And if We Asked, What of a Talking Drum?

She wore a beautiful lapa with deep red and orange prints all over her body. Her feet were bare and her voice was omnipotent. Sweat covered her back and the live drumming caused a momentary lapse in my normal audition. But my heart was beating to the rhythm as I listened to the instructor's chants. It was as though every single one of us in beginner african dance were amazed at the spiritual release the class was to provide. A hidden secret to unfold outside of the class description.

We started out in five rows, from the most experienced to the least. I was in the fourth row, watching the moves I had to learn by the time my turn arrived. We weren't told what the moves meant, only that it was important to follow the drumming. To keep in rhythm. To STAY in rhythm.

And like life, the release was gradual. I began to swing my arms wider, beat my feet to the ground with twice as much force, and stretch my hands further out to reach the harvest. To eat the food before me.

"You have to eat the food, put it to your mouth! Reach down to the floor with force in your arms! You have to want it... you are not wanting it! You have to love and devour it! Now, we try again" the instructor said.

And for the second time, I began to bend lower to the ground to grab my food, hold onto it, and to enjoy the sign of imaginary abundance. I swung my arms up to the sky and bent my back lower to the ground, my feet in rhythm, and all the years of jazz training, finally shattered. I had been craving this kind of nourishment for quite some time.

She began to chant. "GRAB IT!" She was hovering over me, beckoning me to reach all the way to the floor and fling my body back up to the sky to give thanks for what I had caught. And then I felt it...the joy of abundance that I have come to understand, and a woman with such passion, teaching me to grab my tribal food and commence in the meaning of spirit, of want and desire...of the power of intention. Yes, yes, yes. One thousand times or more I couldn't thank her enough for this single lesson.

She gets it, and yes'm, so do I.