RHYTHM Seminar – August 4-9, 2008, Vordenborg, Denmark
The RHYTHM Seminar, organized by ARTTRAIN as part of the DRUMS FOR PEACE network gathered participants from several different countries and cultures around Europe with various professional backgrounds. The seminar aimed to put together different perspectives on Rhythm in order to explore the way it can be understood and integrated in our experience – both personal and professional. We have sought the answers of several important questions:
1) What is Rhythm?
Rhythm is something we need to rediscover.
It can be defined from different viewpoints: as a physical process, as a psychological process but it cannot be divided from life. Rhythm is the flowing consciousness of future, knowing what is going to be next and being part of it, playing with it, feeling comfortable with it, a way of making the sound communication.
We can rediscover the rhythm in a relationship.
It is going from inside our bodies and minds, to the outside and coming back in a flow, a vibrant relationship between internal and external reality. When it comes to persons encountering each other, a common rhythm has to be found. The better you know the person, the easier it is to find the rhythm.
Rhythm is a way of communication, a language when both of us know the same grounds.
2) How Can Rhythm Be Used – In Our Lives and In Our Work With Other People?
We have tried to add a practical value to our perspectives on rhythm according to our various professional lives and interests. We have agreed that establishing a common rhythm with someone requires good will, devotion, acceptance, time, patience.
In working with children, parents, teachers it is important to hear, receive, accept, understand and respect the rhythms of each and every one.
In teaching it is important to find a space for improvising with everyone’s own rhythm.

First one has to be aware of one’s own rhythm – if not it can lead to tiredness and anger. Then one has to explore different rhythms, beats and tempos – of making music, learning, understanding, communicating.
Being aware of different rhythms – one’s own, other people’s and nature’s at the same time – is essential.

GROUP B: Still images with explanations from all.

All members of the group will shout out a word that sums up the most important aspects of rhythm for them and the rest of the group will react by getting into a still image or statue representing these words. The words owner will then continue to present simply why they choose this word.
Energy, for me rhythm provides huge energy to many aspects of my life as a 27 year old male but also in my work as a facilitator. The energy which rhythm carries flows from me as a facilitator and from each person within the group I'm working with. My rhythms energy needs to be calm focused and open. This energy or tempo moves constantly inward and outward. It adapts, increases and decreases with every person it encountors. The energy inside rhythm is infinte, it will keep going longer than anyone will ever live and at the same time it is as long or as short as we choose it to be, if we want its energy we have to be part of it.
Sharing, we all have our own rhythm. I know mine, I can feel it every day, and I can feel how it changes. It is all the time being affected by what is happening around, by what I hear, what rhythm do I feel. But I think the opposite process - giving my own rhythm to other people - is important too. I not only take rhythm from surrounding world, I creat my own and give it to others. The one I have depends on my inner life, my thoughts and emotions. I can influence other people in the same way they do it to me. So, all the time people are sharing their world, their rhythm. This exchange is continuous and it's nice that in this way I can be a part of the world.
Concentration, as a teacher I often have feedback from my students about the rhythm of my lesson. Depending on the speed of my speech or how many breaks I take their concentration can be focused or loose.So this is what I call the rhythm of concentration and just as there are separated tracks in a CD I think after each topic there should be a break in order to respect the students rhythm.
Emotion. Rhythm can influence our emotion but also the emotion can be shown by our mannerisms. The environments we live in hasve different rhythms e.g. if we are in a big city feeling urban rhythms this will influence our behaviour, if you listen to a fast peice of music your body reacts by moving faster, the opposite is true of slow paced life or music. Our emotion can be watched by others e.g if we are stressed our walking rhythm is different...even if you are in love the beat of your heart accelerates. Everyone has different rhythms so it is important to pay attention to that because the human being is a social animal and if we want to develop strong, positive relationships we should try to understand other peoples rhythms. As a teacher and social worker its important to start to work with rhythm in our daily work.
Communication. Rhythm affects allot of our ways of communicating eg the way we talk, softly, slowy, aggressivly or quickly.
Non verbal communication is another factor where rhythm plays a big role eg the way people walk and the posture they hold.
Without thinking about it my wife increases her tempo in order to make mine faster in the morning.
They way somone knocks on a door can communicate a huge amount without any actual contact.

Movement
From the very beginning till the very end of its life, every human being lives with the basic rhythm of its heart.
This fact explains the strong relation Life = rhythm.
In my daily life i tend to discover rhythm everywhere around me.
I use it as an inspiration, motivation or just energy, that keeps me moving on.
If I look around, or hear around, I see the rhythm all the time: while travelling by train, when typing on
the keyboard, when walking on the street. most of the time I don't really pay
attention, but when I decide to do so, I start following these rhythms in very creative
ways. Once I played djembe in a metro station in New York with the rhythm of train
and accelerating speed. Beside discovering the rhythm in the surroundings everywhere,
I tend to keep myself in rhythm by singing, whistling or just listening to my Mp3 player.
Every day I wake up whith the rhythm of salsa from the alarm of my mobil phone.
This gives me food mood for the new day. l always listen to music on the way to
work and in the office, so the time goes faster and with with pleasure.
Evenings i love to go to parties or jam sessions, where the rhythm gathers people and connects tham in creative way.
And what would be the dance without the rhythm?
So i think that the rhythm is in the foundation of the human life - the spirit, the motor, the energy and the comunication. And me personally - Rhythm keeps me moving on!

Internal / external
There are different places on earth with different rhythmic – in a big city it is quick and disharmonic, because it’s mixed witch noises around you. In a small town the rhythmic off life is slower and calmer.
But in ourselfs we have a other rhythm, of o heart, breath and why not the rhythm o our blood pressure. So, the rhythm is inside and outside us. We are born with it, we are use to life with it, and start to influence us since we are in the womb. Even, before we are born we have the rhythm of our heart beat but also the rhythm of our mother’s heart.
We received it, not only like a sound but visually, like frame that are changing very quickly or slow motion. This is happening in two ways also – the pictures that are changing around us and the pictures in our minds.
Circle.
Rhythm Seminar Group B Conclusions 08/2008
How does it affect our daily life?
With one word we sum up how rhythm affects our daily life...
Energy, sharing, concentration, emotion, movment internal/external, circle.
What does the rhythm mean to me?
Siga:
The rhythm of a person exists from the very beginning. When a child is not even born he feels the heart beat of his mother. The life starts with it and all the broader environment - the rhythm of family life, everyday noises, the songs mother sings to a child, the language childs hears, and all the surrounding people - influences what rhythm the person will have, how will he live.
We all have our own rhythm. I know mine, I can feel it every day, and I can feel how it changes. It is all the time being affected by what is happening around, by what I hear, what rhythm do I feel. But I think the opposite process - giving my own rhythm to other people - is important too. I not only take rhythm from surrounding world, I creat my own and give it to others. The one I have depends on my inner life, my thoughts and emotions. I can influence other people in the same way they do it to me. So, all the time people are sharing their world, their rhythm. This exchange is continuous and it's nice that in this way I can be a part of the world.

Llew:
l work as a freelance youth worker, specialising audio + video production, rap & song writing, theatre and beatboxing. So rhythm plays a big part in my job.
In my daily rhythm the first thing that hits me must my own breath as I wake up shocked to the sound of my alarm going off!
Then my slow sleepy foot steps to the bathroom. This initial rythm is the momentum I hold on to for the day. E.G. if I wake up slowly without energy it means that the rest of tho day will normally be hard work!I often run in the mornings and this is a solid and changing tempo which I follow with my breath first and my thoughts second.
When Im home and showered, if l turn on my computer to do some work its fans and LCD screen have their our rhythms which l can only deal with for two hours maximum. These rythms are negative to me at times as they make me feel stressed.
Then when I turn the key in my car or start to ride my like the rythmical sounds of the mechanics of each create a soothing symphony sounds. I continue my day with my own beatboxing, which people love and hate, people change my rhythm, rhythms can be positive and negative.
Ruth
Every day is like a musical piece. It starts then having a crescendo/accelerando - culmination - slows down - diminuendo/ritenuto. If you take a look to a city - in the morning you can see very few people and cars but as the time goes on there will be more and more. In the midday it looks like an ants nest and after rush-hour it all calms down. So my life looks the same. It takes time to get moveing, then on my way to work I see traffic - lights and posts beside the road. They are makeing a rhytmic patterns. The time in work is the top of the day. There are so many diffrent notes, voices and rhytms. It seems like a chaos but if you listen a bit you will find an order. After work I go back. I'm tired and same lights and posts that were warming me up in the morning looks now... well, they get me sleepy. The rhytmic apattern can also calm down, then you'll need some active music from radio or cd.
I think there is a rhytm of life and a rhytms that are affecting our lives.

GROUP C
RHYTHM
The Great English detective, Sherlock Holmes, goes camping to Wales with Dr Watson. In the middle of the night he wakes his erstwhile assistant and friend with a jab in the ribs and says – “Watson! What do you notice?”
“ Uhhh! Gathering himself, Watson tries his best to answer. Well, meteorologically I can see that it is a clear night, a southwesterly wind and a forecast of a sunny day tomorrow. Astronomically, Mars and Venus are and in the northern hemisphere and Orian is to the south. Astrologically, uranus is in the ascendent and is in capricorn which indicates an enhanced lovelife for yourself in the coming week. Theologically, the heavens are resplendent and God is present in the beauty of the universe.
“ No Watson, you stupid man. Someone has stollen our tent!”
Sometimes it is difficult to see that which is most obvious. Should we sit for a moment in silence we will see that everything is dancing. Sensations arising and falling in the body, thoughts passing through the mind, sense stiumli in constant movement in and out of perception. Even beyond what we can observe with the human eye and ear alone, the universe is expanding, cells are replicating, electrons are dancing around their nuclei like an infinate ceilhie. Some we can here - white noise, on the detuned radio or television is the echo of the big bang, the first beat, perhaps.
It is evident, if we don’t engage our intellect like Watson perhaps, that the universe is dancing: multivalent rhythms, a plethora of pulsing at any moment – flux. Like a surfer, we can pick a wave and ride an element of this flux. This is rhythm – participative perception, a conversation with the cosmos, a dance where both partners respond to the lightest touch and at its peak, in a state of flow, become as one. As humans we make explicit this implicit dance, and by unfolding the enfolded (latent potential of every moment) interact with that which is beyond what thought can capture. To do this together, in so many indigenous cultures, through drumming and dance, is to conect with ‘spirit’ – simply that which is impicit, not manifest. For that time together, like iron fillings thrown onto paper under which a magnet lies, a pattern emerges of what is always around us but which is invisible most of the time.
To share these moments in space and time, to ride this wave, this rhythm together for these fleeting moments is what really unites us. It produces what Victor Turner calls’Communitas,’ the glue which binds together as lovers , communities,nations. Why else have a national anthem? You want evidence for this, you can turn to psychology, sociology, the neurosciences, anthropology or you can stop for a moment, become mindful, and notice what Dr Watson failed to notice, something right infront of your nose - something indeed passing in and out of your nose – the breath and the beat of the heart Then what you might find is that rhythm is what unites us to our sense of self grounded in this moment and without hearing it you will always be out of rhythm with your life.
What further evidence will you then need that rhythm and its expression through dance, drumming and music is not a luxury; some kind of low priority social intervenion that must compete with building roads, policing and military defence for a few begrudging crumbs from the table. It is completely natural, but is choked by the mechanized rhythms of modern society, so from birth we might never hear our own rhythm, and since this dis-ease is generational, no one might be able to listen to our rhythm. Is there a more lonely place to be? So funding is required to mobilize an army of dancers and drummers and those trained to teach us to listen to our own rhythms and to share them with others, to remind us of what needs to be reclaimed in this mechanized society, if we want to thrive and be humans and not a machines. Is that the kind of society we want?
1 rhythm is life
2 yes
3 I want the rhythm I accept the rhythm the rhythm is with me
4 And I am with him
5 Leibnitz “ music is counting without knowing we are counting”
6 Rhythm is feeling without knowing your feeling
7 When there’s no rhythm there’s no life
8 But also life as we do not know it?
9 Rhythm brings people together
10 We can build a team with rhythms
11 Rhythm is something we can see & listen to we can not touch but can feel
12 Rhythm is giving birth & taking life
13 It’s the way you feel & look at time
14 Its always better to leave your own rhythm not somebody else’s rhythm
15 Rhythm is the way we communicate
16 rhythm is the way we learn
17 rhythm is our past
18 rhythm is our future
19 rhythm is the reason we are here
20 rhythm is why we continue