DwD’s “Barefoot Edition” summer workshop hosted an interactive drumming and dialogue workshop  for exploring the primacy of musical rhythm as communication and mindfulness.

With over 20 drums and a wide assortment of percussion, guest leader Terri Segal guided a group of 18 in learning the West African djembe and other percussion as extensions of voice and conversation.

Drumming with Dialogue from Peter Jones on Vimeo.

Terri Segal is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Facilitator, and Educator who is dedicated to sharing the therapeutic value of creative expression through Group Drumming and Expressive Arts workshops. Through her business, Rhythmic by Nature, Terri facilitates Group Drumming Programs at schools, social service agencies, and for small and large businesses for the purpose of team-building, wellness, recreation, and education. In her innovative, fun, and memorable workshops, Terri focuses on how the process of music-making can enlighten her clients in areas of communication, stress management, and inter-personal dynamics.

Please join us on second Wednesdays, monthly. If you are interested in sponsoring a session, please contact one of the organizers, Peter or Greg.

May 2011 DwD was hosted by Zahra Ebrahim of the architecture and design think tank, archiTEXT.

THE WORKSHOP
“Play”….it’s the four-letter word that petrifies the establishment.  It’s messy, the process is different every time – as is the outcome – and yet, it remains the tool that best produces honest, creative, innovative, and unique results. This workshop will explore the process of using play to uncover possible solutions to issues challenging corporations, governments, and not-for-profits.Participants will be encouraged to explore the following principles in order to fully engage with the possibilities that using play to create impact can uncover

1. Play is not easy.2. Play is difficult.3. Play is necessary.4. Play is not frivolous.

Zahra is the Principal, Partner, and Founder of the architecture and design think tank, archiTEXT.  Zahra has spent the last two years as Innovator in Residence at Canada’s National Design Museum, the Design Exchange. Ebrahim brings together diverse groups to tackle the intersections of architecture and design with social change, the environment, politics, economics, equality, health, and pop culture. Using various methods ranging from curation to public engagement to conceptual art, she engages a broad spectrum of the public across the country in design discourse.

Globe and Mail article or video

Some of the exercises required attentive listening beyond hearing. Dexter Ico captures Four Clowns at  Bus Stop, performed here by all participants. The “lead clown” is given a scenario, the others, without peeking, peripherally pick up on the behavior and act the part until they all, somehow, learn together the scenario without it ever having been communicated. This is as funny as it sounds …

What do clowns know that you don’t ?

The international clown troupe of Patricia Kambitsch, Heidi Madsen, and Elsa Lam presented the February edition of Design with Dialogue.

Through nonverbal, visual, and interactive experiences drawing from theatre games, we explored the essence of dialogue beyond words.

Eighteen people joined us in an inter-personal inquiry into the questions:

* What is dialogue, really?
* What does it feel like?
* How can we understand if we’re talking all the time?
* How might we experience understanding of each other through a dialogue between I, Thou, and Crowd?