Ta Ke Ti Na is a musical process originated by Austrian percussionist
Reinhard Flatischler. It is an opportunity to learn about
the world of rhythm and how rhythmic knowledge can open new
pathways to learning and self-definition. Learning can be
a magical, joyful, and powerful process that allows us to
use our innate instincts and our natural abilities to explore
the world around us and within us.
In ancient cultures, learning music was ascribed special
value; it simultaneously encouraged personal, social, and
intellectual development, involving both the body and the
soul, both emotions and analytic thinking. Learning music
was holistic learning at its best.
Ta Ke Ti Na combines principles and techniques that cannot
be found in any other current education system. Its principles
and techniques can be taken far beyond the realm of Ta Ke
Ti Na. They can be applied to all kinds of learning situations,
and, used in the right way, they can revive our primal fascination
with the process of learning. Ta Ke Ti Na philosophy holds
that each of us has access to a deeper understanding of our
own lives than our waking consciousness can recognize. But
this only holds true for the archetypal realm; the world of
rhythm archetypes is where the Ta Ke Ti Na learning process
begins.
Rhythm archetypes are a mirroring of vibrational laws in
our consciousness and form the foundation of our rhythmic
knowledge and skills. For a child born in an environment filled
with rhythm, these archetypes are naturally activated. Over
the centuries, the lack of profound and ongoing contact with
drums and rhythm has caused much of the western world to lose
contact with these fundamental rhythmic laws in music and
in nature. The seeds of this knowledge reside within us yet
remain ungerminated; to access them, we need only find our
way back.
Ta Ke Ti Na is a profound rhythm experience wherein the body
itself is the instrument. Using simple steps, clapping, and
call-and-response singing, we internalize the simultaneous
constructions. Through rhythmic physical exploration, we recognize
that the tools we use in more analytical processes are not
useful for all types of learning. We accept that our failures
are equally useful as our successes, and we learn to exult
in falling in and out of rhythm.
Founded by Austrian percussionist Reinhard Flatischler in
1970, Ta Ke Ti Na is an outgrowth of Reinhard's decade of
musical studies and research in Cuba, Brazil, Korea, India,
Bali and other countries. The Ta Ke Ti Na process is built
on Rhythm Archetypes--a mirroring of rhythmic laws and universal
images in our unconscious and a genetic imprint passed down
through all time. These archetypes have been uncovered by
every culture on earth. In Ta Ke Ti Na, these laws have been
synthesized into a coherent process that enables everyone
to access his or her own rhythmic ability.
About Ta Ke Ti Na from Zorina
TaKeTiNa is a new approach to learning, using rhythm as the
vehicle.
Many forms of learning are based on a sequential mastery style,
in other words one piece of information is built on previous
piece of knowledge.
In the experience of the physical, kinesthetic world, this
is not always the case.. for instance: learning to walk requires
a number of very important and fundamental orientations to
balance, weight shifting, eye adjustment... however all of
these functions occur simultaneously.
TaKeTiNa uses simultaneity as a way of re-triggering a body-
based intelligence that understands orientations to time and
space in rhythm. Participants stand together in a circle and
are guided into simple stepping patterns with syllables that
connect to their movement. After a period to time of stepping,
the footsteps begin to "fade into the background "
of our awareness and the the next layer of information is
introduced. Clapping in a different rhythm than the footsteps
is next but cannot be achieved with the use of the voluntary
mind. This frustrates the normal way that we have been trained
to approach things. However, after a period of time , the
knowledge which is already inherent in us begins to assert
itself. As the feet are stepping in one pattern and the hands
clapping in another, the leader begins to sing in a call-
and- response fashion.. first singing in a way to stabilize
these two different patterns in the body and gradually beginning
to give the group more and more challenging calls that challenge
the feet to stay in rhythms or the hands to continue clapping.
This takes participants into situations where they can experience
a "safe " chaos, and then the leader will bring
the group back to known territory. Now there are two things
that begin to happen. One is the a person's personal evolution
and the other is the group or collective experience. The group
can, as a whole, fall out of rhythm and comes back to balance
again. They become more and more comfortable with this planned
chaos, knowing that if they become confused that they will
find their way back to balance again.
The individual begins to trust that they don't always have
to "get things right", that the group as a whole
can support their finding their back to familiar ground in
the rhythm, and they they have time to find their own way.
People report feeling more patient with themselves, finding
it funny when they can't "get " it , and being more
accepting.
TaKeTiNa is as effective with musicians as with housewives,
truck drivers, hairdressers, corporate leaders, and editors.
Everyone works at their own level, at their own pace.
But what could this possibly have to do with our world today?
This work for lack of a better word is could be seen as a
good training for life and the unpredictability and chaos
that are part of it. It also orients us toward the kind of
awareness that has to do more with being than doing. The liabilities
that limit us in this rhythm circle are reflections of the
same things that limit us in life; trying too hard, needing
to be perfect, fear of making mistakes.. as we find our own
way in rhythm we can relax some of the habits of mind that
limits our perspective in life.
A Bold New Way to Learn
