Julie-Ann Odell is the founder and managing director of Dubai Drums. She will guide a group of drummers at the Full Moon Drumming event at Gulf Ventures Desert Camp on Friday.
Dubai Drums started six years ago and has been growing steadily ever since. It started with a few people drumming in my back garden to the hundreds that now drum with me at my full moon desert drumming events.
I mostly work with corporations using rhythm and drumming as a tool for team building. It's amazing what results can be achieved. My most popular community event is the Full Moon Desert Drumming and there is always a huge waiting list, but I also host regular rhythm nights and community drum circles in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and quite often take my group and my drums to charity events. We also do a lot of work in schools. We have a regular group drumming lesson at Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre. We have African djembe drumming group sessions on Wednesday evenings. Saturday morning, we have Dubai Drums Family Club for kids and their parents and we're about to start tabla lessons on Monday nights.
African hand drumming uses a drum called the djembe which originated in the Malinke kingdom of West Africa. It has been around since humans first formed tribes and as it worked then so it works now, to unify and to communicate. Hand drumming is different from your typical rock band drummer who uses modern equipment and sticks. The djembe drum can be used in group drumming or as a very effective solo instrument, as you can almost make it sing.
The djembe is not a primitive instrument on which one beats in just any way. There is a history behind it, a tradition that is transmitted from generation to generation and all the rhythms have names. It is played by very specific ethnic groups and individuals, on special occasions and has a specific importance within African Mande society, an immutable symbolism. But the djembe is not reserved only for tradition. It is a popular instrument that can harmonise with all other instruments. It is open to all. There are performances and then there is the tradition. They are completely different.
Full Moon Drumming is a great chilled out evening where people can come and get to know other people in a community environment and experience what it feels like to be a tribe. We organise a desert barbecue, sand skiing, camel rides and henna painting as part of the evening to keep everyone fed and entertained. In between the drumming sessions we have a DJ who plays Buddha Bar-style music (with a great down beat of course) and people get up and start tribal dancing. We also get people singing African songs, so I guess people should expect to arrive in what would be a typical kind of African village except of course we're not in Africa, but it has the same "feel". People that come say it's a totally different experience from anything they've been to before and many people have now started advising their overseas visitors to schedule their trips at the same time as the full moon event.
If you went to China to learn Chinese, the more you practised it, got comfortable with the sounds and confidence in your expression, the better you would end up speaking Chine2se. Its exactly the same with the drum, only much easier. It's the universal language of rhythm, the more you speak it, the more fluent you become.
Friday, 6.30 onwards, Gulf Ventures Desert Camp, tickets 050 640 2058. www.dubaidrums.com
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 0
Manchester City 2
Bernardo Silva 54', Sane 66'
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The years Ramadan fell in May
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
