Battery Drumline, a not-for-profit youth music program, is a drumline with dancers based on the baterías of Brazil that play the Carnival parades. This set-up allows for a number of performance venues: parades like the West Village Halloween parade, performances on stage and in public spaces, e.g. — street fairs, parks and along the Hudson River promenade. Ages for percussionists range from 11 to 17; dancers 9 to 17.
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We are a not-for-profit organization with 501(c)3 status that grew out of funding for the area impacted by 9/11. Our seed money came from a Project Liberty grant and most of our subsequent funding has come from the DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY (DCRC) and REFUGE. The program combines a diverse ethnic and economic mix of kids learning a traditional musical form on traditional instruments. We’ll play a variety of Brazilian rhythms that will include solos by kids who are particularly skilled. We also want to discover band members’ musical skills that could be featured in our repertoire: guitar or keyboard based instrumentals, songs, raps, etc. The Brazilian bateria band will be our template, but the music will expand beyond that form into more contemporary areas while maintaining the bateria format. Raps, rock songs and salsa songs could be composed to feature small bands-within-the-band which would be accompanied by the bateria.
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In BATTERY DRUMLINE, like all kids programs, there will be kids who are serious about music — even rabid about it, those who just find it fun, and those who join just because their friends joined. We're trying to accommodate all those levels of involvement and, at the same time, create a very high quality band that kids will grow up with in the same way they grow up with Little league. In fact, we clearly envision BATTERY as a musical version of Little League. Our goals reflect those of Little League and other team sports: to teach kids the more discrete aspects of playing in a group both as point person and support person: teamwork; listening to and responding to the other players (what we call “playing eardrums”); the performance advantages of focusing on the music rather than voguing for the audience; individual responsibility for achieving goals for the whole group as well as oneself. Our ideal is to have kids enter at age 10 and graduate the band when they go off to college having mastered a number of instruments and knowing what it's like to be a professional musician and having earned lots and lots of applause.
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The BATTERY DRUMLINE credo is intended to innoculate against the more toxic aspects of mainstream American pop culture. We promote respect for the history and traditions that gave birth to the music we play, respect for the the instructors, awareness of a do-it-yourself alternative to the pay-and-watch aspects of the entertainment industry, imagining long-term goals and understanding music as a professional and creative vocation as opposed to simply a vehicle for stardom.

Our classes began in the fall of 2003 in a room donated by Borough Of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). We began playing for the public in early 2004. By autumn 2004 we plan to have a full show prepared for auditoriums comprised of rhythms from Brazil, Africa and Central America plus original songs and instrumentals that will highlight the skills of individual members of the group. We also plan to book studio time and produce a series of recordings. We will be networking with similar programs in Europe and Brazil with the intention of participating in the festivals held in these countries where samba bands (kids and adults) participate.

BATTERY DRUMLINE is a year-round program. Classes are held weekly after school. There is a class for the younger kids and one for the older ones. All the kids are in the band. Enrollment is free and performances will be free to the public.

Our founders, visionaries, directors and principal instructors are POLAR LEVINE and CURTIS WATTS. While both create the repertoire and conduct all classes, Curtis is the main conductor in performance. Polar designs the graphics, authors the website and writes a weekly blog for the parents and band members.

MARIKO DREW is our dance instructor. She teaches the traditional dances and choreographs dances for each selection the band plays. She also works with the drummers, creating movement while they play. Katy Barnhill was our dance instructor in 2003 and 2004.
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CLASSES are held in two semesters: from September to mid-December and mid-January to late June. P.S. 234 is hosting our program in the cafeteria on Thursdays 6-8PM for percussionists and 7-8PM for dancers.

Music or dance experience is not necessary but it definitely helps. What is necessary is consistency in attending classes. We perform for the public and impress upon our players and dancers the concept of professionalism and discipline which is undermined by spotty attendance.We expect that all members stay up to date with school obligations and show up for our classes fit and fed. There is no eating during classes. Unruliness and lack of respect for instructors, other group members and the classroom will not be tolerated; the same goes for tardiness and unruliness at performances. Aside from all that, we have lots of fun. Everybody gets to watch themselves transform into working performers and receive lots of love from the cheering masses -- even get recognized on the street!