Woman Dance” by the Abidjan Performing Arts Market in Ivory Coast (2018), Zab Maboungou received the Governor General of Canada's medal for the performing arts in 2021.
OUR ACCOMPANYING MUSICIANS
Bruno MARTINEZ
A musician of Mexican origin, he began his musical studies at the age of 15 at the Superior School of Music in Mexico City and later earns a title awarded in music theory by Trinity College London. His interest in percussion and music of African influence—particularly from West Africa—led him to independent research that included extensive travel to countries such as Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Brazil and Cuba, before specializing in African and Afro-Latin percussion.
He participates in various musical and artistic projects where research and consciousness are highlighted. He has been part of Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata since 2015.
Hendry MASSAMBA
Originally from Brazzaville (Congo), Hendry Massamba took his first steps in music under the direction of his father. His talent as a drummer, combined with his skills as a background vocalist quickly made him a sought-after artist on African urban and contemporary stages.
He recently settled in Quebec after a tour and joined Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata as both an instructor and creative collaborator.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
