Tag Archives: drum circle

Spirit Dance

Posted on by under Creativity, Culture, Music

What started as a night of peace and music has become one of the most famous attractions in Sarasota, Florida.

The Siesta Key Drum Circle has been a tradition on Siesta Key Beach for more than two decades. The drum circle began in the 1990s when a small group of local musicians and artists gathered on the beach to play music and dance. Today, the impromptu gathering has swelled to more than 1,000 during peak season, fronted by a core group of two dozen drummers and joined by an equal number of dancers.

According to one of the event’s founders, former military surgeon Marguerite Barnett, local polymath David Gittens organized a full moon drumming ceremony in 1993 by the site of the grandmother tree on the south end of Siesta Key. It was attended by nearly a dozen drummers and one dancer and was led by David in meditative African drum rhythms. The event was so inspiring that the group collectively decided to hold a weekly event at Beach Access 8, until it outgrew the parking a few years later and was moved to the main beach.

As word of the gatherings spread, more people began to join, and the Siesta Key Drum Circle was born. The circle quickly became a popular attraction for both locals and tourists. Except during severe weather, the drummers have performed every Sunday, starting an hour before sunset.

While visitors enjoy the crystal sands of Siesta Beach, others have found a spiritual connection to the circle.

“We original organizers did not do this with the intent of making an event,” Dr. Barnett told Siesta Sand in 2021. “For most of us, it is our church—a chance to put the cares of a busy week behind us and lose ourselves to the rhythms. For some of us, it has led to a community, relationships, and lasting friendships.”

I’m happy to say I made a couple of friends this past Sunday as Dr. Barnett and the drummers invited a group of photographers into the inner circle. They give a lot. Here’s our chance to give something back.

Click on an image for a larger view.

The rhythm of life at the beach

Posted on by under Creativity, Culture, Music

Every Sunday at dusk, drummers gather on Sarasota’s Siesta Beach to bid farewell to the sun. They put it to bed with a hypnotic rhythm that vibrates through the heads and feet of the hundreds of visitors and residents who rim the sand, who’ve been lucky enough to find a parking spot.

On Halloween they wear masks. Most of the time they wear their dreads and tattoos and thrum their congas and djembe, their snares and bodhrans.

In the circle, a woman balances a sword on her head, her skirts flying through the night air. Children spin in glowing hoops, an elderly man offers free hugs, a man dressed as Santa with a jester’s hat poses for pictures. People talk to each other.

A middle-age couple from Illinois sits with a beer in their hands and their toes in the sand. They’re staying on Siesta Key for a few weeks and this is their first time at the circle. In his short beard he looks woolly. She has blond hair with sculpted curls and perfect legs. The woman takes in the drummers and the jugglers and leans in to whisper, “I suppose anything goes.”

No, I say, not here, and if she’s disappointed, it doesn’t show. She nods and as the sun drops into the Gulf, she gives in to the rhythm, rising in her flowing shift and twirling for her husband, who snaps a picture with his smartphone.

She settles back in the low beach chair and smiles and says to no one, or to everyone, “We’ll send that to the girls.”