The Ramsey Method is based on the principles of improvisational tribal belly dance and practices of improvisational drum circles. The method allows dancers to send suggestions for tempo and rhythm changes to the lead drummer using a set of simple zill patterns and a defined sequence for communication.
The Ramsey Method uses a four-part handshake process that alternates between the lead dancer of the formation and the lead drummer of the circle.
The lead dancer uses single zill tings during the first beat of the measure four times. During (typically) the third ting, she'll spin the dance formation 360°, this is so that she can make visual eye contact with the lead drummer.
This pattern of the single ting queues all the drummers in the circle that:
It's during that turn when all of the drummers should avoid making eye contact; only the Lead drummer should be looking up at the dancers.
If the lead drummer will accept the handshake, it is during the spin that the lead drummer is looking to make eye contact with the lead dancer. It's a simple nod of the head that the drummer gives to acknowledge that the circle is open to the change the dancers are requesting.
There are times that the drummer may decline the handshake. The reasons might be various:
In the ATS dance world, the formation changes are offers, and there are times that the offer made to a dancer is declined; it's an allowed option.
As with all groups, the drummers need to build trust with the dancers, and the acceptance of the requested changes are that way. As such, the decline times should be few and far between.
The options
For the first two options, it's up to the lead drummer to wrap or make the change. For the tempo change options, when the dancers have reached their new tempo, they will start their standard zill "gallop" pattern again.
When we designed the Method, we chose these terms to be independent of the tempo at which the drummers are playing. Instead, the terms describe the type of dance steps the dance formation is using. For the drummers to understand the terms, we need to look at this from the dancer's perspective. (As Mat pointed out: we are drummers, the rhythms are rhythmic.)
There are a few rhythms that the drummers play at an upbeat tempo that are, to the drummers, rhythmic and upbeat, but to the dancers, they are not because they cannot use their 4/4 steps. Some examples:
Conversely, there are some rhythms that the drummers think of slow and slinky, and yet, because they are 4/4 (or 8/4) rhythms, they are considered--to the dancers--to be rhythmic. A couple of the popular ones:
And so, the "switch" queue from the dancers means that they want the change either to 4/4-based, or from 4/4-based to other. This requires that the lead drummer must, at all times, have the alternate tempo for the current "in their back pocket".
The Ramsey Method was created as a collaboration of drummers and dancers in the SCA and Arizona Belly Dance communities. It was named to honor the memory of Ramsey Gonzales who was instrumental in the concept of the method, but was killed by an impaired driver shortly after it was created.
The original creators of the method:
