performer. Photo via Shidaa Projects website
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship, for the Montpelier Bridge
BERLIN — In Vermont’s long, isolating winters, Ghanaian-born performer Samuel Maama Marquaye uses drum and dance to bring warmth and connection through movement.
“In this time of cold, people go to work, and they come home to the same cold. They go through depression,” he said. “Drumming and dancing is like therapy for your soul.”
Marquaye is from Bukom, a neighborhood in Ghana’s capital Accra so saturated with music, he describes it as the very air he breathed.
He came to Vermont two years ago with a mission: to share the richness of West African culture. As a performer, Marquaye understands drum and dance as a form of embodied therapy.
“When I arrived, I realized how valuable what I have is, especially to people in New England,” he said.
His talent announced itself early. As a boy, his older sisters would usher him into dance competitions.
“I’ll go and just win, come back home with money,” he said.
He discovered he had a comic, magnetic stage presence.
“People love to see me dancing. They always want me to go on the dance floor for them to laugh,” he said.
At 13, Marquaye formally joined the Shidaa Cultural Troupe of Ghana, an academy of traditional arts. His prowess led him to become the troupe’s artistic director, choreographing award-winning pieces for national competitions and performing for thousands at events like the African Cup of Nations.
In 2023, Ghana’s National Commission on Culture honored him as an extraordinary performer. It justified his choice to go into the arts, in a country where economic hardship leads many families to steer children toward more lucrative fields like medicine or law.
“For you to be recognized, it was a great honor,” he said.
Marquaye dreamed of coming to America, for the same reasons many people do – to build a better life.
“I wanted to travel with this talent, and I wanted to show people what I can do,” he said.
That dream had a patient champion in Jordan Mensah, who co-founded Shidaa Projects, in Montpelier. Shidaa Projects is a non-profit focused on cultural education and enrichment through sharing West African dances, drumming, and other activities.
“I knew him as a young guy — so serious, so committed,” Jordan says. “Something that doesn’t fetch much money in Ghana takes only commitment to stay in.”
After years of visa denials, Marquaye’s paperwork was finally secured, and he landed in Vermont in September 2023.
Marquaye said the contrast with Ghana was visceral.
“The first experience I had in the cold,” he said, laughing. “When I wanted to talk to someone, everybody’s hands were in their pockets. I was like, ‘Are they rude?’”
He soon learned it was mere survival. More affecting was the social chill.
“Coming out and you see nobody, you are alone. It’s like you are isolated,” he said.
His work visa is specialized, allowing him to work as a drummer, dancer, and instructor with Shidaa Projects.
While it protects his artistic purpose, the restrictions limit the casual interactions that help with acclimation, according to Heather Mensah, Jordan’s wife and the executive director of Shidaa Projects.
“He can’t just go get a grocery store job where you’re interacting and it forces you to learn,” she said.
Marquaye enrolled in English and GED classes, and eventually got his driver’s license.
“In Ghana, he never drove,” Jordan Mensah said. “But here, he realizes that to spread his art, he will need to get a license.”
He also joined the long-standing community drum circle at the Capital City Grange in Berlin.
Heather Mensah observes that Marquaye’s teaching begins with context.
“He always tries to bring people the historical perspective and the cultural setting,” she said.
Marquaye explains that specific drums are male or female, rhythms are sentences, and silence is part of the conversation.
Jordan Mensah points to Marquaye’s rare versatility, spanning the Francophone and Anglophone traditions of West Africa, but notes that it’s his emotional radar that stands out.
“It takes somebody like Samuel to just read the audience,” Jordan Mensah said. “Every time is different.”
The effects are tangible. In his drawer, Marquaye keeps a piece of candy he received at a school performance. A young boy, too shy to speak, approached him twice before finally giving it to him.
“My craft makes people feel good,” Marquaye said. “I think living is to live and let people experience the good thing in you.”
For Vermont’s arts scene, his presence is a vital injection of diversity and energy, Heather Mensah said.
“We are such a white space,” she said. “It’s nice to have him adding more dimension, bringing people together.”
Organizations like Lost Nation Theater and the Flynn have taken note, inviting him back to repeat residencies and workshops.
“When you finish a show and they call you again,” Jordan Mensah said, “it speaks volumes.”
Marquaye’s vision stretches beyond the next gig. He dreams of bringing fellow Ghanaian artists to Vermont to create a sustained cultural hub. He wants to visit “all over the schools, the universities” to “save life and give hope.”
However, his dream lives within a practical landscape of constraints. Marquaye said he’s not concerned about his visa, despite the Trump Administration’s expanded restrictions on immigration.
Also, Shidaa Projects has felt the pinch of shifting arts funding. A significant National Endowment for the Arts grant evaporated after President Trump came to power again, Jordan Mensah said.
“It really poked a hole in our budget,” he said. Now, they rely on local sponsors like National Life and 802 Cars, and often send Marquaye alone or with a tiny team to gigs.
“We still keep doing it,” Marquaye insists. “If you’re able to touch a few people at a time, it’s still effective.”
Marquaye invites all Vermonters to support the work of Shidaa Projects,
“I want people to come to our aid. I want to share my joy, my energy, and my dance,” he said.