The 2nd Annual CubaCaribe Festival April 14-30, 2006. Three provocative weeks of performances and celebration featuring choreograph of Ramon Alayo, Allan Frias, Susana Arenas Pedroso, Michelle Martinand and many other Bay Area artists and Dancers.

Weekend One
Friday & Saturday, April 16 & 17 at 8 pm, and Sunday, at 2pm and 7 pm.

Yo Soy Cuba
Traditional Folkloric and Popular Dance performed by Arenas Dance Company

Choreography by Susana Arenas Pedroso
Featuring: Erick Barberia, Jose Francisco Barroso, Jesus Diaz, Luis Planas Hechavaria, Jose Rojas Ramirez, Ramon Ramos Alayo, Yismari Ramos Telles & Alain Soto. Music by Olorun.

Under the artistic direction of Cuban dancer and choreographer Susana Arenas Pedroso, Yo Soy Cuba bursts with the vibrant melodies, rhythms, movements, and colors of Cuba. This evening of secular and religious dance expresses the fierce pride and dynamic energy of the cuban spirit. Yo Soy Cuba gives life to the unique Cuban blend of Spanish and African traditions while looking forward to the future.

Weekend Two
Friday & Saturday, April 21 & 23 at 8 pm, and Sunday, at 2 pm only.

Africa Here
Mixed program of dance and music performed by Bay Area artists.

Featuring: Afro-Cuban Ensemble, Allan Frias & Mind Over Matter, Alayo Dance Company, Grrrl Brigade, Michelle Martin & Konpayi and more.

The making of the African Diaspora was tragedy of both private and epic proportions. yet the full-bodied complexity of pan-American culture would be sadly improvised without the dynamic influence of African philosophical and aesthetic principles.

This showcase of African based performance honors the tenacious survival of African traditions and acknowledges the cultural debut owed to the presence of Africa here.

Weekend Three
Friday & Saturday, April 28 & 30 at 8 pm, and Sunda at 2 pm & 7 pm.

After The Rain
World Premiere performed by Alayo Dance Compnay
New Choreography by Ramon Ramos Alayo
Lightning Design by Jose Maria Francos
Music Composition by Guy Brenner

In parts of West Africa, the indivisible duality of destruction and creation is understood in the blackness of rain clouds, the potential moist earth, the pungent smell of rotting vegetation, the impurities of the corpse and the purification of the spouting seeds. As a Cuban of African decent, Ramon Ramos Alayo obliquely cites this cluster of African concepts as he traces the passage of the body through fear, destruction and renewal.