USA Projects

From the tundra to the tropics, people the world over clap, snap, step, chant, and sing artful music. The International Body Music Festival (IBMF) is the first and only festival of its kind. Founded in 2008 by Oakland, CA non-profit arts organization Crosspulse and Executive Artistic Director Keith Terry, the IBMF is both a culmination of 30 years developing Body Music as a communicative performance art and educational model; and a powerful forum of cross-cultural rhythmic performance and connectivity. 

Hambone, Kecak, Palmas, Zapateo, Stepping, Beatbox, Throatsinging, Contemporary Sonic Choreography - A fascinating amalgam of composition and choreography, Body Music is the oldest music on the planet. Audiences and artists alike are moved by the musicality, the depth, the timelessness of this art form. 

In our 30+ years bringing international artists for cross-cultural collaborations, it has never been harder or more expensive to obtain artist visas. The financial burden is excessive and unwarranted and penalties are extreme.  When the IBMF is hosted internationally, we do not have this deficit to contend with, but here in the US, visa costs are prohibitive to working with international artists, or being able to offer decent fees – yet the international scope of artists is what makes the IBMF so potent and necessary. Seen together in concert and collaboration, the IBMF performers embody intercultural communication on both an artistic and visceral level.

Funds raised will:

- help cover the exorbitant cost of obtaining legal work visas for short term festival engagements

- boost artist fees, which suffer due to visa costs

- fund intercultural collaborative commissions that are an exciting result of the Festival’s international nature

How You Can Help

When the IBMF is hosted outside the US, there is considerably more financial and structural support available – in Brazil due to municipal funding, all events were free to the public. There, and from our initial meetings in Turkey, we have considerable support from the US State Department – for our activities outside the US.  Here at home the arts rely on individuals who see the value of this work. Thank you for your donation to sustain and grow the International Body Music Festival.

Please help spread the word about this phenomenal gathering – enjoy and share our videos and photos from our website or Facebook page.

More About the International Body Music Festival

Spurred by a choreography grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by Artistic Director Keith Terry’s receipt of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Body Music Choreography, the IBMF debuted in December, 2008 to remarkable, sold-out success. Crosspulse again produced the festival in 2009 and will produce the full, 6-day festival in the San Francisco Bay Area every two years. Our international partners host the IBMF in the interim years; and we are touring a concert– Body Music - featuring IBMF artists.  In 2010 we appeared at New York City’s Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival; and Nucleo Barbatuques and Artistic Director Fernando Barba hosted the 3rd  IBMF in São Paulo, Brazil. The 4th IBMF returned to the San Francisco Bay Area November 2011, and the 5th IBMF is scheduled for October, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey, hosted by the ensemble KeKeÇa.

The IBMF has featured outstanding practitioners of traditional and contemporary Body Music from 17 countries, presented world premiers, US debuts of many international artists, and commissioned new work and collaborations. The six-day Festival features Concert Programs and significant Educational and Community outreach with Workshops for kids, teens and adults, Teacher Trainings for classroom teachers, an Open Mic, Jam Sessions and in-school Assembly Programs -- reaching multi-generational and diverse populations.  On tour, Concerts are also accompanied by Community Outreach activites. We welcome attendees from the San Francisco Bay Area, across the country, and around the world.