Workshops

Silk Roads offers workshops and demonstrations to schools, museums, and events, including

Outcomes

Participants can learn a range of skills including:

  • playing Middle-Eastern instruments: darbouka and daff
  • arts and crafts including batik, calligraphy, geometric designs
  • dancing dabka community dance
  • creatively retelling a story with words, movement, or gesture
  • combining music, storytelling, dance, and design in performance

Our workshops develop: 

  • Listening skills
  • Concentration
  • Dexterity
  • Creativity
  • Teamwork
  • Leadership
  • Confidence in presenting and sharing
  • Contemporary uses of traditional techniques
  • Understanding and appreciation of different cultures

Above all the sessions are fun, participatory, and rewarding!

Sufi frame-drumming

Khaled Hakim learnt Sufi frame-drum (daf) in traditional ceremonies.

Some say frame-drums have been played for 40,000 years (as soon as people could skin an animal!), always in sacred contexts, and are rightly called ‘the world’s oldest spiritual technology’.

The frame-drum is these days most widely played in the Islamic world from N.Africa to Indonesia. The daf is the preeminent Sufi instrument, and is the only music instrument allowed by very orthodox Muslims. Participants can learn the large Persian daf with its chained rings, or the smaller plain framedrums with its different techniques. The instruments can use synthetic or natural animal skin (smell them! see the pattern of the fur!).

It’s worth noting that playing these rhythms are a direct form of ‘meditation’ in themselves, with energizing and cleansing qualities.

Arts and Crafts

Silk Roads covers many arts and crafts – from calligraphy to henna hand-painting.  Our card weaving workshop at a recent Science Museum Lates event won top evaluation from museum staff.

One of our popular workshops is ‘batik’ – a traditional technique of painting on fabric using wax and fabric dye. It’s found in Africa and Asia, and is particularly identified with Indonesia.

We can teach this craft to adults and children, using freehand drawing or design templates. The ‘production’ process of drawing with hot wax, painting with dyes, then ironing the cloth and allowing to dry, makes for a very rewarding experience.

Facilitators Rezia Wahid and Fathema Wahid have wide experience as Textiles Technology/Art & Design teachers. They offer great versitility and have researched art, craft and design from different cultures and designed schemes of work for hands-on creative projects using different materials.

Storytelling – Tales from the Silk Roads

The storytelling workshops and performances have been a very popular arm of Silk Roads, we run them continuously for schools, festivals, conferences, Muslim events, and it works equally well for adults and children.

Part of the success of the storytelling events is that they are extremely interactive, include percussion music, and include 20 drums for the audience to participate in. The workshop techniques are imaginative and physical (including ‘frozen tableaux’ techniques). The stories are adapted from Arabian Nights or from spiritual/Sufi stories and poems (the Hymn of the Pearl has been very successful with children and adults and has been adapted from a 2000 year old Syrian spiritual poem).

Alia Alzougbi is a dynamic performer who combines an ornate ‘Arabic’ storytelling style with great acting abilities and gripping stories (Alia recently took the starring role in the BBC feature film ‘Trouble Sleeping’ released 2008).

Dabka

‘Dabka’ (pron: dubkeh) is the Arab word for a widespread traditional line step-dance danced at social gatherings (such as weddings). It’s danced by men and women, young and old, generating great community togetherness.

Alia Alzougbi is the founder of ‘Hurraiya’ – a Middle-Eastern dabka troupe. The Dabke dance with Middle-Eastern drumming is something that has been rolled out for adults and for children. For schools and education, the class or group is split into two (not necessarily evenly), one part do the dabke workshop, the other part do the middle-eastern drumming, then they come together to perform the dabke piece.

For adults, the dabka workshop can be run for about 25 people. A short 10 min demonstration can be followed by a 45 min workshop and a final short performance.

Dabke video (External link)

Feedback comments

“All the children and adults involved had a fantastic day and I’ve already had some great feedback from both my colleagues and the children. They were particularly impressed by the fact that all the children were involved and taking part somehow ― which considering the number of children was quite an achievement!” ― Nasreen Khan, Teacher, Hillingdon School

“Many thanks for … your excellent performance … It was really inspiring!” ― Isabel Carlisle, Director, Festival of Muslim Cultures