When Thaddeus Bicknell woke up this morning and learned that kindergarten was cancelled due to snow, he could not know that he'd be playing the fanga with a make-shift African drumming ensemble in front of 350 people at 10:30. Organized by past-parent Grace Schust and led by master teacher Issa Coulibaly of Mali, the group was playing to renew interest in an artform with 20 years' history at Proctor.
The demonstration was a rocking success, and generated the most spontaneous audience involvement of any assembly performance I can recall.
Getting back to Thaddeus: he fit right in, and received a public tutorial on playing with the elbows from Issa, a lesson he seemed to master instantly.
African drumming will be offered as an evening activity starting in January.
