Dance and Drumming

Comments from London dance percussionist Jhalib Millar (2008):

"He is great! In hand drumming, Keliehor must only bow his head to himself & the maker cos he is a master, make no mistake. I haven't heard a sound like his in a long time. Other accompanists that I've heard on Djembe etc, are nothing in comparison because there is no magic. As soon as I heard his music there was magic & I knew this was someone gooooooood. Please do more, it's raw, it's vibrant, it's sexy and it's the basis of life."

Contemporary Dance Music

What is the Luminous Music connection to contemporary dance?

Here in Glasgow we have TWO of the top UK percussionists, both of whom specialise in live music for dance. These drummers are simply astounding and very much in demand. They currently work with a number of companies such as Y Dance, Dance House, Scottish Dance Theatre, Dance Base, Scottish Ballet and a range of independent dance teachers such as Rosina Bonsu, Maxine Railton, Andy Howitt, Ruth Mills, Janis Claxton and others, providing music for the unique world of dance.

Who are these drummers?

With long time experience in dance music, Jon Keliehor brings an amazing sense of rhythm, timing, depth and dimension to the dance environment. He started with London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1972 and today his music has become more and more diverse and creative, pushing dance and dancers to the limits. His music is dynamic, personal and intuitive.

Signy Jakobsdottir, one of Glasgow's most sought after drumming talents, plays a large range of instruments and works with many jazz, fusion and Scottish music groups. With her deep understanding of dance and love of drumming she brings an authority and sparkle to the dance class.

What are the benefits of bringing live music into the dance environment?

The experience of live music is as vital to the dancer as it is for the musician. Live collaborations between music and dance provide dynamic experiences that occur in Real-time where learning curves are at very high levels, and artistic interactions are the most productive. For both the dancer and musician, developing rhythmic control and accuracy are the precursors for acquiring greater powers of expression, precision and artistic command. Many important discoveries are made as the rhythms of dance and music intersect.

Luminous Music provide music for a wide range of dance activities that include:

. Contemporary dance at professional/college level

. Special-dance programmes in Secondary education

. Introductory dance programmes for young persons/adults

. Music support for adult dance classes working in 50+ programmes

.. .. Music Composition for Performance

Music Composition in Dance

Composer Jon Keliehor has created music for contemporary dance and ballet since 1972, first working with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and then with a great many choreographers and dance companies in London, Seattle and Caracas. His unusual range of music is both spacious and dynamic, using percussion instruments and their tone colours in both experimental and traditional ways.

His music for Robert Cohan’s CLASS, Darshan Bhuller’s BEYOND THE LAW, and Robert North’s TROY GAME are models of traditional world percussion in contemporary settings, exploring many different combinations of percussion instrumentation. His work on the CD’s EAST MEETS WEST and CELESTIAL NILE for DanzaHoy in Venezuela, revealed new territories of sound shaping, and complexes of textural percussion.

His compositions are revealing and diverse, an open ended music that travels in many directions. They are a collection of surprises, yet somehow a bridge between forgotten or lost musics, and contemporary tradition.

Further links:

Recordings of Jon Keliehor

Composer Profile

Compositions

Classroom: Dance & Music

The use of high quality live music in the dance environment brings dancers and musicians closer to one another, paving the way for a future of creative exploration and development. Dance and music both complement and complete each other in unique ways. Traditional dance, social dance, classical and high-art dance forms are deeply connected to music. These intimate art-forms arise from deep, creative well springs long honoured in most cultures.

The creative elements that exist across almost all art forms are highly energised in the harmonic relationships between dance and music. At the root level, dance and music are essentially rhythmic expressions. They are both rhythmic designs in time and space, one in movement, the other in sound. These essential building blocks lead pupils to open doors to many discoveries and correlations between art, pattern, form, nature and self-awareness.

The interconnectedness of music and dance is of prime concern in the design and implementation of our educational programmes. The seeds of our current workshops can be traced back to an eight-year series of music programmes developed at the London Contemporary Dance School at The Place. These initial programmes have grown and expanded, Today they are enormously successful as presentations of fundamental principles within world music and dance. The Luminous workshops and teaching programmes aim to bring both dancers and musicians into dialogue with one another, and to provide an understanding of the shared creative elements within their two art forms.

Workshops can be scaled to different lengths: weekend, week, term, year or longer. For a little more information on the programmes originally designed for the London Contemporary Dance School, follow this link.