In body music, barriers to entry don’t exist. You got a body? Done. Technique is wide open; clapping works, so does playing drums to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” by hitting your steering wheel. Get someone like Keith Terry in the car, however, and you’ll quickly slide your instruments into your pockets. Terry is the leading practitioner and visionary of the form, a man who uses all parts of his body, toes to head, to create diverse melodies – it involves dancing around quite a bit, so you can also call him a rhythm dancer. He tours and collaborates internationally, but best of all he likes to teach, and much this week’s International Body Music Festival is given over to workshops with Terry and many of his peers. The fest also includes one Berkeley concert and two S.F. ones, which feature the stepping of Step Afrika!, the stomping of Las Flamencas, the luau chest-pound of the Manuia Polynesian Revue, the “hip tap” of LeeLa Petronio, the beat boxing of Kenny Muhammad, whatever it is Terry decides to do, and more.
Dec. 5-6, 2009
