About Village Heartbeat

Mission Statement

Village Heartbeat brings the power of rhythm to community. By opening ourselves to the language of rhythm and drums, we recreate our musical culture, which has the power to heal, unify, and inspire.

About Village Heartbeat

Village Heartbeat is an organization dedicated to building and educating a rhythmic community. This organization facilitates classes in African drumming, dancing, and TaKeTiNa. VHB promotes musical artists and teachers who can model rhythmic training.
Village Heartbeat is also a performing group that shares its love of rhythm with their participatory audience. VHB plays adapted traditional music of the African diaspora, and new post-modern trance grooves.
Village Heartbeat hosts community events, such as drum and dance classes, concerts, TaKeTiNa workshops, and retreats.

Contact Zorina Wolf or 650-493-8046

Statement from Zorina on Teaching Drumming

I believe in the power of drumming as an art, as a means of communication and healing, and as a way to bring harmony to a community. From this point of view, I teach about the drumming and the songs and dances that are a part of the African ethnic expression and way of life.

I teach drumming as my teachers (primarily Babatunde Olatunji) have taught me. The teaching is both oral and aural. Students sing the Yoruba sounds of the drum, and as we sing the melody of "notes," playing the drum follows easily. The rhythms are songs that become internalized, circumventing the need for prior musical training or counting beats in western measures.

Understanding where a rhythm comes from both geographically and in meaning is also important in the way I teach. African and Africa diaspora drumming conveys important information about these cultures, their traditions, their everyday lives, and their rituals. The rhythms are parts of songs and dances to honor cycles of the year, rites of passage, birth, death, marriage, circumcision, and all aspects of life, work, and celebration.

As we work to reclaim our own rhythmic heritage, we can look to this polyrhythm of developed and sophisticated music with respect and humility.

I teach all age groups. I have taught in child care centers, in public and private schools, and for private enterprise. I currently teach at four class sites per week--three in Palo Alto, CA, one in the East Bay.

Current Drum Class Schedule