Beltane Ecstatic Dance & Voice with Opposable Drums & Soul Sounds

This is a special double bill for Beltane with Music as Medicine & Soul Sounds teaming up with Sheffield duo Opposable Drums to bring you an evening of uplifting communal voice practices, dance and live, improvised music.

The venue is the beautiful hall at The Birch Community Centre in Rusholme, Manchester, where both artists on the bill have been guest performers at the wonderful Sun Dance events previously.

Damien Mahoney (The Order Of Love / Caulbearers) will kick the event off with his Soul Sounds vocal session - a unique combination of global songs, original material and group improvisation. This is open to all levels of experience and is a grounded, somatic practice involving breath, body and voice.

This will prepare us for the ecstatic dance event where Opposable Drums will create an improvised, live set of music using purely electronic instruments, taking us on a musical journey which responds to the energy of the dancers.

** There are a limited number of early bird and advance tickets available.  There will also be some tickets available on the door for £18. **

More info on the artists below...

Opposable Drums

Paul Mann and Matthew Laurie have played together for over 20 years and have a long history of performing a wide range of dance music genres including dub, drum and bass, reggae, African highlife, electro, blues, folk dance, jazz and west African percussion.
Opposable drums draws from this experience to offer 100% live electronic music to support a conscious dance space within which dancers can find freedom. Live improvisation allows for dialogue between the musicians and dancers which deepens the collective journey through a non stop set of tunes inspired by the rise and fall wave of 5 Rhythms and Ecstatic dance. Join us for an eclectic journey starting with slower ambient soundscapes rising to a peak of improvised techno and polyrhythmic percussion, and moving to stillness through tribal grooves, broken beats and and melodic jazz piano.

Soul Sounds

Damien Mahoney is a Manchester-based musician and producer. He trained as a Natural Voice Facilitator with Frankie Armstrong and has also trained with Phoene Cave (The Musical Breath), Jenni Rodditi (Vocal Tai Chi) and Guillermo Rozenthuler (Circle Singing / Training For Vocal Leaders).  In addition to running regular public group singing events, workshops and retreats, he has done sessions with prison inmates, social workers, healthcare staff, refugees, homeless charities and cancer patients.

Passionate about the myriad beneficial powers of sound, Damien regularly provides live music for therapeutic events including meditation, dance, breathwork and yoga sessions, retreats and ceremonies. This work includes the live improvisation trio, The Order Of Love. He also writes, produces and sings for the band Caulbearers.
He is the curator of Music As Medicine, a live music event aiming to bring communities together through music & dancing, drawing on world influences and encouraging collaboration and improvisation between artists.

"Soul Sounds is about each of us finding a way of connecting to our unique, authentic voices which can help us feel more alive, energised and expressive. My role is to help guide people through this process so we can connect with the healing power of our own and each other's sounds. There is no need to know musical theory, or be able to read music. The songs and sounds we share are generally learned by ear, in the oral tradition.”