Building a Company From Rhythm: Founding DrumatiX as an Immigrant Artist

When I founded DrumatiX in Boston in 2017, I did not begin with a business plan, a permanent rehearsal space, or a large production budget.

I began with the ancient notion that rhythm can come from anywhere.

It can come from our feet and hands. From a bucket, a cardboard box, a metal barrel, or an object someone else might overlook. It can come from a group of people who have never made music together, gradually finding a shared pulse.

That idea became the foundation of DrumatiX - but creating the company required more than developing choreography. I was also learning how to build a creative life in a country that was still relatively new to me.

Starting Without an Established Map

Being an immigrant has shaped the way I approach both art and entrepreneurship.

When you build a life in a new country, you often begin without the professional network, cultural familiarity, or long-established relationships that others may already have. Even when you bring substantial experience with you, you still have to learn how a new system works: how artists find opportunities, how organizations communicate, how funding works, how presenters make decisions, and how professional relationships develop.

There was no clear path telling me how to turn an unusual combination of tap dance, body percussion, drumming, movement, theatre, and everyday objects into a sustainable company. I had to create that path while also creating the work.

That meant reaching out to theatres and festivals that had never heard of us. It meant producing our own performances, recruiting artists, transporting equipment, writing grants, creating marketing materials, teaching workshops, sending follow-up emails, and continually explaining what DrumatiX actually was.

“Is it a dance company?”

“Is it a percussion group?”

“Is it theatre?”

The answer has always been: yes - and also something of its own.

Making Something From What Is Available

The use of found objects in DrumatiX began as an artistic choice, but it also reflects something deeper in my experience.

Immigrants often become skilled at adaptation. You learn to work with what is available, reinterpret familiar ideas in a new environment, and build connections between different parts of your identity. You become comfortable creating without waiting for every condition to be perfect.

That same spirit exists throughout DrumatiX.

A cardboard box can become a Cajón drum. A ladder can become part of a musical structure. A collection of household objects can become an orchestra. A limitation in space, budget, or equipment can lead to an idea we never would have discovered otherwise.

Resourcefulness is not only a practical necessity. It is a creative practice.

Some of our most distinctive material has emerged from asking simple questions: What sound does this object make? How can a dancer interact with it? Can it become part of a character, a visual joke, or a larger musical composition? What happens if an object designed for one purpose is completely reimagined?

That curiosity continues to drive the company.

Building More Than a Show

As DrumatiX grew, I realized that I was not simply creating choreography. I was building an artistic language - and then building the structure necessary to share it.

The company expanded from Boston to include resident performers in Southern California and New England. Our work found its way into theatres, festivals, schools, community programs, and corporate events. Each setting required a slightly different approach without losing the identity of the work.

A theatre audience may experience DrumatiX through a fully developed rhythm-theatre production. A student may encounter us during their first live performing arts assembly. A festival audience may discover us outdoors, surrounded by people of different ages and backgrounds. Workshop participants may begin convinced that they “have no rhythm” and finish by contributing to an ensemble piece.

For me, these are not separate versions of the company. They are different expressions of the same belief: rhythm is one of the most immediate ways people can communicate and connect.

The Work Behind the Milestones

As an artistic director, I am proud of the visible milestones - the respected stages, enthusiastic audiences, awards, and invitations that once felt very far away.

But a company is not built only through its most visible moments.

It is built during the rehearsals when a sequence still is not working. It is built through hundreds of emails and applications, including the ones that receive no response. It is built while loading buckets and drums into a car, repairing equipment, modifying choreography for a new stage, adjusting a program for a particular group of students, or trying to determine how to pay artists fairly while keeping the organization financially sustainable.

It is also built through trust.

Performers have to trust one another rhythmically and physically. Presenters have to trust that we will deliver professional work. Educators have to trust us with their students. Audiences have to trust us enough to participate, play, and enter the unusual world we are creating.

Every successful performance rests on those relationships.

Continuing to Redefine the Possibilities

Nearly a decade after DrumatiX began, I am still asking many of the same questions that inspired the first pieces:

Where else can rhythm be found?

What objects have we not listened to yet?

How can movement, comedy, sound, and technology interact in new ways?

How can we create work that is artistically sophisticated while remaining welcoming to audiences who may not regularly attend theatre or dance performances?

And - how can an independent company continue to grow without losing the curiosity and resourcefulness that made it distinctive in the first place?

I do not think founding a company means arriving at a finished answer. It means committing to the questions over a long period of time.

DrumatiX began with a simple belief that music can come from anywhere. Over the years, that belief has taken us into schools, theatres, festivals, community spaces, and onto stages I once could only dream of.

But the heart of the company remains the same: take what is around you, listen closely, and discover what it might become.