1st day of workshops

We began the official classes for the New Orleans Dance Festival today.  At 9am we played/watched the Haitian class, and FanFan, the lead drummer, spent some time with

 the Akoma gang teaching some playing techniques for conga drum.  Opportunities to work with experienced players like FanFan - especially focused time like what he offered to the students - is precious and rare.   Given that this is just the first day and everyone at the festival is still finding their feet, it's clear that the learning opportunities are just as plentiful as those for teaching.

Then at 1pm we played the first Ghanaian class, which was a blast!  So the music has begun and we're in a groove. 

As you can see, we're not having much fun at all.