Address:No. 1 Dayong Road, Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City 803
The Sibongie African Drumming and Dancing Crew (嬉班子非洲鼓舞團), Taiwan's very own African drumming group, will stage a free performance at the Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts in Kaohsiung City on Feb. 8.
The troupe was founded in 2005 by a group of friends who were enthusiastic about African drumming and dancing. Its extensive experiences include an exchange program with Burkina Faso's national drum-and-dance troupe in 2012. At the upcoming West African Music Festival at the center's Banyan Tree Garden, they will bring powerful drum beats and vocals.
In addition to traditional African music, the repertoire will include a Taiwanese song adapted from a West African farmer'ssong, as well as their reinterpretation of several African pieces.
Besides drums and dance, Sibongie has picked up several more African instruments along the way, including balafon (a wooden xylophone), kora (a traditional 21-string instrument), n'goni (a string instrument played by West African storytellers), barom (a bass string instrument), and the African flute. It has grown from a traditional African percussion troupe to an original band that writes music combining West African and Taiwanese styles.