UNITY WITH A BEAT! Proves It’s Resonance Endures By Feeny Lipscomb Interviews with people who attended a "Unity With A Beat" weekend retreat sponsored by Naropa University in June indicate that the effects of drumming together in community are deep and lasting. The weekend was part of Naropa School of Continuing Education's ongoing and weekend programs which invite internationally renowned scholars and artists to present a variety of innovative offerings. "Unity with a Beat!" was co-founded by music therapist Barry Bernstein in 1994 as rhythm-based music therapy training with an eye towards providing a broader-based wellness program. Drumming has been shown to have a variety of health benefits, including reducing stress and boosting the immune system. The medical research has been published this year in such mainstream media as Time Magazine, USA Today, and Prevention Magazine. Bernstein is the founder of Healthy Sounds, a consulting service dedicated to spreading the word about the power of music and rhythm. His work with the drum has been featured in elementary schools from coast to coast and in at-risk youth projects. Barry has also developed corporate wellness drumming programs for companies such as Sprint, Shell Oil, Bayer Agricultural, Novus and Monsanto. He is co-Founder and Program Director for Rhythm for Life. In addition to his active workshop schedule, Bernstein has released several recordings including Spirals, Unwinding For Vitality and Health, Songs of the Spirit, Drone Tones, and Remember Any Night. His work has been featured in national publications including The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Better Homes and Gardens, and Shape Magazine. Over the years, "Unity with a Beat!" has developed into a well-balanced weekend experience, including drumming, dancing and singing. Bernstein and virtuoso drummer and recording artist Randy Crafton have co-produced 17 weekends around the country, with a spectacular rotating teaching staff which has featured Babatunde Olatunji, Mickey Hart, Ubaka Hill, Arthur Hull and Layne Redmond, to name a few. The June weekend's enrollment grew too big for Boulder, due largely to the participation of Mickey Hart, former drummer for the Grateful Dead whose music, research, activism and books on drumming have made him a highly popular figure. Moved to the Holiday Inn Express in Denver, normally host to more corporate types of events, its Friday night drum circle included nearly 650 people from around the country: teachers, addiction counselors, therapists of all sorts, social workers, intermediate and advanced drummers and many who had never touched a drum. The Holiday Inn lent itself graciously to an event usually held in more remote settings. "Rhythmical evangelist" Arthur Hull, father of the drum circle movement, co-facilitated the huge circle with Mickey. Hull's book, "Drum Circle Spirit" has become the how-to bible of leading drum circles, a skill for which his background as a drumming teacher and a mime coupled with his irrepressible energy make him formidable. With a mission to dispel the myth that we are "rhythm-dorks," Hull regularly offers several acclaimed "Facilitators' Playshops" in this country and abroad to teach his techniques to those wishing to incorporate drumming into their work. Details at www.drumcircle.com. On Saturday morning, Mickey Hart gave a spellbinding discourse on the history of the drum and the "vibratory arts." According to Mickey, "Humans are multi-dimensional rhythm machines embedded in a world of rhythm, but we have 'day jobs.' Everything--all the flow in our daily lives--can be explained in terms of good rhythm. Rhythm helps us shake hands with our DNA. The mind needs to groove; it's attracted by the groove, so it can relax. It's a soul thing…" Hart's testimony before the Senate Committee on Aging in 1991 led to the passing of The Older Americans Rights Bill and raised $750,000 for rhythm-based activities for the elderly. The Senate Hearings scheduled for early next year will recommend funding for rhythm-based healing to the appropriations committee, and Hart will once again testify before them. For those who want to get started drumming or using drumming in therapy, he offers the following advice: "Go on the web; find drum groups, find rhythm healers. Check out books on drumming--there are many good ones and more all the time." The internet is a magnificent tool for hooking people up around the drum. One site which lists drumming groups and events around the country and articles on drumming and wellness is www.allonetribe.org. What exactly made this weekend so memorable? Laurie Loeb (lloeb@rof.net), 61, a drum circle facilitator who works with the elderly, has this to say: "The energy of all those people pulsing together was like a volcano…erupting as one in a rainbow of color, fire, and ecstasy. Every nerve in my body was firing and I felt a connection to everyone and everything in a bliss higher than in any other drum circle I've experienced. What a joy to spend so many hours with others who walk, talk, eat, breathe and think to the natural rhythms of life externalized. 'Unity with a Beat!' is such a perfect title!" Loeb, a classically trained musician and a community builder, says she's found an "incomparable joy in hand drumming and community drum circles never before experienced" in her formal background. She now "shares that bliss by introducing others, including special-needs populations such as healthy elders, Alzheimer's/ dementia patients, developmentally delayed adults, paralysis victims, etc, to the awakening that rhythm awareness and play can bring." On Saturday afternoon, Barry Bernstein led a delightful series of rhythm-based exercises, using a variety of percussion instruments, including the body. This playful, improvisational session worked by breaking attendees up into smaller groups. The interactive aspects of these exercises served to bond this group of rhythm pioneers and strongly contributed to the weekend's lasting effects on attendees. Randy Crafton, co-producer of Unity with a Beat and a multi-talented performer and bandleader, held a workshop on Middle Eastern percussion at the same time, which introduced some complex polyrhythms, challenging some first-time drummers and thrilling those who were slightly more rhythmically sophisticated. For more on Randy, see www.craftone.com Saturday evening was the spirit-enhancing "Tribal Medicine," led by Ganesh Lee Veal, D.C., who specializes in Cranial Osteopathy and incorporates movement into his practice (www.leeveal.com), and Allaudin Dean Ottinger, an ethnic percussionist who performs widely and works with Peace Through the Arts and the Dances of Universal Peace. Many attendees felt that this experiential, interactive session further bonded the group in ways that were deep and lasting. Barriers were dropped, and the feeling of oneness so devoutly sought in today's world, was unmistakable. Naropa's visionary programming in Continuing Education, spearheaded by Charlotte Rotterdam and Pieter Oosthuizen, is geared to "educating the whole person" and to bringing a compassionate (Buddhist) awareness to all aspects of daily life. It includes accredited professional development and certificate programs in Ecopsychology, in Authentic Movement, and in Theater (Jan. 02). For more, see www.naropa.edu/conted. Naropa University in Boulder, CO, was founded in 1974 as a private, non-sectarian liberal arts college inspired by a unique Buddhist heritage. The University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, and is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It appears that the drum, with its universal, vibrational language, is becoming not only a symbol for our unity, but also a tool for actually experiencing the feeling of oneness with our fellow humans. This sense of connection is more acutely sought after the events of 9/11 than ever before. Drumming is happening around the world, with everyday people, for fun, for health, to promote peace. Parents and kids are drumming together. Drumming requires listening to one another and responding harmoniously. Legendary Nigerian Drummer Babatunde Olatunji once predicted that by the year 2000 every household in America would own a drum. I pray that he may've been only a couple of years off. Feeny Lipscomb is a writer, drummer and entrepreneur who lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with two formerly wild Jack Russell Terriers who have been calmed by the drum.
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