Venice beach drum circle as a social phenomenon

This study has explored and analyzed the Venice Beach Drum Circle in LosAngeles (USA), as a social phenomenon, what makes it work and what it means to theparticipants. It is a unique group with no leader. People from different backgrounds havebeen regularly coming together, creating this social phenomenon and communicatingthrough improvised percussion music and dance for decades. The findings show that theparticipants find psychological, spiritual, physiological and social satisfaction inattending this social phenomenon on a regular basis in their leisure time. Everybody iswelcome to listen, play and dance. As people smile or dance with each other, play theirimprovised percussion music next to the ocean, move together, and exercise their creativetalents, they also express their feelings and communicate with each other. The musiciansand dancers also report experiencing altered states of consciousness in successfulperformances.The first and second chapters of this study describe the conceptual and theoreticalframes of the research problem, the methodology and the field. The third chapter focuseson the characteristics of the people studied and the findings from the in-depth interviews.The fourth chapter builds upon the information presented in the previous chapters. Theinterview excerpts, combined with the data from the participant observation are presentedto explain whether this social phenomenon can be seen as ritual, play or a combination ofboth.