Theo: drummer, storyteller, facilitator, artist. ”I come to you today as a drummer because the world is my instrument: tables, railings, stones, bodies, floors, friends, and oh yes, drums. I am tapping, ever tapping. I love listening for rhythm in the usual places: droplets falling from rain-heavy moss, calls between species, rivers gurgling beneath ice, lakes freezing and thawing, and human drummers too. My drumming is shaped by years of jamming in circles, obsessively listening to music from around the world - the intricate finger work of North African and Indian traditions, the polyrhythms of West Africa, and the bodhrán, fiddle, and songs of my own ancestry. I love the ebb and flow of rhythmic storytelling, and also the booming sonic containers to support emotive ceremony, movement and dance - helping open beauty, connection, and breakthrough.”

Li is a percussionist and vocalist whose relationship with rhythm was born through the body. Dance was her first love ~ hips moving, feet receiving from bare earth, long before the drum ever rested between her knees. When the pulse became too strong to contain, it began to move through her hands, needing a voice of its own. Growing up in Toronto, Li found her way into drum circles, where the African Babas took her under their wings and taught her some skills! Trinity Bellwoods became her first home for drumming with others ~ a place where rhythm was shared, layered, and shaped collectively, and where she learned to step forward and hold her own. Since then, Li has drummed everywhere life has taken her, from African dance and holding weekly drum classes to grief rituals, concerts, and festival stages, collaborating with a wide range of artists and movers. Her drumming carries her connection to mother earth:::: raw, responsive, and alive. For her, rhythm is something we remember. And when the drum speaks, it speaks to what already knows how to move.