Anansi Rhythms - hand drumming kitsap county, hand drumming bainbridge island

Welcome to Anansi Rhythms!

Modern technology is astounding in that we are able to get a message to the other side of the world in seconds. However, actual face-to-face dialogue is almost nonexistent and we have lost our connections to those around us and to the Earth as a whole.

As we remove the need for interacting within our community, we face losing sight of what's important. We replace real social interaction with laptops, social networking sites and cell phones. Updating our created facade becomes more important than developing our real identity.

People are reawakening to the need for a sense of spirituality, for a low tech primitive outlet. Hand drumming provides this outlet.

How many people within a half mile of your residence have you celebrated with in the last week, month or year for that matter? How often do we get together as a community to sing, dance and drum? Rather than "connecting" virtually, group hand drumming creates a profound sense of community where people can establish genuine connections through rhythmic dialogues.

As these connections and dialogues develop, social barriers are torn down, rekindling the sense of community that has been lost, connecting individuals in a unified purpose.

Drumming, Neopagan Style
A local writer experiences a drum circle for the first — but not last — time

As my 14-year-old son and I stumbled along the trail through tall pines and undergrowth to the flicker of firelight ahead, I half wondered what I had gotten us into.

Micah Harding, drum instructor and founder of Anansi Rhythms, had asked us to join him at a drum circle at Sacred Groves on Bainbridge Island. Sacred Groves is a mystical retreat comprising 10 acres of forested land at the end of a dead-end road. Inhabited by a handful of free spirits, Sacred Groves is devoted to "community healing" through earth- based spiritual traditions, rituals, healing work, music, learning and prayer. The retreat hosts at least a half-dozen events each month, ranging from women’s groups and grief ceremonies to summer campouts and festivals.

Drumming For Life

"A village without music is a dead village … " African proverb

Since the beginning of time, from Africa to Indonesia, the Caribbean to the Middle East, drums have been the pulse of life. The rhythm of history and storytelling. A backdrop to rites of passages. A connection between villages. And the path toward healing and restoration.

In modern society, we've lost that pulse to job tensions, economic anxieties, global unrest, ecological worries, world health concerns, rising crime statistics and technology that keeps us riveted to laptop computers, blogs, social networking sites, Blackberries, iPhones, cell phones, satellite TV and 24-hour news channels.

We have the ability to get a message across the world in seconds, but we've lost eye-to-eye contact and face-to-face communication — causing some sociologists to believe we're more isolated than any other generation before us.

As a backlash to the stress and isolation, people of all ages and from all walks of life have begun reclaiming the natural rhythm of their lives and connecting to one another through hand drumming. In what has become nothing short of a global phenomenon, hand drumming has moved from being a symbol of alternative lifestyles to part of mainstream culture.

In the United States, Europe and Canada, drumming circles and classes are cropping up in metropolitan cities, rural areas, middle-class suburbia, classrooms, corporate boardrooms, hospitals, nursing homes, churches, therapy sessions, health spas and children's daycare centers.

These drumming centers, like Anansi Rhythms, are committed to helping individuals create a holistic experience that enhances their own well-being and connects them to others in the community.

Hand drumming has become so mainstream that corporate America has even begun embracing it to build teamwork, reduce stress and decrease employee turnover.

Toyota Motor Sales USA has gone so far as to create a drumming room within its corporate headquarters in Torrance, Calif. Sitting in a darkened room with a beaded doorway, employees pound out rhythms together, which reinforces the value of teamwork and each individual's contribution to the whole.

While hand drumming has picked up dramatically in recent years, its therapeutic benefits have been studied for decades.

Back in 1991, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart addressed a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging to talk about the importance of rhythm to physical health and to urge federal funding for musical therapy. The body's natural rhythms can diminish over time, he said, causing illnesses and decay. Drumming can re-establish the rhythm and help to bring the body back into a natural, healthy state.

Hart referenced two books he had written, Drumming at the Edge of Magic and Planet Drum. Both books addressed this question: Why is drumming so powerful and attractive? Part of the reason, Hart asserted, is that, "Everything that exists in time has a rhythm and a pattern."

As it is, the "power and attraction" of hand drumming has become a major focus of study for physicians, psychologists and sociologists.

Today, there is growing anecdotal and scientific evidence linking hand drumming to physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being — suggesting that this ancient art form has benefits far beyond what anyone may have imagined.