Written By Jill Stone
One drumbeat sets the rhythm. Boom tap, boom tap, boom, boom tap. Gradually other drummers move in until the layers of rhythms are so complex that the beats bounce off the wood floors and skim along the colorful plaster walls, calling dancers to the center of the drum circle.
Every first Friday night of the month, beginning at 10 p.m. and lasting until midnight, the rhythmic beat of African drums rock the walls of the Pour House Caf in Westminster and lure dancers to their feet. The gathering is part of The Carroll Dance and Drum Circles, founded by Thomas and Laurie Precht in 2001. Drum circles usually pack 40 or 50 people into the small space of the cafe. Drum Circle members tend to be of all ages, races, and experience and have one thing in common: they are all hooked on the beat.
“Somebody will start a rhythm, which is always different, and then other people in the group have to listen and figure out what rhythm they will use to compliment it,” said the group facilitator, Laurie Precht. “They need to ask themselves, Ôhow can I support the group, how do I add to it, and how do I sustain it?”’
Laurie begins each meeting by explaining how she will help bring out the group’s best sound. She explains different hand signals that she will use, and how she will try to keep the group together. Then the beat begins. Others join in until the whole room is filled with the deep vibrations and high-pitched dings of the percussion instruments.
Eventually dancers filter into the center of the circle. The beats from many different instruments surround them. When the drumming becomes more intense, the dancers jump higher and move faster.They care little about the hair flying in their eyes or the growing heat making their clothes stick to their bodies.
Ed Bollack of Westminster, 46, said that before joining the circle, he could not even stomp his foot to a consistent rhythm. Now he beats time on a West African drum called the djembe that he bought three years ago at a local music store.
Thomas and Laurie decided to create and organize the Carroll Dance and Drum Circles group, not only to be able to spend time with each other and their two elementary school age children, but also to provide an indoor site for people to get together and participate in the art.
Along with their monthly meeting at the Pour House Caf, The Carroll Dance and Drum Circles have also appeared at McDaniel College in Westminster, the World Fair Trade Festival in New Windsor, the American Music and Arts Festival at the Carroll County Farm Museum, The Carroll County Arts Council, and the Bear Branch Nature Center. The drum circle also meets on the third Saturday of every month, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalists in Finksburg.
Laurie, who welcomes people of all musical experience levels, said most of the participants play djembes, although some play frame drums, tambourines, didgeridoos, triangles, and several makeshift percussion instruments. Most of the time she brings extra percussion instruments for participants who do not bring their own.
“There’s something about raw drum music that makes you want to dance,” said Linda Matheus, 16, from South Carroll High School.
“It’s one place you don’t have to fear being unconventional,” added Katia Racine, 16. “There’s something about the sound of just drums; it’s like New Age therapy.”
Katia enjoys mixing drum beats with dancing, and understands how to work with the drummers. “We share a silent relationship with them,” she said. When drummers have dancers, they have a reason to create.”
According to Helene Davis, 53 [of New Windsor], “the rhythm really gets you and makes you want to dance.” She said that she alternates between drumming and dancing because her hands get too sore to play for very long.
Stephanie Shade, 17, from South Carroll High School, said that she had been to other drum circles in the area, “but nothing like this.” She participates in the drum circles because “you can release all of your tension and do whatever you want, and nobody cares.”
The drummers in the circle who watch the dancers often feed creatively off of their movements. One 18-year-old drummer from South Carroll High School, who called himself “Rusty Scupper”, said that the dancers add a dimension to the drumming, that completes the good feeling the drummers get when they are playing.
Dale McNamee of Baltimore County, 52, describes the feeling as being like a “runner’s high, where you feel alert and relaxed at the same time.”
Dale, who has been coming to the drum circles for more than a year, said that he keeps returning, not only because of the drumming, but also because of the people.
“You go in and it’s an easy way to make friends and share a mutual enjoyment with others,” he said, putting away his Brazilian hand drum.“If you have the blues or are down, you can just play all that away when you come here.” His wife, Clare, agreed. “After a hard week of work, you just come here and drum your cares away.”
