IBIOS
L'Esprit d'Afrique is a collective of multi-talented artists from around the world. Together we create Los Angeles's top Pan-African Performance Art Ensemble. Our goal is to create work that celebrates the common root and fruits of the African Diaspora. We use music, song, poetry, dance and drumming to express the connected nature of the traditional and contemporary music songs and dances of the US, Haiti, Africa, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Brazil. Our shows are designed to inspire and uplift our audiences; through celebrating ourselves and sharing our passion and passing that enlivening spirit (L’Esprit) straight to the hearts of our audience.
Emeka Simmons- Director
Emeka M. Simmons (Director/Dancer/Arts Educator) has been sharing his love, joy and passion for movement and rhythm for over eight years. This dancer, choreographer and cultural ambassador, originally for Tallahassee, Florida, moved to Los Angeles in 1997. Since then he has taught, choreographed and performed locally at UCLA Royce Hall, Highways Performance Space, REDCAT Disney Hall, Alex Theater, Skirball Cultural Center, Ford Amphitheater, 24th Street Theater, UCLA Kaufman Theater, Nate Holden Performance Arts Center, Grand Performances California Plaza, Saint Josephs Ballet, Carolina Theater, Museum of Latin American Art, Fowler Museum, Armand Hammer Museum, L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art, King King Hollywood, Temple Bar, Zanzibar, Bordello Bar and The Purple Lounge at The Standard Hollywood to name a few. Internationally, he has performed in Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico and has shared the stage with artists like Damien (Jr. Gong) Marley, Smokey Robinson, Lazaro Gallaraga, Nzingha Camara, Quetzal Guerrero and Aakon. This Florida native began his dance career in 1999 on the campus of UCLA. The UCLA African Arts Ensemble's West African dance troupe JOOBA, was the genesis of a his dance performance career. He fell in love with performing and African dance and drumming arts. In doing so, he began a journey that followed the west and central Africans across the Atlantic to the new world; first stop, Cuba. Omo Ashe, an Afro-Cuban performance Ensemble brought Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin culture to the center of his artistic focus from 1999-2001. In 2001 he was asked to join N'zingha Camara's West African dance company Le Ballet Kouman Kele. Continuing his journey further into African diasporic arts brought Emeka to Capoeira de Angola where he studied and performed with Pastina's Garden of Capoeira de Angola from 2000-2002. Finding Afro-Brazilian culture fascinating, he also studied and performed with two Brazilian dance companies Viver Brazil in 2003 and Ballet Folklorico do Brazil in 2004. In 2005 Emeka fell in love with salsa dance and music and became a principal dancer with Contra Tiempo an Urban Latin Dance Theater Company until 2008. Emeka is now the founder and director of LEsprit d'Afrique a Pan-African Performance Art Ensemble.
Anna Christmas- Co-Director
Anna Christmas has been getting down to Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell since she was a fetus (thanks Mom & Dad!). Upon exiting the uterus, Anna got right to work making music, movement and costumes in dance productions, choirs and Musical Theatre productions. She eased on down the yellow brick road, which eventually lead her to Nzingha Camaras West African Dance class in December of 2000. It was love at first sight and sound and Anna has not stopped shaking what her ancestors gave her!
Anna Christmas has been so fortunate as to train with many masters of dance including Gregory Hines, Nzingha Camara, Chester Whitmore, Kemoko Sano, Koka Diabate, Noah Andzongo Breeze Lee, Jackie Lopez(Miss Funk) and Mareme Faye. Anna has been a proud member of dance companies Ballet Kouman Kele, Africabok, Viver Brazil and is now the utterly enthusiastic Co-Founder & Co-Director of LEsprit dAfrique.
Robert Wilmore- Musical Director
Bobby Wilmore came to Los Angeles in 2001 on a music scholarship to USC Thornton School of Music to study Jazz Drumming and World Percussion. With in no time Bobby was performing with some of L.A.s finest; including Harry Belafonte, Andy Garcia, Francisco Aguabella, Rebekah Del Rio, Justo Almario, Bill Watrous, Carlinhos Pandeiro de Ouro, Bianca Ryan, and Maestro Lázaro Galarraga. Bobby has also done many studio sessions with artists such as Maya Angelou, Ron Trent, Karsh Kale, The Quit Orchestra, Shawn Rivera, Moonlight Carnival, Kathleen Grace, Roger Carnes, and Jorge Black.
Bobby has performed all around the world for events such as:
International Tour in London with The Variations, National Summer Tour with Ali and AJ, Corbin Bleu, and Drake Bell, AFI Film festivals, HBO Black Film Awards Ceremony, MOLA, Ford Amphitheatre, SXSW, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Eagle Rock and Pasedena Jazz Festivals, African market place, Ensanada Wine Festival, and the Festival of the drum at UC Riverside. Recently Bobby played a tour in
St. Louise, St. Croix and Puerto Rico where he premiered his newly released CD.
Bobby just finished executive producing an album of traditional
afro-cuban music with his God- Father Maestro Lázaro Galarraga and Producer Angel Figueroa; which features the three of them playing Batá drums and Singing. The Album Emí Ókókán, was released in July 2009 in L.A. at a sold out theatre in Hollywood, it is now on i-tunes.
Bobby is the Musical Director for L.A.'s top Pan-African performance ensemble L'Esprit D'Afrique. This group combines dancers and musicians who perform a wide variety of African influenced traditional and
contemporary styles. They are building a huge following in L.A.
playing regularly at clubs, schools, corporate events, and festivals.
Bobby also spreads his passion for music through teaching world music and percussion all over Los Angeles. He's taught classes at USC, University of Missouri, Foshay Middle school, Santa Monica Ocean Charter School, Lula Washington Dance Center, Museum of Latin American Art,
and many Oarnge County and Los Angeles Youth Centers. He has several classes weekly at PAWS Music and Creative Seeds in L.A. Both of which are schools for people of all ages that promote community andculture through music, dance, and the arts.
Bobby would like to thank his parents for their endless support, his Godfather Lázaro for his wisdom and passion, and all his teachers over the years; especially Angel Figeuroa, Ndugu Chancler, Sameer Gupta,
and "all the kids that teach me how to learn everyday."
Felicia Richards-- Vocal Director
Felicia began singing and playing various instruments at a young age--combining the classical music she studied with the popular music to which she listened. Whether it was making home recordings with family and friends, doing musicals at the local community theater, or being a member of various ensembles, she can't remember when music wasn't a vital force in her life.
It was during her studies at the University of Southern California that she was exposed to the beauty and complexity of folkloric and contemporary Afro-Latin music. Having come from a strong vocal background, it wasn't long before she became the one of the lead vocals for USC's Afro-Caribbean Ensemble (ACE) under the direction of Angel Figueroa.
In just a short period of time she had entrenched herself in the world of clave, Guiro, Bembe, Rumba, Rueda, Samba, and all things associated! As such, she has been blessed with the opportunity to learn from and work with artists/groups such as Angel Figueroa (PAWS FLACO), El Maestro Lazaro Galarraga, Vibrason, El Tambor, Pedro "Muñeco" Aguilar, Shawn Rivera (Az Yet), Mestre Amen Santo (Capoeira Batuque, Ballet Folklorico do Brasil, Batuqueiros), Craig Ramos, Kati Hernandez, and Abeni.
Felicia has been a member of L'esprit d'Afrique since 2007 and vocal director since 2009. She continues to study and explore various styles of music and strives to incorporate her many influences into the vocal aspects of the group.
Erika Elizondo
Erika Elizondo is a multi-disciplinary artist who, for over ten years, has been studying various forms of acting, poetry, dance and performance art. Although, she has performed at many festivals, theaters and museums; nationally and internationally, she is an avid fan of children and their creative development. Her focus as an children arts educator is designing visual art workshops and giving gallery tours to youth at institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles City Hall and The Getty, to name a few. She was awarded a certificate of recognition by the Los Angeles Mayors Office for raising awareness through art about the femicides occurring in Juarez, Mexico. She is passionate about social justice and has a deep love for the rediscovery and propagation of roots and culture through music and dance. She has been teaching dance to inner city youth as well as teaching rumba for women in Los Angeles for several years. Her travels around the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean have offered her opportunities to learn various forms of dance and percussion from several Afro-Cuban masters who belong to acclaimed folkloric groups Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Ban Ra Ra and Yoruba Andabo. In Los Angeles, she has studied with Pedro "Muneco" Aguilar and Kati Hernandez. Erika is a resident artist and serves on the Board of Directors of PAWS (Percussion Artist Workshop) which offers classes, programs and workshops to empower communities. She is a member of the Los Angeles based, Pan-African Performance Art Ensemble LEsprit dAfrique. She has also performed with Killsonic Marching Band (an experimental jazz project) and the Afro-Cuban folkloric ensemble El Tambor.
Zach Harmon
Coming soon.
Thaddeus Galizzi
Percussionist Thaddeus Gallizzi has been performing in and around Southern California for over 30 years. Throughout his musical pursuits, Thaddeus has carefully developed his own style on Congas, Bongo, Timbales and assorted Latin Percussion. He has studied with such notable percussion artists as Akim Robert Davis, Angel Luis Figueroa and Lazaro Galarraga. Thaddeus has performed with a variety of musicians and bands including The Fred Ramirez Latin Jazz Ensemble, The Banda Brothers Latin Jazz Band featuring Ramon and Tony Banda, Bobby Matos and the Heritage Ensemble, Johnny Polanco, Hector Casanova, Orchesta Caribe, Rod Rosell and the Tres Dos Latin Jazz Band, Antoine Caito and Orquesta Son Candela, Michael O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Leslie Paula, Justo Almario, PAWS Folkloric Ensemble featuring Angel Luis Figeuroa, Lazaro Galarraga, and The Luis Cruz Beltran Latin Jazz Ensemble.
Thaddeus' musical philosophy is, "Always approach percussion as an art form, and bring to performance a positive, creative energy while sharing your love of music and life." Artists website: www.thaddeuspercussion.com
John Paul Maramba
Morgan Stern
When Morgan was just three years old, his parents gave him a Muppets Animal Drum Set, and he hasnt stopped drumming since. His real studies began when he had the opportunity to learn directly from Master Drummer Abdouli Diakite of Senegal in Northern California. While Morgan earned a degree in Music from San Francisco State University, his studies have taken him to West Africa to learn the Jun-Jun and down to Brazil to spend 5 years immersed in the culture and language. Stateside, Morgan has played with Chris Berry and Panjea, The Slaptones, Kazmo, and has been with LEsprit dAfrique since 2008. When hes not on stage, you can find Morgan accompanying West African dance classes in LA or manning the grill at a house party.
Mike Birnbryer
Josh Agiyar
TUMBE _ Bordello Bar
901 E 1st Strreet 90012
$5 Door: 9pm
Aug. 25, 2010 10pm 21+
All Ages
Hide + Seek
FREE _ The West LA Bandshell
July 21, 2010 7pm
11338 Santa Monica Blvd 90025
TEMPLE OF SOUNDS
Live _ Senor Fish
422 E. 1st Street 90012 Little Tokyo
$5 after 10p
Doors 8p
Showtime: 10p
Say: le-spree-da-freek _ the door
ISHOWS
I MEDIA
lespritdafrique_gmail.com
myspace.com/lespritdafrique
facebook.com/lespritdafrique
For booking please call:
Robert Wilmore
(408) 314-3151
ICONTACT
