19th Annual CubaCaribe Festival of Dance & Music presents A Fire Within
CubaCaribe – now in its 22nd – year presents its 19th Annual Festival of Dance & Music entitled A Fire Within, featuring seven Bay Area Dance companies in a celebration of the passion and drive that artists must carry for their art. Held annually, Cuba Caribe Festival of Dance & Music is devoted to folkloric and contemporary dance and music of the Afro-Caribbean and its Diaspora. The featured companies include Batey Tambó, Batuki, Dimensions Dance Theater, Folklo Ayisyen Lakay, Herencia Guantanamera, Los Lupeños de San José, and Rueda Con Ritmo. Performances are March 28-30 with special events continuing through April 4.
“The theme for this year’s Festival is A Fire Within, focusing on the passion and drive that artists must carry for their art, how they are inspired, how they propel their work out into the world and ultimately what moves and inspires us. Each artist will delve into when this spark ignited, how it was realized and how the drive to create continues,” explains Jamaica Itule, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CubaCaribe. “Our mission is to celebrate, and with A Fire Within we celebrate that art is a way of surviving.”
The 2025 CubaCaribe featured companies are:
Batey Tambó, grounded in Afro-Indigenous Puerto Rican Bomba.
Batuki, Brazilian percussion, dance, electronic melodic instruments and vocals performing a fusion of Latin music ranging from Afro-Caribbean to Hip Hop and Funk.
Dimensions Dance Theater, presenting both traditional and contemporary choreography from African, Jazz, and Modern dance idioms.
Herencia Guantanamera, rooted in the Afro-Cuban Haitian cultural traditions and artistic heritage of Guantánamo in the eastern part of Cuba.
Folklo Ayisyen Lakay, a local Haitian dance company
Los Lupeños de San José is committed to preserving and enriching the vibrant tapestry of Mexican culture through the art of dance.
Rueda Con Ritmo, a community of dancers paying tribute to or influenced by Cuban Salsa/Rueda.
SPECIAL EVENTS
On Saturday, March 29th before the show CubaCaribe pays tribute to the community contributions of Bobi Céspedes, singer, songwriter, priestess, educator and historian (entrance included in show ticket).
In addition to the performances at ODC Theater, the Festival also features a celebratory After Party at Bissap Baobab (March 29), six master Afro-Cuban folkloric dance classes with visiting teacher Emilio Hernandez Gonzalez (March 29 -31), film screening of two documentaries and one short with a Q & A with the directors (April 2), an artist panel discussion (April 3) with artistic directors of the performing companies, and a very special lecture/demo on the history of Urban music in Cuba with DJ Jigüe visiting from Havana (April 4).
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2851925-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2851925-2
