Jessica Marcus also known as “Tigrita, international performing and recording artist and teacher. Tigrita performs percussive wizardry. Her rhythm-based band makes you want to dance, move and groove with up beat, high energy, danceable music where the drums are up front! The charged rhythmic-based melodies circle around the central pulses she generates on congas, djembe, tablas and the haunting African instrument, the kalimba, soulful, authentic.
Teaching Career
Universities and Performing Arts Centers
- Dance Department at Reed College, Portland, Oregon
- Drum Accompanist at The Dancer’s Workshop, Portland, Oregon
- Jefferson High Performing Arts Center, Portland
- “Ceta Program”, Portland, worked with a fabulous dancer, Ruby Burns,who taught Afro-Haitian dance.
- Young Imaginations Progam, throughout the San Franciscico Bay Area
- Music Moves Math, Big Island, Hawaii, at Honaunau and Konawaena Elementary Schools
- Kona Waldorf School, performance at Aloha Theatre, Hawaii
- Shakti Gawain Institute, Kauai and Marin
- Musician accompanist for Children’s concert, in Panachel Guatemala, Sufi Organization
- Taught English in Kathmandu, Nepal
Corporations
- Taught staff at Industrial Light & Magic, San Rafael, CA
- Taught staff at Rhythm and Hues, Santa Monica, CA
Education
- Studied @ Berklee School of Music & National Folklorico School in Havana Cuba.
Performing Career
- Tigrita taught at the Shakti Gowain School in Marin Co., Ca. 1982-1985
- Taught Drumming Sessions at Shakti Gowain’s retreat center on the island of Kauai, Hi. & group sessions which included Tigrita’ international following. Shakti Gowain is the author of “Living in the Light” and “Creative Visualization”
- Drum accompanist at Reed College Dance Department, Portland, OR
- Jefferson High Performing Arts High School, Portland, OR
- Vukani Maetu South African Choir, San Franciso Bay Area
- Joyful Noise Choir, Sebastopol, CA, under direction of Benjamin Mertz
- Dances of Universal Peace, Sebastopol, CA
- Musician in Guatemala for children’s performing video
- Recording artist for Rev. James Cleveland Gospel Choir
- Santa Fe Performing Arts Center, organized drum and dance workshops
Drum and Dance Workshops
- Santa Fe Performing Arts Center
- Calistoga, CA
- Sebastopol, CA
- Ajijic, Mexico
- Seattle, WA
“The heart is the first instrument that we become aware of. An infant hears the rhythm of the mother’s heartbeat in the womb. We’re all connected and we’re all affected by the pulsating of our Mother Earth. We forget where we came from and we forget where we are. The drumming helps us remember who we are because we embody the rhythms into our being.”
Tigrita
