Ewe Rhythm, Song & Polyrhythm in Motion
The AfuriKo Groove Workshop offers students a direct, embodied encounter with the Ewe music tradition of southeastern Ghana through the recreational dance-drumming style Atsia.
Taught through living lineage (Alfred Ladzekpo → Akiko → participants), the workshop emphasizes oral transmission, call-and-response singing, bell pattern, basic dance steps, and hands-on rhythmic participation. Students experience how rhythm, movement, and community function as one integrated system.
A central focus of the workshop is developing deeper polyrhythmic awareness. Using clapping, stepping, and guided listening, participants learn to feel Atsia’s bell pattern in multiple ways — both “in 4” and “in 6” — discovering how different metric perspectives coexist within a single groove (often notated as 12/8 in Western music). This approach strengthens timing, coordination, ensemble sensitivity, and musical flexibility across genres.
Suitable for music students, ensembles, educators, and movers of all levels, the AfuriKo Groove Workshop cultivates rhythmic clarity, embodied listening, and joyful participation in a tradition where music is lived rather than merely analyzed.
In the past, AfuriKo has worked with companies, festivals, and institutions such as Tallinna Muusika- ja Balletikool (Estonia), Jazz a la Calle (Mercedes, Uruguay), Middlesex University London, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff University (UK), Jazzmandu (Kathmandu, Nepal), Munich International Ballet School (Germany), La Caféothèque (Paris, France) and many more.
Click here for a full list of past workshops.
