B a l a f o n W o r k s h o p s

Manding Grooves organizes Balafon Workshops year-round in France, the US, and in West Africa. We use a particular mixed Africa-Western pedagogy developed by Lisa Feder and Famoro Dioubate.

Summer 2025
Balafon workshop in l'Ardèche, France
August 2 - 9
with Kanazoe Dioubate of Burkina Faso

For more information or to reserve your spot contact lisa@lisafeder.com

The Workshop

Lisa Feder, the organiser of the workshop, is an American anthropologist who has worked with griots for over 20 years. In her workshops, Lisa guides us in opening ourselves to the positive psychological benefits of learning this traditional instrument with a griot teacher like Famoro Dioubate and Kanazoe Diabate.

Kanazoe Diabate leads this balafon workshop with rhythms from the Manding people on the diatonic balafon. He also specializes in the pentatonic melodies from his cultural group, the Semla people from Tolonso, Burkina Faso.

Famoro Dioubaté was special guest teacher in 2024. He may also be present in 2025. Hailing from Guinea-Conakry and based in New York, Famoro has safeguarded the traditional style of his grandfather, El Hadj Djeli Sory Dioubaté. Through teaching balafon, he helps students find their inner peace and mental agility.

Participants will start each day with a meditation, optional yoga, and listening quietly to the music from a master griot. Then, we embark on 2-3 horus of balafon lessons before noon.

We pause for lunch and free time for several hours. Take a walk in the woods, bath in the river, or take it easy at our gîte, our home for the week. For the balafon ambitious, teachers will be available for private and small group lessons - particularly for the advanced players who want to maximize their learning experience.

Later in the afternoon, we re-group with our respective teachers to practice what we learned earlier that day, as an ensemble.

The practice session will lead into the Musical Cocktail Hour when balafon enthusiasts can continue playing. Tired of the balafon? You can play other instruments like the doundouns, djembes, bells, and if you bring them: bass, flute, guitar, etc. It's also a chance to dance, listen, paint, play and be free!

Manding Grooves Pedagogy: More than just a music lesson

Learning balafon the West African way comprises a system of education indigenous to Manding culture. Famoro Dioubaté from Guinea and Kanazoe Diabaté from Burkina Faso, two of our teachers, began their apprenticeship at the age of 7. Rather than concentrating on schoolwork, they concentrated on learning balafon. This is how they developed their humanity. It is very rare for Europeans to learn in this style. In Manding Grooves workshops, we blend African and European styles of learning. Classes are combined with village-style learning during which time the teachers transmit values and qualities such as patience, concentration, coordination, grace, listening, respect, and a sense of community. These are values that we can integrate into our daily lives. With the assistance of Lisa Feder and other experienced individuals, we have the opportunity to explore and practice the rich spiritual culture of the jelis (or griots) around different themes.

Lisa Feder is an American anthropologist specializing in the study of jeli culture as an educational system. Author of the book "Jeliya at the Crossroads," soon to be translated into French, she has studied under Famoro Dioubaté and other jelis since 2000. Based in France since 2015, she co-founded Manding Grooves with Famoro Dioubaté to support jélis in their journeys in Europe and the United States. She believes in the power of music to bring people together beyond borders. She believes in the ancient system of apprenticeship and oral transmission as a path for developing well-balanced human beings. She is also a spiritual practitioner, primarily in Buddhism. For Lisa Feder, jeliya, human development, and spirituality are inseparable. The Manding Grooves pedagogy is based on over 20 years of anthropological research and practice.

Memories from previous Balafon Workshops with Kanazoe Diabate.
2023, Sederon, France : March 2023 et October 2022, Le Beausset, France. : March 2019 Marseille