"DAUGHTERS OF CYBELE"
WOMEN DRUMMERS FOR WORLD PEACE
A Women's Ensemble

Performance and Workshop:
Performance - Friday February 13 at 7 PM
New York Open Center, 83 Spring Street in SoHo
Tickets: $24
Reservations: 212-219-2527

Workshop - Saturday February 14, 10 AM to 5 PM
New York Open Center, 83 Spring Street
All day workshop: $130
To register or for information: 212-219-2527

"It was as if the crowd had been transported to a secret clearing
somewhere in the Piemonte to witness some wonderfully
obscure, mystical ritual. Alternating between high, eerie
incantations and earthy folk melodies and playing a small museum's
worth of percussion instructions, they wove a sonic web."
www.lucidforge.com

Featuring:
Alessandra Belloni - vocals, Southern Italian tambourines, frame drums, harmonium,
ritual dance
Alesssandra Tartivita - soprano, frame drums
Lorraine Calculli - frame drums, shakers
Olimpia Avignone - African percussion, dumbeck, frame drums
Francesca Silvano - ritual dance
Juliet Gentile - sufi dance and chants

Alessandra Belloni has assembled a unique ensemble of women using voice, percussion and ritual dance to honor the healing power of female energy in "Daughters of Cybele," Friday February 13, 7 PM, at the New York Open Center, 83 Spring Street. The evening will feature sacred rhythms, chants and dances in honor of the Black Madonna and Mother Earth.

Countries around the world, including Southern Italy, Brazil, Africa and the Middle East have musical traditions based on the power of women. Belloni and Company will emulate one of the most ancient ways of praying and healing, including sacred chanting by female voices in harmony, accompanied by various percussion instruments (frame drums, tambourines, shakers, djembes, ballaphones, dumbecks, riqqs, mazhars, and marimbas). Dancers will spin and stomp their feet in celebration of life and peace.

With "Daughters of Cybele," Alessandra Belloni carries on the tradition of Roman priestesses who played the tambourine in worship of Dionysus, god of ecstasy and wine, and the Earth goddess Cybele.

Workshop
Southern Italian folk dances and rituals are joyous forms of music and dance therapy that have been a source of healing for hundreds of years. Alessandra Belloni will teach Neapolitan chants, the healing dance of the Pizzica Tarantata, the Tammurriata from Naples, and a Calabrian spinning dance.

A native of Rome, Alessandra Belloni is an internationally recognized singer, percussionist, dancer and actress, and a pioneer in the preservation of Southern Italian folk culture. She appears as a solo artist in concert throughout the world and with her company I Giullari di Piazza, which she co-founded with John La Barbera. Belloni has recorded numerous CDs, and has written the book Rhythm is the Cure, an expert study of Southern Italian percussion, and ritual music and dance.

www.alessandrabelloni.com