Introduction to Puerto Rican Bomba Music and Dance

 $10 Advance / $15 Door (Please note, there is a $2 credit card fee at the door)

Open to All Levels!

For those interested in staying healthy, building community or learning a rich musical tradition, this workshop is for you!

During this fun, energizing, and dynamic introductory workshop, participants will learn songs, basic dance steps and percussion patterns and techniques of two major styles of “Bomba”!

Bomba is the oldest living musical tradition of Puerto Rico. Bomba reflects the powerful forces that shaped Puerto Rico’s history, emerging from the African experience on the island before the 1700’s. Bomba music and dance originated in the sugar cane plantations and was played, danced and sung as a means to express daily hardships, cope with oppression, and escape captivity.

The Bomba ensemble consists of “barriles” or barrel drums with goat skins, a “maraca” played by the lead singer, and a pair of “cuas”, or sticks traditionally played on the wooden body of the drum. Inspired and guided by songs and the drum rhythms, dancers improvise their movements in a dynamic communication with the “primo” or lead drum.

Taught by Hector Lugo and Shefali Shah

Directors of the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop

This workshop is made possible with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA’s) Artworks program.

La Peña Cultural Center is presenting a 4-part concert series that explores timeless archetypes of womanhood in music and dance in Latin America. This workshop is connected to the second performance of this series: Yo Cantaré – Women’s Voices in Puerto Rican Music and Art