Performers
Fire In The Belly
Fire in the Belly Dance Company is the only professional tribal-fusion belly dance company in the Charlottesville area. The company’s unique and adventurous style is reflected in their eclectic aesthetic, diverse repertoire, costuming, and musical selection, which ranges from traditional to electronica to funk. Collectively, the dancers have trained in Flamenco, Bharat Natyam, Kathak, American and Egyptian Cabaret, West-African, Yoga and Hip Hop.
Dzian!
Dzian! (pronounced “ze-an”; 贊!, “super-cool!” in Taiwanese) is Charlottesville’s new, one and only NAKASHI* band, playing a fine selection of your favorite (and obscure) 1960s surf and garage rock songs from Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, France, the US, and many more.
Jdavyd Williams and the Basement Bhaktis
Jdavyd Williams and the Basement Bhaktis perform a modern take on the ancient practice of Kirtan; a form of call and response, musical chanting sourced in the devotional practice of Bhakti Yoga. Traditional instruments meet the latest technology to create a sound and experience unlike any other.
Secretly Y’all
Secretly Y’all is committed to bringing people together through the art of storytelling. We believe that while our differences make life flavorful, similarity of experience and the ability to share these connect all people. We realize storytelling exists beyond the traditional oral culture within a variety of media including, but not limited to, poetry, music, and performance and are open to other effective means of communication. Our primary goal is to support everyone who has a story to tell, from the most seasoned of performers to a first time sharer.
Scintillation
Stolen Arms
Stolen Arms is a DC/VA-based Indie / Pop / Progressive band band. On their myspace, they say: “According to police, the stolen arms include 47 small machine-guns, three light machine-guns, several AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers and hand grenades, seven rockets and 2,800 bullets.”
Your Spirit Animal in the Unreal City
Your Spirit Animal in the Unreal City formed in 2008 in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the USA. To avoid the bother of a police investigation, we instantly took off for Spain.
Matt Jones
Matt Jones is a pianist, singer, and guitarist with mad love for women singer-songwriters, queer cabaret, and all things acoustic. Expect a lot of 70s, a lot of Joni Mitchell, and maybe a few originals if he’s feeling brave.
Space Cadet 7
Space Cadet 7 is a live improv space-funk band. Constantly changing and re-arranging, there is always something new on the horizon with Space Cadet 7….
Shootin’ Moon
Shootin’ Moon is a musical shape-shifter, having co-created such diverse secret ensembles as Draw The Kitten (tabacco chewing indie rock adventurers), The Marzaks (old-time punk), Las Gitanas (Gypsylacian), & Magneto (tattoos & murder ballads). She has been a singing liquid woman with a new-wave-hits-the-rock band (The Findells), & opened for the diving horse on the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Last (recent!) rare solo show was under the ridiculous name of Magma & the Invisable Morphonious Hollas. She is inaudible on the ethernet, but she’s always there where you’re not looking, & you can always hear her if you listen hard enough.
Drum Call with William “Whit” Whitten
Drum Call and Friends is a professional drumming ensemble in the West African tradition. William “Whit” Whitten, founder of the Drum Call Center and director of the ensemble Drum Call and Friends, is lead drummer for Chihamba, a traditional African dance and drum troupe. Whit is also a percussionist with the ensemble Afrikan Drum Festival. Whit has studied with master drummers in North America and West Africa. He is an accomplished musician, drummer, percussionist, teacher, and drum builder. Whit was sponsored by the U.S. government to tour Europe with Cultural Music African Dance Company. He is a member of the Virginia Commission of the Arts’ Artist in Educator Residency Program. Masterful at working with diverse people of all ages. Whit uses his drums and himself as tools to facilitate the building of bridges and creation of harmony within homes, schools, and communities.
UVa African Music and Dance Ensemble
The African Music and Dance Ensemble explores traditional music and dance forms from West Africa (Ghana, Togo) and Central Africa (BaAka pygmies). Directed by Associate Professor and ethnomusicologist Michelle Kisliuk, the ensemble holds several performances a year, including outreach events in the Charlottesville community. Spectators are often invited to join in the dancing and singing. The group also hosts special guests for concerts and workshops. In the spring of 2008, the Ensemble studied and performed with Midawo Gideon Foli Alorwoyie. The ensemble will perform Ewe music related to Haitian traditions.
Dave Cosper & Gerrit Roessler Duo
Dave Cosper & Gerrit Roessler Duo is 1/2 of Melamine: “Melamine is a young up-and-coming trio from Charlottesville. With the dominant retro sound of the Fender Rhodes they pay tribute to the sixties and seventies but their approach to sounds, groves and forms from many musical traditions makes them a truly contemporary project. They play exclusively original compositions developed during their intensive work periods. All three of them look back at a vast background of experience in Jazz as well a classical performance, film scoring and bluegrass.”
Zokela Seiko of Centrafrique
Justin Mongosso leads Zokela Seiko of Centrafrique, a family band, along with his adult children Bibi, Julius and Josiane (and also sometimes joined by the youngest family members). Now based in Charlottesville, they dance, drum, and sing traditional styles from their native Lobaye, then rainforest region of the Central African Republic.