Our people

06/09/2006 - Read 3245 times

Professional team building, management and leadership development specialists

Our people – Professional team building, management and leadership development specialists

We have a highly professional team of facilitators with whom we regularly work. They offer a strong combination of strengths that ensure that even the most challenging team building, leadership and organizational development and corporate events are an unqualified success.

Doug Manuel -top-
Sewa Beats Managing Director

Doug Manuel has been drumming since he was nine. In 1995 he attended an African drumming workshop, which inspired him to travel to Africa and study this music. In 1997 he spent six months in Guinea, the Gambia and Senegal studying with a number of Master Drummers. He gave up his career as Production Manager for the BBC to pursue his dream: to get as many people as possible drumming in as many situations and organisations as he could.
For this purpose, he set up Sewa Beats in 2000. Since then, he has been directing the company and facilitating a broad range of sessions and on-going classes in businesses, schools, prisons, refugee centres and colleges.
He sees African drumming as a therapeutic tool and a model for people working together. He is an NLP Master Practitioner and his workshops combine a depth of musical knowledge with a thorough understanding of business processes and dynamics.
He continues to train with African Masters in both Europe and Africa.

Teresa Ferreiro -top-
Spain Country Manager

With seven years communications experience working in large organisations such as the European Commission and Oracle, Teresa changed professional paths at the end of 2003 to set up Sewa Beats’ Madrid office.
Having experienced the Sewa Beats’ energy as a participant, she understood the benefits and power of African drumming and the need to bring it closer to European businesses. She runs Sewa Beats business in Spain and Portugal and other markets worldwide.
Originally from Spain, Teresa has lived in Madrid, London, Brussels and Geneva, and spent long periods of time in the US. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish. She studied Communication Sciences at university and has a post-graduate qualification in Political Communication and Management. Latterly she gained a management diploma from IMD and qualifications in musical theory.

Edouard Bernus -top-

After being initiated to african percussions by Pathy Thioune and the « Ballet de Forêt Sacrée de Casamance”, Edouard Bernus undertook a number of training internships in West Africa in order to improve his drumming knowledge and skills. He was then hired by Pathy Thioune’s group Dimbaya, and later by the troop Black Feeling System, with the storyteller Mamady Kourouma. Furthermore, it is with the group Ayebory that he recorded his first CD in 2002, and then with the group Dounia, along Baba Touré, in 2004.
In 2003 Edouard Bernus obtained a French Beatep certificate in “music, animation tool”, and in 2005, he gets the agreement from the National Education Department of France. Edouard accompanies many African danse courses, and animates different workshops in schools, old people’s houses and special centers.

Lou Ciccotelli -top-

Hailing from Chicago, Lou Ciccotelli is a freelance composer, percussionist and music educator. He currently teaches traditional Western drumming and traditional African forms in London, and co-leads the Afro-jazz avant-garde fusion steamroller, Eardrum.
During a trip to the Gambia in 1991, he realised that West African drumming offered him unlimited creative material that could be used in different contexts. He enjoys the challenge of creative and seemingly impossible teaching situations.
His studies included a music degree from Southern Illinois University in Chicago, intensive one-on-one tuition and group study with Dave Bloom.

Alicia Davies -top-

A musician, artist, and writer, Alicia Davies has been performing since 1992 with dance, music and theatre groups that have a strong emphasis on West African traditional music.
She has facilitated workshops in African percussion and dance; played with West African performance groups; repaired drums for Peter Gabriel; written a book on djembe technique called "Finding the voice of your drum"; recorded with artists from Africa and Europe; and has performed solo as a poet in a variety of venues.
She is currently collaborating on an international world music project involving musicians from Italy, UK, Africa, France and the Caribbean. She plays a host of different instruments including djembe, bougeurabou, balaton, djundjun, gombe, udu pot drum and small percussion.

Seckou Keita -top-

Seckou was born in the south of Senegal and is a descendant of the royal Keita family in Mali. He started performing professionally at the age of seven and by the age of 12 he had formed his own group. In 1996 he performed at the Forde festival in Norway, which led to a tour of India the following year. In 2000 he recorded his first album, "Baiyo" (Orphan), which depicts his journey from Africa to Europe via India.
In 2001, Seckou was nominated for the World Music Awards, and in 2002 he created the group Jalikunda with members of his family. He performs regularly in festivals, proving his incredible potential as a solo musician in different venues worldwide.

Thierry Malard -top-

Born in Paris, Thierry has a Masters degree in Fine Art from UCL. His preferences lie in “Live art,” and he has performed in public at a number of venues across Europe. Several of his projects have been funded by The British Council and The Council of Europe.
He has ten years experience as a professional drummer. He focuses primarily on West African percussion – particularly that of the Malinke culture. For several years Thierry studied with Lamine Lopez Soumah of “Les Percussions de Guinee” from Guinea; Francois Dembele from Bamako in Mali; and Diaga M’Baye and Kassa M’Faye from Senegal.
He continues to travel regularly to West Africa and is involved in several performing projects in London.

Landing Mané -top-

A performing artist for over 20 years, Landing Mané embodies the spirit of Senegalese music and dance. Landing has studied traditional West African dance and drumming since the age of four, and received formal training in Afro-jazz and classical ballet at the Natrional Conservatory of Dakar.
Since arriving in London in 1998, Landing has worked as a choreographer, dancer and musician and has performed with Adam Benjamin, co-founder of CandoCo Dance Company, Badejo Arts, Sakoba, Mashengo and Rhino Drum. He performs throughout Europe and works as an educator and workshop facilitator, sharing his knowledge and passion with students of all ages.

Djibril Mbaye -top-

Born in Sénégal in 1974 in one of the greatest « griots » family, Djibril Mbaye grew up surrounded by traditional african music and tradition.
Djibril starts his professional career as a musician in the “Ballet Africano Negro”, and participates in tours in Spain, where he will definitely settle himself in 2000.
Since then, Djibril has worked as a percussionist in many groups, such as Justin Tchatchoua, Nguelwel, and Dieuleu. He now plays with his own group, Sico Bana Africa. Moreover, Djibril gives djembé classes and organises group animations.

Pascal Sanou -top-

Pascal Sanou was born in Burkina Faso and lived his childhood in Bobo Dioulasso, surrounded by some of the best musiciens of the country. From 1991, Pascal started to play with the band Siki Somany from Bobo Dioulasso. He then went on tours to the Reunion Island and to Paris with the group from Daniel Waro.
In 1998, Pascal played with Adama Dramé’s group, Sababougnouma, and accompanied him in the tour organised by the Royal de Luxe in France and Belgium. It is then with the group Farafina Yelemby that Pascal will have the opportunity to go to the Guadeloupe and to France, and that he will win the 1st modern dance price, and 2nd traditional dance price at the National Well of Culture of Burkina Faso in 2002.
After that Pascal settled definitely in Switzerland, where he teaches djembé and balafon (a sort of African xylophone), and where he accompanies African dance classes. Moreover, Pascal still gives many concerts, like the one of Malcolm Braff in 2004, and Yaya Ouattara at the Cully Jazz Festival.

Stéphane Sublet -top-

Born in France in 1970, Stéphane Sublet settled in London in 1994, where his pation for the Malinké music started. From 1998, he undertakes regular trips to West Africa in order to study traditional percussions with famous african music masters, and even stays 2 months in Bouake (Ivory Coast), and a full year in Bamako (Mali).
In 1999 Stéphane plays the accompanying djembé part in the CD album “San Toro” from François Souleymane Dembele in Bamako. In 2002 he participates to the organisation of the percussion parade for the Queen’s Jubilee in London. He also created the troop Jelimasa in London with Baba Kone.
In 2005, Stéphane started the troop Zikapo in Barcelona, where he now lives.
Based in Barcelona since 2003, he contributes to the development of traditional African percussion in the Iberique peninsula.

Baba Touré -top-

Born in Abidjan on the Ivory Coast, Baba Touré quickly became and excellent djembéfola (djembé player), and his young music group Ujenlac wins the great National Contest of Ivory Coast in 1992. From this moment, Baba was recruited by a famous troop from Abidjan, Djolem, and soon became their chief percussionist to accompany the troop on its tours throughout West Africa and Europe.
It is in France that Baba Touré meets the famous djembéfola Mamady Keita, who will train him and integrate him into his training team in the school of Mandingue drums in Bruxelles.
In 2002, Baba Touré records Daakaan – “destiny” – in his family compound in Abidjan, which will bring him and immense success.
Baba continues to give frequent concerts and training courses in Europe, and is still one of the most accomplished African musician of his generation.

Laurent Valakou -top-

Laurent’s classical music education began with gaining a solid background in both piano and singing. Then while in Senegal he discovered the djembe drum. From that moment on he has continued to study the instrument and its tradition in collaboration with the djembefola masters.
In 1992, he gained his Masters degree in Music and began sharing his musical knowledge with school children.
Between 1994 and 1999 he was a Mamady Keita student in the Tam Tam Mandingue school in Geneva and Brussels.
In 2000 he left for the Ivory Coast with a view to working and playing drums with some young artists coming from Grand Bassam in Abidjan. Enriched by his experience with the Ivoirian dancers and musicians, he became fascinated by the essence of traditional rhythms and the djembe tradition. For the past ten years he has been teaching the djembe and dunumba in music schools.

Paul Zimmerman -top-

Paul began training and performing with Acorda Povo Dance Company in 1993 and specialized in the music and dance of North Eastern Brazil. He began playing djembe with Thebe Lipere's Moropa Orchestra, performing at community events and festivals in London.
He currently works with the Frititi African Dance Group which performed at Womad 2002 in Reading and in Gran Canaria. He also performs with Jeli Masa, a traditional London-based West African percussion group.
He has wide experience of community and education work using Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art), dance and drumming.