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Summary: Practical info and resources to help plan and pull off awesome music/ dance gatherings in wild natural settings. This is based on our experience in Santa Barbara, CA. The nature pulse (weather/ tide etc.) resources are Santa Barbara-centric but useful/ adaptable to some extent anywhere. |
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Saturday Circle across from Chase Palm Park...starts a few hours before sunset
Gathering in nature, making music and dance together connects us to nature and each other, is super fun and energizing, rejuvenating, exhilarating...
Here is Ngoki's founding vision:
"Ngoma is the original, raw, primal essence of our gathering with
drumming and dancing to heal, transform, and celebrate, before it
was ever crystallized into any particular cultural tradition or
distinctive style. Ngoma is the original human impulse and tendency
to drum and dance for any and every reason. Ngoma is the generic,
non-specific, underlying, internal motivation and inspiration itself
that manifests outwardly as the natural human behavior of gathering
together with drumming and dancing.
Ngoma refers to an all-inclusive community health care system
based primarily on ecstatic drumming, dancing, and singing. Ngoma is
the moment to moment action of returning to a way of life that
includes drumming and dancing free of any limitation and constraint.
Ngoma is also the gatherings themselves where this free, ecstatic
drumming and dancing is taking place. And perhaps most importantly,
ngoma is a global, worldwide primal drum and dance movement taking
place on the entire planet right now, where more and more people are
beginning to gather with intentional, ecstatic drumming, dancing,
and singing.
Ngoma doesn't belong to anyone. Ngoma is a way of looking at and
talking about something that all human beings already have in common-
-this primal impulse to drum and dance. Ngoma is already a
fundamental part of our essential human nature and intelligence.
Ngoma is actually encoded in the cellular DNA of our species, though
it is often blocked and prevented from fully expressing. The mission
and highest purpose of ngoma in the world at this time is to offer a
definite way of awakening and activating the "ngoma information"
in our DNA, to increase our quality of life individually and
collectively.
Ngoma is the "way and the power" of community healing,
transformational drumming, dancing, and singing."
-Ngoki
YouTube Video of full moon drumming
It's powerful to celebrate in sync with natural rhythms...sunrise, sunset, full moons, winter and summer solstices, spring and fall equinoxes, first rain, eclipses, etc. etc...
Full Moon and Eclipse Dates from Nasa
These are PST...add one hour for daylight savings time. Awesome eclipse info, too.
Jan 21, Feb 20th (eclipse), March 20th, April 19th, May 18th, June 17th, July 17th, August 15th, September 15th, October 13th, November 12th, December 11th
Note that we meet the last night of the waxing moon, which is the last moonrise or sunset going into the full moon peak. This is often the day before the full moon date shown on most calendars. Why? If we weren't so insulated from natural rhythms this would be an obvious, recurring part of our own life rhythm...in the 14 nights between new and full moon, the moon is higher and higher in the sky when the sun sets, so the all the way dark night (starlight only) is shorter and shorter. If you are a creature whose life is run by natural rather than electric light, this is huge—instead of having to be back in your burrow by dark, you get to stay active. The closer it gets to full moon, the lighter and longer the moonlight extension pushes back the full darkness of night.
Finally, on the last day of waxing moon, the full moon rises at sunset and stays in the sky all the way till sunrise‚—a natural invitation to all the earth's creatures to pull an all-nighter. The very next day, the moon rises an hour after sunset, so there's a half hour of real dark that separates day from moonlight—totally different vibe, back to the burrow, party's over.
These are in Universal Time, subtract 8 hours for PST
Vernal equinox Summer solstice Autumnal equinox Winter solstice 2007-03-21 G 00:09, 2007-06-21 G 18:13, 2007-09-23 G 09:52, 2007-12-22 G 06:12 2007-03-08 J 00:09, 2007-06-08 J 18:13, 2007-09-10 J 09:52, 2007-12-09 J 06:12 2008-03-20 G 05:58, 2008-06-21 G 00:00, 2008-09-22 G 15:40, 2008-12-21 G 12:02 2008-03-07 J 05:58, 2008-06-08 J 00:00, 2008-09-09 J 15:40, 2008-12-08 J 12:02 2009-03-20 G 11:47, 2009-06-21 G 05:48, 2009-09-22 G 21:29, 2009-12-21 G 17:51 2009-03-07 J 11:47, 2009-06-08 J 05:48, 2009-09-09 J 21:29, 2009-12-08 J 17:51 2010-03-20 G 17:36, 2010-06-21 G 11:36, 2010-09-23 G 03:17, 2010-12-21 G 23:41 2010-03-07 J 17:36, 2010-06-08 J 11:36, 2010-09-10 J 03:17, 2010-12-08 J 23:41
Sun & Moon Rise, Set Times From U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department
Example...
The following information is provided for Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, California (longitude W119.7, latitude N34.4):
Saturday
22 December 2007 Pacific Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight 6:34 a.m.
Sunrise 7:02 a.m.
Sun transit 11:57 a.m.
Sunset 4:53 p.m.
End civil twilight 5:21 p.m.
MOON
Moonrise 2:32 p.m. on preceding day
Moonset 5:45 a.m.
Moonrise 3:28 p.m.
Moon transit 11:11 p.m.
Moonset 6:55 a.m. on following day
Phase of the Moon on 22 December: waxing gibbous with 98% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.
Full Moon on 23 December 2007 at 5:16 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
The exact place you meet will have a big effect on the character of the gathering...
In general you want a spot where
You also want a favorable microclimate, to be above high tide line, etc. etc.
Note: we've had fairly positive interactions with police by talking with them calmly and clearly having our act together with respect to fire safety, trash, and underage drinking, which are their hot buttons around here.
Directions to typical SB gathering spots (password required)
If you're making a fire, you don't want to burn the mountain down...we've gotten more and more conscious about this after having a few close calls.
Fire danger level (CEFA; click on "Southern California, on L), Fire danger level (GACC),....Fire Weather (NOAA), Detailed fuel moisture (WRCC; click on "daily summary" on left), Los Padres National Forest Ranger District (805) 967-3481 (tough to get someone).
We have a pressurized water fire extinguisher and shovels stashed where we meet.
Despite this, we now don't meet in high fire danger zones at red alert times, even without making a fire. Our gatherings are often large, and there's been oblivious smokers flicking live ash into dry brush, windblown incense embers, renegade fire-spinners, and side groups that have made, then abandoned live fires away from the main area.
To develop your weather intuition,
Weather at spine of SB mountains from NOAA
Weather at SB beach from NOAA
Weather discussion from NOAA
Ten day weather & radar maps from weather.com Animated 300 mile Radar
Tides from Tidelines
The essential ingredients are:
1) Good music ...at least one good drummer, at least one bass drum (dun dun, surdo...)
Drums & Classes—Dancing Drum
Drums—Full Circle Drums
2) Dancing...this is really a question of just going for it, though classes don't hurt...
Dance classes—Ginga
TheCalabash.com, crazy cool video of drumming /dancing in Senegal
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