In light of recent events we have made the decision to postpone this spring’s New Tricks Beat This Workshops. We hope to reschedule these workshops in the near future and will make announcements as and when dates are confirmed. We would like to thank our tutors and attendees for their enthusiasm and look forward to returning soon.

New Tricks: Beat This is a series of events for adults in Canterbury and the surrounding areas. Every two weeks our practitioners will be leading drumming workshops in St Mary’s Church Chartham and Barham Village Hall, encouraging members of the Canterbury community to learn something new, have fun and build new friendships.

The aim of these sessions is to enable participants to enjoy the many benefits of the rhythm making process as a positive and energising social, creative and wellbeing activity. We will use some classic African, Latin and Caribbean rhythms as vehicles to help us fully engage in the moment, through the techniques of listening, turn taking, honing of motor skills and layering of different drum and percussion phrases.

There will be simple and more challenging rhythm phrases to suit all abilities with the focus on creating a satisfying groove that brings together contributions from everyone in a light-hearted and supportive atmosphere. As the sessions progress there will also be a chance to work toward arranging the rhythms into a repertoire that could be performed at future events for those who wanted to.

A range of African drums and percussion instruments will be available.

New Tricks – Beat This: Dates

St Mary’s Church, Church Lane, Chartham, CT4 7JW

Every two weeks, 10.30am – 12pm / Free

3, 17 &31 Mar / 14 & 28 Apr / 12 & 26 May / 9 & 23 Jun / 7 & 21 Jul / 4 & 18 aug / 1 & 15 sep

Email [email protected] to book your place.

Barham Village Hall, Valley Road, Barham, CT4 6NX

Every two weeks, 10.30am – 12pm / Free

9 & 23 Mar / 6 & 20 Apr / 4 & 18 May / 15 & 29 Jun / 13 & 27 Jul / 10 & 24 Aug / 7 & 21 Sep

Email [email protected] to book your place.

New Tricks: About

New Tricks is led by Canterbury Festival and aims to tackle social isolation, enabling individuals who struggle to visit the City Centre to take part in arts activities, meet people and learn something new. The project is generously supported by The Kent Community Foundation and Beerling Foundation.

Click here to watch a film exploring last year’s New Tricks project.