Monkey Chant - Seattle, Wa. Friday Dec. 19th, 8pm

[grady]

Monkey Chant: The Rhythmic Interplay of Community Voice
with Grady Cousins of the One People Voice Company

This workshop is inspired by the interlocking vocal rhythms of Balinese
Kecak (pronounced Kechak), known to Westerners as Monkey Chant.

WHEN: Friday Dec. 19th 8pm – 10:30pm

WHERE: Seattle Yoga Arts on Capitol Hill

Location, Parking and Bus:

The studio is at 109 15th Ave East near E.Denny (across from Group Health).
The #10 bus comes right by the studio, as well as the #8 bus from lower
Queen Anne and the #43 bus from downtown. You may park in the Group Health Credit Union parking lot to the north of the studio (free) after 5:30 p.m. on Fridays.

$15 Suggested Donation...
(No Committed Person Turned Away For Lack Of Funds.)

What's it all about??

It is about Vocal Rhythmic Interplay and the Body as Generator of the
Voice.
It is about Holding Ones Own Voice Strongly while Interweaving with the Voices of Others in Community.
It is about releasing ones Voice and Body into greater freedom and
expression.
It is about the Animal in our voice and our physical embodiment of animal.
There is also much purposeful laughter and improvisational voice
exploration as well.

Grady is extremely passionate about the empowerment and joy that is born within a group of people interweaving their voices with monkey chant. He has been leading these workshops in Calif. and Oregon. This is his first
Seattle Workshop.

BIO:
Grady Cousins is a Performing Artist who has shown his work since 1982 on the street, in bars, in theaters, and in art galleries throughout the
Southeastern United States, New York City, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and
Berlin. He received a BFA (2000) in Theater from California Institute of
the Arts. At CalArts, Grady studied under I Nyoman Wenten (of Sading,
Bali), who taught and inspired him greatly in the realm of Balinese Kechak (Monkey Chant). Grady has taught the fundamental rhythmic interplay of Kechak in Atlanta, Ga., Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, & San Francisco, Ca., Ashland, Or., New York City, Amsterdam, Berlin, & at "Burning Man" Black Rock City, NV.

Some History:

Kecak (pronounced Kechak) is a complex interlocking chant that became
stylized early this century as Westerner travelers and artists started to
discover Bali. Forms of kecak had been practiced in ritual form as the
ancient sanghyang trance dance for centuries, but it was condensed and
turned into an entertainment by some of the first European "tourists" to
come to Bali - it is said to have been first choreographed by the
influential German artist and traveler Walter Spies, who lived in Bali in
the 1930's, and the dancer-ethnologist Katharine Edson Mershon.

Based on the Ramayana story of the abduction of Sita and her subsequent
rescue by an army of monkeys, the monkey chant is performed a cappella by a large "choir" of men, who sit cross-legged in a tight circle forming a huge human mandala. As they chant the singers raise their arms in a sort of seated dance, swaying from side to side, and laying back against each
other, all as one, as the mandala comes alive. The choir chatters like monkeys, and croaks like frogs, as the story of Sita's abduction is told.

It's quite intense and mesmerizing, as the chant rolls along, the voices
rising and falling in unison, as a fast interlocking chatter. From time to
time figures, such as Sita herself, Hanuman the king of the monkeys, etc,
would appear and act out parts of the story.