An integrative initiative in creative work & learning.

Arts & Bodies

Keith Terry and the Body Music Residency

November 1 – November 7

Keith Terry is the nation's pre-eminent practitioner, ethnographer, and theorist of "body music." The founder and director of Crosspulse [link], Mr. Terry will spend a week in Ann Arbor as a King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professor, with colleagues from Crosspulse and SLAMMIN, his all-body band, performing and teaching U-M students and faculty, community members, and Detroit Public School students and teachers about body music – its cultural origins, development, and moves.

Where did body music come from?

Body music has emerged all over the world, from Inuit vocal games to Balinese kecak (or monkey) chant and dance, from Flamenco Palmas to Sumatran Saman and Ethiopian armpit music. "Gumboot" was developed in the gold mines of South Africa by enslaved workers who were forbidden to speak. "Hambone" was developed by African slaves in America when their owners confiscated their drums.

Despite the grim origins of some strains of body music, today its practice is almost entirely joyful, demonstrating profound connections among humans creating with only their bodies in vastly different cultural, historical, and political contexts.

Your best bets for catching Mr. Terry and colleagues:

Body Music Mini-Festival – Sunday, November 1, 1 – 5 pm, Michigan Union, Pendleton Room.

Sponsored by Arts on Earth, Crosspulse, and University Unions Arts & Programs. Learn more.

Arts Enterprise Lunch and Workshop – Monday, November 2, 12 – 2 pm, Michigan Union, Kuenzel Room.

Family Concert – Friday, November 6, 7:00 pm, Hill Auditorium. Sponsored by Arts on Earth and UMS. Buy tickets.

Hear Keith Terry talk on National Public Radio about the First International Body Music Festival, which he created and hosted in the San Francisco Bay Area December 2-7, 2008. For audio samples and reviews from the first festival, click here.