What Does DRUMPLAÉ Mean To Me?

 Lets finish THIS shall we?! 

"DRUMPLAÉ is like Zumba but with drums and way more peer to peer support" -Coach Esha DRUMPLAÉ owner 

The Vision

I’m creating a space that not only felt fun and easy for all ages (literally we'll be offering child classes Summer 2023) but something that also stood for a cause. DRUMPLAÉ came out of a space of mind body and soul awakening for me. I realized that fitness and dance especially have always been a vital component in my healing journey. It was my place to release when I felt unheard or misunderstood, it was my place of clarity when I had too many questions at once, it was like my meditation I could zone out for hours listening to music and dancing. Boxing only coming second to dancing. It's just something about being able to hit something that helps the release. In many ancient cultures of color dancing stomping moving our hips or what many call "twerking" today these movements and behaviors they believed were linked to a certain dark energy or entity and certain beats sounds and moves would disrupt that energy and open the place that energy is stored up to more light. This was another form of the many healing properties used. 

Modern science would explain it as your body releasing certain chemicals when you feel relief or joy or bliss or rage. 

Notice we feel and THEN our brain reacts. Our ancestors may not have know what the scientific explanation was in modern terms but they connected with how it felt in their bodies but most importantly in their hearts. Their faith in the work/dance/chant/drumming sequence was enough to sustain them to bring future generations into fruition long after they're gone. It was their relentless pursuit of self care that allow us to exist today. Somewhere along the line, women of color lost that and stopped connecting with her true nature. She became labeled, hypersexualized, and forced into survival mode. But what is survival when you can't even save yourself? 

When I began being more intentional about my healing and self care back in 2018 I was coming out of a very dark time. 

I became a first time mom back in 2015 by the time she was 6 months I was drowning in anxiety and overwhelming feelings of sadness I had no clear direction work was becoming toxic over the years and I was missing vital time with my child. I had decided this was rock bottom enough for me and I had nowhere left to go but up from here. I started meditating, my best friend had also had the same epiphany at the same time I did so we started meeting up for brunches and journaling having progressive conversations, I left my job and although I would love to say it went up from there (in hindsight yes) but it actually is when I started getting a rude awakening of all the sexual trauma, emotional imbalances, hyper masculine, scarcity of feminine essence, triggers of being a single mom in low income populations I was really dealing with.

 And super long story short, so far I've never been more in love with myself and my life as I am today. 

So while it costs me some major discomfort to see myself raw, it's become the best decision I've ever made. And the scariest part was, I realized it was all self inflicted 😳 

I wanted all women but  especially women of color to experience this liberation from feminine and sexual oppression victim mentality not so much that society puts on us but that we allow ourselves to identify so strongly with. I can not identify with what I haven't experienced . I was born and raised as a woman of color by women of color in communities led by women of color. So when I speak on my challenges and triumphs I'm speaking as a woman of color who has seen many and more of these same challenges experienced across generations in my communities. I decided I wanted to break the cycles and also be a soft place to land for others who need it.  Sisterhood has always been an important component to me in everything I did.

 I didn't always understand what it was to be a sister or to be my sister's keeper. We didn't grow up being taught how to have healthy friendships. Many of us  black women we're seeing the very opposite of what real love in sisterhood looks like so we formed trauma bonds. So I knew it would be important for me to learn what HEALTHY sisterhood and service looked like for me so I can offer that for like energy individuals. Then when I heard about cardio drumming back in 2021 I thought yesssss another release to add to the fave list! I have a natural knack for rhythm and beats I connect with music so uniquely. I wanted DRUMPLAÉ to be more than just a space to have  time. So I thought it seemed like a no brainier to combine my love for dance and boxing and choreography etc into DRUMPLAÉ.

  DRUMPLAÉ is more than just a space to have fun I wanted it to become a sacred social circle that advocates for our wellness FIRST as a means to show others what we expect and will accept. You are a Goddess and you mustn't accept low vibrational offerings. Sexual awakening and pleasure awareness just knowing what really turns us on, being dominant being submissive being playful and sensual and soft these are just some of the things many of us desire but were never taught to embrace for ourselves. 

Everyone else defined that for us hence why many of us have never experienced a real orgasm 🙄 we've been depriving ourselves sis!!! 

I’ve always been told I had heavy but healing sexual energy and sensual allure even from a young age I knew that,  but in many neighborhoods like I grew use in, women like that were usually seen as promiscuous, or had some other negative narrative. We never saw how intelligent or emotionally unstable or talented those women were. 

So I used much of my power in frivolous ways, them pearls were casted honey! 🤣 but I became more proactive in recalibration of my yin and yang/feminine  and masculine energies. I learned about and became very fond of Tantric and Kundalini practices Chakra and Reiki healing the connection between sexual liberation and dancing so for me the more I danced the more I felt so damn sexy, and attractive, everything was becoming more pleasurable, sex was amazing EVERY TIME! I felt free and got more comfortable with the feeling to the point where I didn't wanna ever not feel that so because I was sending out that vibration life had no choice but to give me a return on my investment 😊 universal law my body literally started adjusting to the vibrations I was becoming more relaxed, less running on autopilot, listening to my body when I need rest, being more playful, having more energy, getting more pleasure out of sex, that thang is thangin! 💦😜

 I'm more flexible not by magic but because I was stretching more ask my boyfriend he would tell you I used to haaaate stretching lol 😂 but it just started feeling so blissful even when it hurt but I had so much tension stored in my body from physical mental emotional spiritual trauma that I couldn't expand any further until that stuff was untangled and smoothed out. We don't heal to act like it never happened we heal to make sure it won't happen again 🥰 I am taking every oppressive vulgar volatile exploitation and turn it into self empowerment which is so important among women of color,  to show them, to show the world but most importantly to show ourselves that WE RUN THIS!! Sharing our stories and owning our power to hit them with a plot twist whenever we want.... that's what DRUMPLAÉ means to me. No judgement, no shame, just sistahs on a mission to live in holistic authenticity one 8 count at a time