Rujeko Dumbutshena & Napoleon Jambwa - African Drum Class & African Dance Class May 13

Experience a live African drum class and African dance class with Rujeko Dumbutshena and Napoleon Jambwa

African Drum Class
Learn the foundations of traditional African drumming through rhythm, technique, and repetition. This class focuses on hand percussion, timing, and ensemble playing using instruments like ngoma and other traditional drums. Students will learn core rhythms rooted in Zimbabwean culture and how they connect to song and movement. Open to all levels.

Wednesday, May 13

5:45pm-6:45pm

Community Hall - Third Street Center - 520 S. Third Street Carbondale, CO

$25

African Dance Class
Explore African dance through grounded movement, rhythm, and expression. This class draws from traditional and contemporary African styles, with live or recorded drumming guiding the experience. Students will build coordination, strength, and musicality while connecting movement to culture and storytelling. Open to all levels.

Wednesday, May 13

7pm-8:30pm

Third Street Center Suite 20 - 520 S. Third Street Carbondale, CO

$25

Drum + Dance Classes $40

Rujeko Dumbutshena is a Zimbabwean-born dancer, pedagogue, and performer who specializes in neo-traditional and contemporary African dance. She holds an MFA in dance from the University of New Mexico. She has been on faculty at the University of Washington where she worked as Assistant Professor of Dance and on the BA revision committee. She has taught as dance faculty at the Central New Mexico Community College, the University of New Mexico, and Sarah Lawrence College. Rujeko has participated in artist residencies at Williams College, and the University of Rochester. At Duke University she is part of the “Afro Feminist Performance Routes” cohort of Black femme dance artists from around the world. She was an original ensemble member in Bill T. Jones’ Off-Broadway, Broadway musical, and Lagos, Nigeria Tour production of FELA! For sixteen years, Rujeko designed and directed  intensive African music and dance camps: Camp Mabina, Camp Tumbuka and Bantu Camp. Camps featured teaching and performing artists from seven African countries  and the African Diaspora. She has since guest taught at international dance and drum conferences across the United States: Camp Fareta, Camp Merveilles and Wassa Wassa. From 1999 to 2007 she conducted cultural tours to Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa and will relaunch cultural tours to Zimbabwe in 2022. Rujeko conducts her scholarly research on the interplay of nature, gender and power in Black Female ritual practices and ritualized performances.

Napoleon Jambwa is a Zimbabwean musician, dancer, and educator from Highfield, Harare. He began playing mbira at age five, learning from his father.

He is a multi-instrumentalist skilled in mbira, marimba, hosho, and ngoma (drum), and is known for both performance and teaching. He also trains in African and Western dance styles.

Napoleon is affiliated with the Chinyakare Ensemble and regularly leads workshops and performances internationally. He has collaborated with artists like Rujeko Dumbutshena and has taught at spaces such as the Confluence Arts Center, as well as appearing as a guest artist with the Agbedidi African Dance Ensemble.