Visiting musicians played West African songs for Lake Placid Elementary School students on Friday, May 24. From left are Theresa Hartford, Dian Oury Bah and Seny Daffe. (News photo — Andy Flynn)
LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Elementary School gymnasium Friday morning, May 24, was filled with the rhythmic sounds of West African music — drumming and singing — as students, faculty and staff listened and danced to songs from four musicians.
Dian Oury Bah — master drummer and musical director of Badenyah Drum & Dance — was playing drums with his wife, Theresa Hartford, and longtime friend Seny Daffe, a Burlington, Vermont, resident who taught drumming in the African dance company Jeh Kulu. Bah and Daffe are originally from Guinea on the West African coast.
And Hartford?
“Maine,” she told the LPES students in grades 3 through 5.
Hartford and Bah currently live in Saranac Lake.
North Country School Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Yunga Webb, far left, shows Lake Placid Elementary School students some African dance moves on Friday, May 27. (News photo — Andy Flynn)
The fourth musician, singer Yunga Webb, is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, and is currently the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at North Country School and Camp Treetops in Lake Placid.
“I like teaching kids,” Daffe said after the second assembly. The first performance was for students in kindergarten through grade 2, the second for grades 3 to 5.
“Seny is an incredible dancer and dance teacher,” Hartford said. “He’s been in demand all up and down the coast at different dance conferences. We’re lucky to have him here today.”
The troupe performed on a variety of West African drums, the most popular being the djembe, which looks like a large goblet. The other three drums are part of a set — from larger size to smallest — the dunun (also spelled dundun or doundoun), sangban and kenkeni. Webb taught the students some West African dance moves and a traditional song she learned from her mother.
Asked what she likes the most about performing West African music, Hartford said, “It’s my husband’s culture, so it’s very important to us to continue the West African culture for him and for our child. You can’t replicate the energy and the love that you get from West African dance. It’s just hard to replicate. There’s nothing that compares to it for me.”
North Country School Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Yunga Webb teaches Lake Placid Elementary School students an African song on Friday, May 27. (News photo — Andy Flynn)
North Country School Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Yunga Webb, far right, shows Lake Placid Elementary School students some African dance moves on Friday, May 27. (News photo — Andy Flynn)
Theresa Hartford is center stage Friday, May 27 in the Lake Placid Elementary School gym playing a West African drum in front of Yunga Webb, left, Seny Daffe, middle, and her husband Dian Oury Bah. Daffe and Bah are originally from the West African country of Guinea. (News photo — Andy Flynn)
