About Slyboots

World Music & Dance • Circus Arts • Performances & Workshops • Festivals • School Assemblies • Private & Group Lessons • Special Events • International Tours • Study Abroad • Drum Repair • Fair-Trade World Drum Market • Children’s Books • Puppetry & Parade Arts • and more

The Slyboots School of Music, Art & Dance is an internationally touring enterprise founded in Buffalo, NY, dedicated to promoting positive social change through cultural arts education and performance.

Our mission is simple and bold:

To educate. To entertain. To inspire.

To bring the world together… on the sly.

Outside of Western New York, Slyboots has established dojos and drum clubs in communities where Slyboots artists reside, teach, and tour annually — including Slyboots OBX in North Carolina, as well as communities in Vermont and Colorado.

At the heart of it all is The Slyboots Circus — the flagship performing ensemble of the Slyboots School — a dynamic fusion of world music, dance, storytelling, large-scale puppetry, and circus arts. Rooted in global traditions and reimagined through a modern lens, the Slyboots Circus ignites imagination, builds community, and celebrates the universal language of rhythm.

From high-energy stage productions to immersive workshops, festivals, school assemblies, lecture demonstrations, and custom celebrations of every scale, Slyboots creates experiences that captivate audiences of all ages.

More than a performance — it is a living, breathing celebration of culture, creativity, and connection.

A Brief History of Slyboots

The Slyboots School of Music, Art & Dance was created in 2005 by Griffin Brady.

Early key collaborators included Ghanaian master musician Bernard Woma, along with Fredonia-based artists of On the Sly — Andrew Moore, Mike Sisto, Dave Guilford, Scotty Bye, Kyl Carrigan, Kengo Yamada, Brian DeAngelo, Joe Glarner, and Jon Ham.

That same year, the first annual Slyfest took place at the Sly Farm in Fredonia, NY — “3 Sweet Days” of music, art, and dance. After three years, the festival expanded to Northfork Music Park in Warsaw, NY in 2008.

Also in 2008, Slyboots hosted the Saakumu Dance Troupe of Ghana for their first U.S. tour — performing 99 shows in 49 days nationwide. During downtime, Saakumu made home at Slyboots HQ, serving as the resident dance company. This collaboration launched more than a decade of expanding tours, festivals, and educational programs.

In 2010, Slyboots began hosting the Adventure Abroad Program, bringing American students to the Dagara Music Center in Ghana, West Africa — an annual cultural immersion that continues today, with the next journey scheduled for August 2026.

While touring with Saakumu, Griffin and Bernard met a remarkable Ghanaian artist recommended to help manage their rigorous schedule: Eric Borketey Ansuade — “the one-man circus.” An internationally acclaimed and award-winning dancer trained at the prestigious Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School in China, Eric mastered contortion, fire eating, juggling, spinning bowls, unicycle, and gymnastics.

In 2011, Eric moved to Buffalo to become resident dance instructor at Slyboots. That same year, world-renowned Djembe master Mohamed Diaby of Guinea joined as resident drummer. Together with Bernard Woma, Saakumu, and On the Sly, the Slyboots Circus was born.

Slyboots quickly became known for powerful collaborations — including work with the cast of Fela!, master drummers Alasane Sarr, Baba Raymond, Baba M’baye, Jamil Kasumu, Ringo Brill, Tiffany Nicely, Bob Accurso, John Bacon, David “Teaspoon” Hulett, David Wasik, Ravi Padmanabha, Jamie Sunshine, Matt Aubeuf, Ryan Campbell, Brian DeAngelo, and many more.

Slyfest continued to grow — landing at Griffis Sculpture Park in 2011 and later at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival.

In 2016, Griffin’s son Cormac James Brady was born and became the youngest performing member of the Slyboots Circus.

In 2017, Griffin lost his mother, Billie Crandall Brady, to cancer.

On April 27, 2018, Slyboots co-founder, mentor, and master musician Bernard Woma passed away after battling cancer.

These losses marked a profound turning point.

Later in 2018, during the production of The Odyssey at Artpark, a new creative chapter began when Griffin started collaborating closely with visionary puppet artist Adam Kreutinger (Puppet Nerd).

What followed was not simply a partnership — it was a co-creation.

Together, Adam and Griffin began designing and building the mythic visual world of the Slyboots Circus. Side by side, they imagined and constructed large-scale puppets, stilt-walking characters, trickster archetypes, and immersive parade figures that expanded the circus beyond performance and into living folklore.

Griffin brought the global musical mythology, rhythm systems, and trickster narrative framework.

Adam brought sculptural imagination, engineering brilliance, and theatrical craft.

They weren’t building props.

They were building a world.

In 2019, Griffin and his wife Pamela welcomed their daughter, Gwendolyn Billie Brady, who quickly became the second youngest performer in the circus. That same year, Griffin acquired the Slyboots Circus Tent — allowing the spirit of Slyfest to travel to festivals including Great Blue Heron, Folkfaces Fest, Estival Festival, Music Is Art, The Blueberry Treehouse Farm, West Falls Center for the Arts, and Artpark.

Then came the Grand Pandemic Pause.

No tours. No travel.

In 2020, Slyboots opened the Downtown Dojo at 700 Main Street in Buffalo and expanded operations in West Falls, NY.

In 2021–2022, before opening the East Aurora location, Slyboots moved into the Birds Nest Circus Arts School, renting space from dear friend, aerialist, and collaborator Ashli Gilmour. The Birds Nest became a creative incubator where aerial arts, drumming, puppetry, choreography, and circus performance intertwined — further strengthening the evolving Slyboots vision.

In December 2023, Slyboots opened the Drum Dojo at 367 Main Street in East Aurora, NY — a drum shop and cultural arts training center designed to nurture mind, body, and spirit in one place.

2025 — A Year of Loss and Resolve

In 2025, the Slyboots family endured a heavy season of loss.

On February 26, 2025, visionary puppet artist and co-creator of the Slyboots mythic world, Adam Kreutinger, passed away after his battle with cancer.

Adam was not only a collaborator — he was an architect of imagination. The towering figures, the stilted guardians, the tricksters and mythic beings that now define the visual language of the Slyboots Circus were born from the creative fire he and Griffin shared.

Later that year, in a chapter both beautiful and heartbreaking, Ashli Gilmour married beloved Slyboots Circus star and juggling sensation Jacob Harter. Thirteen days later, she tragically lost her life in an accident.

2025 was heavy.

And yet — the circus did not fall silent.

If anything, the purpose grew clearer.

Slyboots has always been about more than performance. It is about gathering. About lifting one another. About building something joyful and meaningful in the face of uncertainty.

Today, the Slyboots Circus continues to rise at the intersection of world percussion, dance, puppetry, storytelling, and parade arts — built through collaboration, strengthened by resilience, and carried forward by a community that refuses to let the light go out.

From Ghana to Buffalo.

From drum circles to towering parade figures.

From classrooms to festival fields.

The tent still rises.

The drums still sound.

The puppets still dance.

The exchange of students and artists between Africa and USA is still going strong.

And Slyboots continues to change the world— on the sly.