Drumfest 2006 Faculty and Facilitators

In 1992, Steve attended a men's gathering in Indy and discovered the djembe drum and started building drums, doing drum-building workshops and participating in drum circles. In 1993, he attended the new warrior training program and became a member of the Mankind Project: Dedicated to healing the heart of Mankind.

In 1993, Steve initiated the Midwest Drum and Dance Festival with a few friends. He met Kazakiyah Hardy-Dia, from Senegal, the same year and has sponsored him each year since then for black history month, when they tour many schools in Delaware County, Indiana, educating and celebrating African Culture, engaging the students in the process. In 1997, Steve and Kazakiyah went to West Africa -- Accra in the Country of Ghana -- for 30 days where they explored the beauty and diversity of the people, their culture, music and religions.

To date, Steve has built and sold around a thousand hand drums of various shapes and sizes and is currentlydoing freelance handyman, home improvements, building and selling drums and producing the Midwest Drum and Dance Festival.

"What a difference a drum makes! The drum has been one of the most profound agents of creative change, unification and co-creation in my life!

"I love the Arts and I'm finding great pleasure with participating and supporting artists in Drum and Dance and artistic multi-culture functions."

Whether it is as an educator, facilitator, entrepreneur, recording artist or performer, Taylor brings a unique perspective to his craft. With the combination of a unique ability to communicate, instill discipline and promote creativity, combined with a broad range of life and professional experience, he focuses on the relationship between the individual and rhythm/drumming. This has led to an overall philosophy that seeks to bridge the gap between all things in rhythm, seeking to find where ones own personal pulse lies in relation to the collective pulse. By way of traditional West African or non-traditional styles, Taylor demonstrates the universality of rhythm in everything he does.

For more information go to Taylor's website: www.holygoat.com

Sally Childs-Helton

At the age of 14 Sally Childs-Helton put down the flute, picked up drum sticks, and has never looked back. In her mid-teens she received a drum set from parents who believed that girls could indeed play drums. She also went to Hawaii, where she discovered musics unlike any she had ever heard. She was infatuated. While her peers were playing rock in high school, Sally was playing jazz and classical music. She majored in music education and percussion performance as an undergrad, and then spent way too much time in graduate school at Indiana University studying ethnomusicology, not because it was a good job move, but for the sheer love of it.

Sally is a percussionist, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and mentor with over 30 years of teaching and facilitating experience. She holds a B.M.E., and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology. Her teachers include David Darling, Glen Velez, and Arthur Hull, and she continues to study with musicians from many different musical and cultural backgrounds. She is a co-founder of the Midwest Drumming and Dance Festival, and a certified Music for People improvisation teacher. Sally also facilitates an annual Women's Drumming Weekend, going into its 6th year.

Sally's areas of expertise include hand drums and ethnic percussion, music improvisation, classical percussion, creativity, and performance anxiety management. Dr. Childs-Helton teaches world music and ethnomusicology at the university level; conducts drumming and improvisation workshops around the country, in Canada, and Britain; and accompanies dance and movement therapy, Susurrus Modern Dance Company, and various theater productions and choruses. She also plays with Indianapolis-based "People, Paint, and Percussion," and the Rhythms of Life percussion and dance troupe. Sally and her husband perform around the U.S., Britain, and Canada as a duo, and in central Indiana with Wild Mercy, an eclectic Celtic band.

As a self-professed sound junkie, Sally believes almost anything can (and should) be a percussion instrument. She especially enjoys working with beginners of all ages, "re-beginners" who are returning to playing music, persons with visible and invisible disabilities, and with all people who are willing to discover their ability to create original, powerful, meaningful music. Sally's goal is to help others discover the joy she finds in playing music, and she will play almost any kind of music with almost anyone. She also welcomes collaboration with other performing and plastic artists, and encourages people to express their creativity in as many art forms as possible. Sally creates a safe, supportive, and playful environment for musical, creative, and personal growth.

For more information go to Sally's website: www.womendrum.org

Judy Piazza

Judy Piazza has been exploring music and sound since a young age. A percussionist, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, music therapist, and educator, she performs, facilitates workshops, and teaches nationally/internationally at conferences, retreat centers, workshops, schools, and festivals. Judy is founder of Resonance & Rhythms, artistic director and founder of the frame drum ensemble Bendira, and member of the Michigan-based percussion ensemble Repercussions.

Judy has been deeply inspired and influenced by Glen Velez and Ubaka Hill, with whom she has performed; she has also drawn from the teachings of Allessandra Belloni, Silvia Nakkach, Kay Gardner, and Paul Newham, and has "shared the stage" with Paul Winter, Arthur Hull, Edwina Lee Tyler, Michael Markus and Gordy Ryan.

Judy continues to delve deeply into the nature and use of sound and rhythm among first peoples, the power of pulse through hand drums and percussion, as well as the sonic possibilities and healing aspects of voice, rhythm, didgeridoo, and tonal qualities. She facilitates rhythm and song circles, frame drum and voice workshops, Earth Rhythm & Songs school assemblies, and interactive performances for all ages to nurture community as well as to communicate gentle yet powerful messages regarding relationships to our self, each other, and to our Earth. Current affiliations include Upland Hills School, Young Audiences of Michigan, and Bloomfield Hills Model High School.

For more information go to Judy's web site: www.resonanceandrhythms.com