Our generous guests included community leaders Cleve Killingsworth; Mark Clement, President and CEO of Rochester General Health Systems; New York State Senator Joe Robach; city councilwoman Elaine Spaull; and many others! The food was great, the wine was plentiful, the performances were phenomenal, the silent and live auctions were over the top, and the energy of

good will in the room was palpable!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteer committee: Kristine Thompson, Marietta Avery, Karen Santoro, Mary Clement, Masumi Elrod-Blaylock, Natalie Russo, Kim Hoover, Diane Moorman- White, Dina Faticone, Adele Fico, Arturo Hoyte, Marwan Bejjani, Rich Thompson, and Steve Miller. We couldn’t have done it without you! And thank you to the generous artists and businesses that donated auction items to make this event memorable.

Bush Mango Drum & Dance was awarded an Arts in Education grant, made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. This grant supports a residency at the RCSD Frances Parker Elementary School, where, this week, Colleen, Fana, Sam, and Jordan have been teaching the second-graders a harvest dance from Guinea, West Africa, called Kassa; they will be back next week with more! This enthusiastic group of Frances Parker students are eager to learn and happy to be listening to the music and challenging themselves. In their classrooms they are learning about oral traditions by paying special attention to the stories their families tell and retell, learning where Guinea is on the map, and working on some simple math skills. Sadly, this is likely the only dance education they will receive during this school year.

It is at the heart of our mission at Bush Mango Drum & Dance to make it possible for kids to experience dancing together to live drumming and to learn how to drum the polyrhythmic music of Guinea, West Africa. Not an easy task, but certainly a rewarding one! We award full scholarships to every child in need who walks through our door; such kids make up over three quarters of our Youth Project student base. Won’t you help us with our continuing mission of offering children the opportunity to experience this joyful dance and music? You can—by attending our 2012 Beat the Drum event on Saturday, April 21st at 34 Elton Street!

On April 21st 2012, Bush Mango is hosting its second annual Beat the Drum Friend-Raising event at our 34 Elton Street location. We’re looking for help! Specifically, we’re looking for silent auction items to help contribute toward the evening’s success. If you have an item ranging in value from $25 to way on up, we’d be grateful to hear from you. Just email me at Colleen@bushmango.org.

Funds raised at this important(and very fun!) event will support our Youth Project, where a diverse group of students ages two to 18 experience West African drumming and dancing in a supportive and directed way. They learn so much more than “just” drumming and dancing, too. Youth Project students learn essential life skills that propel them into their futures and into their lives: confidence, inter-dependability, intrinsic-motivation, discipline, joy, creativity and so much more.

If you can, please consider being part of the success by donating today!

It’s high season at Bush Mango Drum & Dance, and there is more to tell you about than I can pack into one blog post!

The most important thing on our very exciting calendar is our April 21st Beat the Drum  event. This annual friend-raiser, held at our studios at 34 Elton Street, is quite the affair! Loads of delicious food, wine, Bush Mango-tinis, music, short performances, silent and live auctions, and, most important of all, a great cause!

The proceeds from the evening go directly to our youth programming, which offers music and dance scholarships to all interested Monroe County youth between the ages of 3 and 18.

And on April 13th and 14th BMDD is performing Wongai! (which means “Let’s go!”) at our Elton Street performance venue. When you purchase a ticket to Beat the Drum, you receive one free ticket to Wongai!

Youth Project’s award-winning programming serves dozens of youth per week. Besides receiving a very high level of music and dance instruction, our young people receive welcome into a community that will stand beside them for life. Youth Project members have gone on to graduate from high school (and college!) at an extremely high rate, compared to that of the Rochester City School District, and they are confident, curious, and passionate about making a contribution to their communities.

The teaching crew at BMDD wakes up every Saturday morning from September to June, with the single goal of providing the best in not-for-profit arts education to the children of Monroe County.

$87 monthly membership fee
(That’s 12 classes a month! Just sign up for our Gold Membership)

Hatha Yoga  4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
Drum Class 6 – 7:15 p.m.
Dance Class 7:15 – 8:30 p.m.

Bush Mango — moving to the beat of a new drummer

Posted at: 10/21/2011 12:31 PM | Updated at: 10/21/2011 8:18 PM
By: Janet Lomax | WHEC.com

For 22 years, people of all ages have moved and been moved by the rhythms of Bush Mango Drum and Dance — a West African drum and dance company. Now it is adding a powerful new beat, thanks to Kerfala “Fana” Bangoura.

He is from Guinea in West Africa and his work is known internationally. Named a Master Drummer and Dancer by his native Guinean Ministry of Culture, the 31 year old has performed for close to 10 years with groups like Les Ballet Africans and Percussions de Guinea.

Fana is the new Musical Director at Bush Mango and what he does is second nature to him. He started playing the West African drum as a child in Guinea.

He says, “When I was growing up, I saw my father performing and drumming. I had that experience in my head and that’s why I started drumming.”

Colleen Hendrick, Executive and Artistic Director at Bush Mango, says they are lucky to have him here. His talent is authentic. “When you’re working with Fana it’s like second nature. It’s like learning French from someone who speaks French.”

In the United States for only two years, this Master Drummer now calls Rochester home.

Job offers brought Fana and his wife to the University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music this summer.

She is an ethnomusicologist. He leads a percussion ensemble and teaches West African dance at the U of R.

You can meet Fana at the annual Bush Mango holiday celebration “Waking D’mba” on December 16 & 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bush Mango Community Center located on Elton Street in Rochester.

Bush Mango is also the home of the Youth Project, an innovative program which provides city boys and girls ages 2 to 18 years old an opportunity to learn and experience drumming and dancing in a supportive and directed way.

Bush Mango has a class and experience for everyone in the family! Come experience the energy, joy and community of Bush Mango Drum & Dance.