sealPurdue News
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April 20, 2001

BCC offers drum and dance workshop
with Irene Chigamba

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's Black Cultural Center will offer a drum and dance workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday (4/26) with Irene Chigamba and the Bliss Gypsys in the center's Multipurpose Room 1.

The workshop is free and open to the public.

Chigamba is an artist from Zimbabwe and is currently a visiting artist at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She is the artistic director of Mhembero, the Chigamba family's dance and mbira ensemble. Chigamba is a self-taught mbira player and also has learned about Zimbabwean folk dance from her family. She learned about dances of other provinces in her home country as a member of the former National Dance Company of Zimbabwe.

Bliss Gypsys, a four-piece Midwestern band, plays music rooted in the ancient and popular sounds of the Shona people of Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. The group combines roots dance music with North American sensibilities, original arrangements and compositions.

"The Zimbabwean music industry has been working hard to develop, teach and promote international recognition of its traditional music," said Olateju Omolodun, assistant director of the BCC. "This workshop will expose the Purdue campus and Greater Lafayette community to this international movement."

CONTACT: Olateju S. Omolodun, BCC assistant director, (765) 494-3095, osomolodun@purdue.edu.


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