Bomba Classes - Washington Heights

I just got an email from Julia on some upcoming classes taught by none other than herself and Alex LaSalle.

Thursdays, 7:00 pm8:30 pm

Hybrid Fight Dance Studios
1828 Amsterdam Ave (btwn 150 151 Sts)
Washington Heights, NY 10031
C train to 155th Street

STARTING JANUARY 22ND, 2009
ALL ARE WELCOME!

Intensive Puerto Rican Bomba
DANCE & PERCUSSION CLASSES

Honoring our cultural heritage and spiritual legacy
by
Alexander LaSalle (Director, Alma Moyó)
Julia GutiérrezRivera (dance teacher)

For more information: almamoyo7@yahoo.com / rioloiza@gmail.com
www.almamoyo.com / http://www.myspace.com.almamoyo/

About Alma Moyo:

Alma Moyo is an Afro-Boricua musical group dedicated to the preservation of Puerto Rico's oldest living African musical and cultural tradition, la Bomba. Founded in 2002, under the musical direction of Alexander Vale LaSalle (Moca, Puerto Rico), the group's members are a talented intergenerational mix of musicians, educators, community organizers and historians from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Offering performances, school-based residencies, workshops and lectures, since its inception, Alma Moyo has toured regionally and collaborated with numerous bomba collectives in the US and Puerto Rico, all to critical acclaim. The group is hailed as the next movement in Pan-Caribbean Musical Expression, and is considered as NYC's new bomba ensemble powerhouse.

BOMBA has its roots in the Western coast of Africa and especially in the Congo/Bantu people of Central Africa. Bomba refers to a Bantu word that translates according to the Kikongo language into "drum" and "music". Bomba arrived in Puerto Rico during the slave trade in the late 1500's, where it continued to evolve, picking up influences from New Orleans, Haiti, Guadaloupe and other Caribbean islands. Bomba music follows the Call and Response tradition common to all African music and has served as a means of communication where members of the community express the reality of their daily life through song and dance.

About the Instructors:

Alexander LaSalle, a researcher & lecturer of the oral history of Afro Antillean traditions, Mr. LaSalle is a skilled percussionist, songwriter and singer whose versatile musical talents lend themselves to singing Afro-Boricua, Afro-Dominican, Afro-Cuban and Haitian traditional music. As the founder/director of Alma Moyo, one of NYC's most powerful Bomba ensembles, Alex works dedicatedly to honor the legacy and voice of the ancestors from the bomba communities stemming from Mayagüez, Cataño and Guayama. Alex is a member of Los Pleneros de la 21, Juan Usera y La Tribu and has performed with numerous groups both in Puerto Rico and throughout the United States

Julia L. Gutiérrez-Rivera weaned as a child on bomba and plena, received formal training as a part of Los Pleneros de la 21's Bomba and Plena Children's Worshops' Pioneer Class. As a young woman, she is now recognized as one of NYC's premier Bomba and Plena dancers of her generation. Taught by many of NY's bomba and plena luminaries, including founding members of Los Pleneros de la 21, Eugenia Ramos, Paco Rivera, Tito Cepeda, and Roberto Cepeda, Julia embraces diverse regional influences in her dance as a member of Los Pleneros de la 21, Alma Moyo, and Bámbula. Julia has also worked with La Tribu, William Cepeda's Afro-Boricua and Afro-Rican Jazz ensembles, Papo Vázquez Pirate Troubadours and Plena Libre. Julia has provided workshops for students of all ages nationally for the past four years.