Of all the pleasures that Doris brings, the one that calls us back as a family each year is the experience of trust amongst people of such varying backgrounds. It is not so much a merging of cultures but rather a positive affirmation of each, celebrated side by side. And all bound by a common outlook of tolerance, a core of love. That shared unity of folk from all corners of the planet and so many cultural and even religious heritages is surely the blueprint for humanity's survival and with it the Earth's ecology.

It is difficult to imagine a better cultural educational experience for our children than to combine the experience of shared trust and tolerance with a week of developing their musical skills. Over eight consecutive Dorises, we have seen our two boys, now in their mid-teens, incorporate the drumming, dancing and singing with their stringed playing to wonderful effect. To have been able to do that "on our doorstep" in South-West England has been an unexpected wonder and delight.

Chris Weedon 27th August 2008

 I've been coming to Doris for 8 years and build my yearly calendar around this un-missable event. Doris always fuels my creativity and allows me to experience and try new things. It's such a joy spending time in a place where everyone has such enthusiasm for learning new things!! A week where my 14 year old son immerses himself in drumming, away from electronic gadgets and the internet does him more good than anything else I could find!! Our whole family benefits from the Doris Magic. I wish the world could be like Doris!!

Kavida Rei

I first came to Doris 12 years ago, keen to drum and dance. What touched me though was Tai Chi. Since then I have practiced Tai Chi...weekly classes, and daily practice. It challenges and supports me to go forward to discover what it means to be an authentic human being. Thanks to Olu for that first insight.

Alan Jones, age 53, 4 times at the Intercultural Summer School

I forgot to fill in the visitors book to say what a great week i had - my first Doris, a surprise birthday present and I loved every minute. Well maybe not the mud.....so THANK YOU. I would be glad if I could be on a mailing list of Doris events. Thanks again, All best, Eddie Sinclair  

I started drumming at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds in 1994, with Misa Suma (Master Drummer from Conakree, Guinea) We formed a group of 7 women, and I began teaching one to one, and then groups. Now, after 14 years, I have taught at Leeds College of Music, at Doris, and I do a lot of therapeutic, fun drumming with groups who use Mental Health Services and other community groups, as well as other adults and children. Coming to Doris has freed my spirit and inner child....helped me loose inhibitions and taught me new rhythms; enjoying quality teachers, sharing with others, keeping in touch and being able to try anything if I want to....Doris is in Leeds, alive and kicking!!!

Marion Small, I live and work in Leeds, mother of 2, grandmother of 1

Doris is something I have never done before. I never immersed myself in music, and singing, it made me get in touch with my inner creativity I did not know I had, the artistic part of myself...Tribe of Doris complements and completes who I am!! And I love the kindred spirits I have met through Doris. I found a sense of peace when I am drumming and dancing.

Carolina Upex. age 32, from Peru. Finance Assistant. 2nd year at Doris

I like to drum, and learnt some new things at Doris. And I love doing Hip Hop...I have never done that before! Laura. Age 11, 4 times at Doris

I like drumming, and I really like the teachers. They are fun. Georgia. Age 11, 4 times at Doris

Doris re-energises me for the rest of the year!! It gives me an opportunity to develop my musical skills, and reminds me of the importance of maintaining and developing international links

Kate Hale. Age 51, from Cornwall. At Doris 3 times

I am discovering new skills I did not know I had, or wanted to learn!! It allows me to develop a sense of adventure. Volunteering was fun, but really hard work. Pat Hastings. Age 54, from Cornwall. 3 times at Doris, volunteer this year

Doris is my Christmas and Birthday all at once!! It is uplifting of the voice, body and spirit. Over the years, I have learnt enough songs, and rhythms to pass these on to the next generation of performers ....and this year, I had 30 9year olds playing kpanlogo on djembes to their parents!! This year I have been deeply moved by the Baka singing, and watching my 2 1/2 year old playing the congas in the drum circle!! BiDo has stretched my playing ability to the absolute limit - at one point I nearly gave up!! But I am glad I persevered with it, as it is an ecstatic sense of achievement when you eventually get it right!

Best wishes!!! April Wallis, from Kent

Doris is a creative cauldron for me....so much gets to be ignited, turned around and shaped into new paths for expression and musicality....my creativity gets nourished to such an extent that I feel I draw from this experience all year round....and it sets a context for new openings and explorations that are exciting and exquisite. This year I have been particularly touched by the new generation of musicians...the young people who have been around the elders in music, learning from them, and now finding their own voice....and creating completely new, invigorating and inspirational music. What a joy!! I am deeply grateful for the years of learning, exploring, playing, hanging out with kindred spirits and precious gifts from the extraordinary teachers that are part of the Doris Team..... I SALUTE YOU!!!

Ursula Monn. Age 59. 8 times at Doris

I have been going to Doris for the last ten years, when I first got to Shepton Mallet I had just got my djembe. I had no idea how to play it, and no idea how it could sound when played properly. My first workshop was beginners drumming with someone called Deasy. The workshop was fun, my drum sounded great (to me) - but the most impressive part of my time there was the incredible enthusiasm shown by everyone involved in organising the event. From the teachers Kanyinda and Musa Suma to the lovely ladies running the showers decked with plastic flowers... As the years have passed and I have gone to more and more Dorises, I have discovered more and more not only about other cultures, but about myself as well. This knowledge has enriched my life no end, and set me on a journey to last a life time! I will miss Doris not happening next year, but what it has given me will always make me smile!

Mike Nixon  

Hello, I came to Tribe of Doris in 1998 and it was a life changing time, never have i had such a feeling of tribal togetherness and joy! I remember playing djun djun with Ade's talking drum class, if you see him tell him thankyou it's still here, in my head, Forever!!! Whenever things have been rough the memories of DORIS have kept me going,

love to all, Byron  

 TRIBE OF DORIS By Abi Foss  published in The Venue 2006

Here in Bristol and the West Country, we have plenty of high profile events to be proud of...but there is one world-class event that goes by each year relatively unnoticed. Now in its fifteenth year, the somewhat strangely titled ‘Tribe of Doris’ (the name comes from a “daft in-joke”), is carving out a serious international reputation for the sheer range and quality of its ensemble of music, drumming and dance teachers from all around the globe.

This ‘Intercultural Summer School’ kicks off again on 23 August for five wild days of nearly two hundred sweat-inducing workshops, on a carefully tended site on the Devon-Somerset border. On offer is a breathtaking array of music, dance and drumming classes for all levels and all ages. Here, you can learn everything from Zimbabwean ancestral chants, Arabic belly dance, Sufi whirling, hip hop, Korean drumming, South Indian dance, acapella and Brazilian samba to South African welly boot dance! Other highlights this year include Japanese Taiko drumming, English folk song, Native American Indian drumming, story, song and dance and classes with one of the world’s best Indian vocal percussion teachers. The eclectic cultural mix makes for positively legendary fireside and late night cafe acoustic jamming sessions. Where else could you find a Colombian shaman, Senegalese balafon (wooden xylophone) player and a violinist from the Berlin Symphony Orchestra hanging out together? On the last day, each class puts on a short performance in a grand finale that lasts well into the moonlit and fire-lit night. A regular Doris gem is when the English folk song and Zimbabwean ancestral chanting classes sing their respective traditional songs together, in perfect and astonishing harmony.

Tribe of Doris is essentially the child of friendships formed back around 1990 and was initially formed as a place for the organisers – community arts workers Siobhan Kierans, Deasy Bamford and Nick Reading – to make as much noise as they liked, practicing African drumming with their friends. The whole event started with the grand communal investment of a fiver to cover the photocopying. “We were a couple of single mothers back then,” Deasy explains. We just pooled our spare cash and got on the phone. There were 75 people at the first Doris in Thornbury.” Now the event attracts 1,000 committed regulars each year from as far afield as Sweden, Portugal and America. “We have deliberately kept it small,” Deasy adds. “We could have expanded it, made a load of money, but we want to keep on having the best fun we can.

People feel so at home at Doris, they adore the global family vibe.” “We pride ourselves on welcoming displaced people like refugees and asylum seekers,” adds co-organiser Siobhan Kierans. “Often refugees tell me that Doris is the first time they have ever felt truly at home since fleeing their country. They are usually very sad to leave.” Leading African dance teacher Rachel Degarang was forced to flee Sudan with her family when she was aged just 10. Now a vibrant 47-year-old with a family of her own, she has been an enthusiastic Doris regular for the past decade. “Doris has been my inspiration for learning about and teaching dance,” she says. “I never knew so many styles of dance existed, even in Africa. Each year I feel this build up of excitement before the event, because I know I’m in for a real treat.”

All three Doris organisers are seasoned community arts workers and under the banner of the Imayla innovative learning project and in partnership with Bristol City Council and other organisations, have pioneered the ‘Big Time’ youth arts events that now happen twice a year in St Pauls. “In many ways, Doris is the most successful youth work we’ve ever done,” says Deasy. Both kids and teenagers have their own areas and creative programmes at Doris. “There’s no fighting or bullying. We’ve had kids who have been coming since they were knee-high. Now they’re teenagers and each year they hassle their parents to come back to Doris.” Bristol-based Penny Avery’s hip-hop dance class is one of the most popular amongst teenagers. It was turning up at Doris one year, aged just 17, that inspired her to embark upon her dance and choreography career.  

Now, under the Imayla banner, Deasy and Siobhan are, with the help of colleague Kim Cavanagh and a development grant from The Arts Council, on the road to realising their dream of creating an intercultural rural arts centre, or, as Deasy puts it, “a non-academic university of rhythm and culture”. “I was working for Time Out of Town (TOOT), an Easton-based community organisation that took inner city families on educational camping holidays,” explains Kim. “Most participants had never even visited the countryside before, yet they had such positive experiences that we realised the need for a residential centre. That’s when our and Doris’s aims merged and we formed Imayla.”

Whilst working on the grand vision of an intercultural Centre for Arts and the Environment on the southwest countryside – to inspire both urban and rural creativity – Imayla is busy offering community arts activities and running an innovative rural residential programme for inner city youth. In fact, three weeks of what is known as the ‘eX Factor Project’, is happening right now in conjunction with the Exmoor National Park Authority, who are keen to attract more inner-city dwellers into the countryside. Teenagers from Bristol are learning survival and outdoor activities and film and music production in the inspiring setting of the Exmoor National Park.

“It is quite shocking to realise how many people never get the chance to get out of their normal environment and enjoy the countryside,” says Kim. “Together with the Doris intercultural learning experience and our partners at Exmoor National Park, we are proving that with the right encouragement, inner city youth can discover hidden talents, flourish and make truly positive changes in their lives.”