Dr. Dorothy Adamson Holley, aka Drum Dr. Dot!, is a Developmental Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, author, recording artist, percussionist, songwriter, vocalist, harmonicist, and Healer Through Music. She integrates mental health and the arts to promote healing. Drumetry™ is an outgrowth of such integration. Drumetry opens us to healing at many levels, and its themes include love, forgiveness, peace, freedom, wholeness, and cultural pride.
My passion for drumming began in my mother's womb, for her heartbeat is the first drum I ever heard; as one of my Drumetry pieces proclaims, "I was born to drum!" When I am drumming, I feel oneness with everything that is. There are no divisions, no separations, and no false dichotomies. The schism between my head and my heart, my mind and my body, my intellect and my emotions, myself and others is suddenly healed. There is nowhere to be and nothing to do except to open myself to Spirit and to allow God’s love and grace to flow through me. It is a time of self-transcendence; I am in timeless, thoughtless, weightless space, a space where the fragments of my shattered psyche coalesce to form a unified whole. For me, this is the essence of freedom!
African dance was my segue into African drumming. When I began dancing in the early 1990s, women weren't necessarily welcomed to drum in most African dance companies. During a solo trip to Senegal, West Africa in 2005, I claimed my right to drum, and I have been drumming ever since. While Spirit is my primary teacher, I have also been guided by teachers in human form, notably Gregory McKnight, aka, Baba Baile of Baile's African Drumworks (www.bailesadw.com), and Medoune Yacine Gueye aka Papa Dame, a master drummer and griot. Baba Baile is a master drum maker and a repository of the principles of Traditional African Mystery Systems and their transmission through African drum tradition and culture. I have also been shepherded by my Spiritual Companion, Donna Shin, who was instrumental in helping me to get through the rough times that helped to birth Drumetry. I am blessed to have the love and unswerving support of my husband, Bobby, who helps me to maintain my balance.
I am grateful for drumming and the Spirit of the Drum for helping me to heal myself and for guiding me to share the drum's healing potential and power with others!
IN RHYTHM!
Drum Dr. Dot
My passion for drumming began in my mother's womb, for her heartbeat is the first drum I ever heard; as one of my Drumetry pieces proclaims, "I was born to drum!" When I am drumming, I feel oneness with everything that is. There are no divisions, no separations, and no false dichotomies. The schism between my head and my heart, my mind and my body, my intellect and my emotions, myself and others is suddenly healed. There is nowhere to be and nothing to do except to open myself to Spirit and to allow God’s love and grace to flow through me. It is a time of self-transcendence; I am in timeless, thoughtless, weightless space, a space where the fragments of my shattered psyche coalesce to form a unified whole. For me, this is the essence of freedom!
African dance was my segue into African drumming. When I began dancing in the early 1990s, women weren't necessarily welcomed to drum in most African dance companies. During a solo trip to Senegal, West Africa in 2005, I claimed my right to drum, and I have been drumming ever since. While Spirit is my primary teacher, I have also been guided by teachers in human form, notably Gregory McKnight, aka, Baba Baile of Baile's African Drumworks (www.bailesadw.com), and Medoune Yacine Gueye aka Papa Dame, a master drummer and griot. Baba Baile is a master drum maker and a repository of the principles of Traditional African Mystery Systems and their transmission through African drum tradition and culture. I have also been shepherded by my Spiritual Companion, Donna Shin, who was instrumental in helping me to get through the rough times that helped to birth Drumetry. I am blessed to have the love and unswerving support of my husband, Bobby, who helps me to maintain my balance.
I am grateful for drumming and the Spirit of the Drum for helping me to heal myself and for guiding me to share the drum's healing potential and power with others!
IN RHYTHM!
Drum Dr. Dot