Moving Juntos - Kids Classes
CubaCaribe’s Moving Juntos workshop series integrate various forms of Cuban dance and music, history and storytelling. Each class is taught by two local artists with an expertise in dance and music. These classes will serve as an energetic introduction into dance and music forms. Kids will learn cultural traditions, and make connections through dance, movement, music, and oral history while having fun! Our intent is to find joy and pass on this important knowledge to younger generations.
​
Ages 6-10
Classes will run 3 Sundays a month for 4 months, a total of 12 classes.
Each class is 1 hour from 10-11 am.
FREE of charge. Donations appreciated.
Some instruments will be provided & skirts will be available for use.
Pre-Registration highly recommended. Limited Capacity.
​
Location:
Shawl-Anderson Dance Center
2704 Alcatraz Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
Participants and teachers must be fully vaccinated or test negative within 72 hours and masked for entire class time
Classes made possible by the California Arts Council. Thank you!
2022 Full Schedule
Each class is from 10am - 11am.
April 3 – Ellegua – Royland (dance) & Javier (music/story)
April 10 – Rumba – Susana (dance) & Javier (music/story)
April 24 – Son – Ramon (dance) & Javier (music/story)
​
​
May 1 – Yemaya – Susana (dance) & Jesse (music/story)
May 8 – Salsa – Ramon (dance) & Jesse (music/story)
May 22 – Afro-Cuban Haitian – Royland (dance) & Javier (music/story)
​
Aug 14 – Cha cha cha – Ramon (dance) & Javier (music/story)
Aug 21 – Oggun – Denmis (dance) & Javier (music/story)
Aug 28 – Afro-Cuban Haitian – Royland (dance) & Javier (music/story)
​
Sept 11 – Oshun – Susana (dance) & Javier (music/story)
Sept 18 – Mambo – Ramon (dance) & Javier (music/story)
Sept 25 – Rumba – Royland (dance) & Javier (music/story)
​
​
​
Ramón Ramos Alayo was selected by the Cuban government to study dance in Santiago de Cuba at age eleven. In 1990 he earned a masters degree in contemporary and folkloric dance and dance education from the Havana's National School of Art. a graduate of Havana’s National School of Art, specializing in folkloric and contemporary dance. He was a principal dancer with several prominent Cuban dance companies, including Danza del Caribe, Narcisco Medina Contemporary Dance Company, touring throughout Europe, Belize, and Canada. His success continued after relocating to the U.S. in 1997; he has performed as a dancer with numerous outstanding companies, including Robert Henry Johnson, Kim Epifano, Sara Shelton Mann, Zaccho Dance Theatre and Robert Moses’ Kin. Ramon currently teaches Cuban popular dance, Afro-Cuban modern dance and children's movement at several local dance studios and schools.
He is respected throughout the Bay Area as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and the founder and artistic director and choreographer of Alayo Dance Company (2002) and CubaCaribe (2003). As director and choreographer, his work is an innovative fusion of Afro-Cuban modern, folkloric and popular Cuban Dance. He eloquently articulates his aesthetic vision through a synthesis of these dance styles, citing from each traditions, movements, narratives and concepts indicative of Cuban culture.
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Susana Arenas Pedroso began her career in dance at age twelve, studying at La Casa de Cultura de Matanzas and at Cojunto Folklorico Nacional in Havana. She danced professionally for seventeen years in Cuba with popular, folkloric and theatrical performing groups, including Tierra Virgen, Alafia Ire, Oche Olorun, Oriki, Clave y Guaguancó, Oba Wemilere, Rumberos de Cuba, and Raíces Profundas. Since her arrival in the United States in 1998, Ms Pedroso has performed and choreographed numerous pieces that have been exhibited throughout the United States, Austria, Mexico, Morocco, Martinique,Cuba and Hong Kong with companies such as Omo Ache, Omo Oddara, Ban Rarra, Ire Ile, Alayo Dance Company, Las Que Son Son and Obini Ashe. In 1999 Ms Pedroso founded her own dance companies, Saudunga Cubana, which specialized in Cuban Popular dance, and Olorun, which specialized in Cuban Folkloric dance. In 2004 Ms Pedroso joined the two troupes into one, establishing Arenas Dance Company, an all-female ensemble that has developed an expertise in folkloric and popular Cuban rhythms and traditions.
Royland Lobato (master class teacher) originally from Guantanamo, Cuba, is a founding member of Siete Potencias, an Afro-Cuban Folkloric dance and music ensemble. A professional dancer with an expertise in Afro-Cuban Haitian folkloric and Cuban popular dance, Royland currently teaches throughout Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.
Javier Navarrette is a professional percussionist, musician, composer, arranger and educator living in Oakland, California, specializing in Afro-Caribbean music. Javier’s performance and recording career spans over three decades.
Amongst the many greats he has played with are: Poncho Sanchez; Los Van Van; the Conga Kings: Francisco Aguabella, Carlos “Patáto” Valdez, and Milton Cardona; as well as with jazz legends such as Jon Faddis; Tootie Heath; Jerry Gonzalez; Trini Lopez; and Nestor Torres. He had the honor to perform with the late Aretha Franklin at the Oakland Coliseum in her last concert tour. He toured with Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, and Bobi Céspedes, as well as performed with popular groups such as Ozomatli, and Los Mocosos. Javier has recorded on three Grammy-nominated albums with John Santos and the Machete Ensemble/Folklorico Kindembo.
Javier studied with masters in Cuba such as Miguel Angá Díaz; Jose Luis “Changuito” Quintana; Folklorico Nacional de Cuba; and with Bay Area masters John Santos; Michael Spiro; and Jesús Díaz. In 2022, Javier received the artist scholarship award with Plaza Cuba Travels to study music at La Escuela Nacional de Arte in Habana, Cuba.
He teaches music in public/private schools and in adult workshops. For the past 10 years, Javier has been teaching with Living Jazz Children’s Music Project in the Oakland public schools and at the summer Jam Camp for Children.
Javier produces Modúpue Sundays with Arts at the Basin, Rocky's Market, Brooklyn Basin, Oakland, and the Neighborhood Sessions at The Annex in El Cerrito, both musical events presenting the Bay Area’s legendary musicians in the Afro-Latin music Scene.
Jesse Weber received a Bachelors Degree in music performance from the University of Montana in 2000. At the U of M, Jesse studied with highly acclaimed instructors including Bob Ledbetter, Lance Boyd, Andy Narrell, Peter Erskine, Fred Simpson, Julie Spencer, Horacio “El Negro” Hernendez, Miguel Bernal Nodal, and several other guest artists with the Islanders Steel Band, the U of M percussion Ensemble, and the Buddy De Franco Jazz Festival. Jesse studied all aspects of percussion including marimba, vibraphone, timpani, orchestral percussion, and marching percussion. Jesse spent 3 years as the drumline section leader for the competitive group the “Big Sky Winds,” and spent 5 years as a member of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. Jesse became enthralled with the African roots of percussion and began intensive studies of the music of Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and Cuba. In 1998, he began playing with Los Rumberos De Montana, an Afro – Cuban drum and dance group. With this group, he travelled to Havana Cuba and played in the famous Callejon De Hamel along with the group Clave Y Guaguanco. In Cuba, he learned congas, timbale, bongo, cajon, and studied the sacred rhythms of the Bata drums with Miguel Bernal Nodal. Back in Montana, Jesse helped found a nonprofit, The First Day Project, dedicated to bringing Afro-Cuban music and dance to the masses and spent 3 months touring the US with an all star cast of musicians. He has since returned to Cuba ten times to further his study of Afro-Cuban music and folklore.
Jesse has been studying, teaching, performing, and living music in San Francisco since 2001. He has shared the stage with Bay Area superstars including Sandy Perez, Carlos Aldama, Jose Francisco Barroso, Chris “Flaco” Walker, Michael Spiro, Fito Reinoso, Jesus Diaz, Colin Douglass, Matt Lucas, Javier Navarette, Carlitos Medrano, Patricio Angulo, Omar Ledezma Jr., Ernesto Mazar Kindelán-Fairfield, Brett Hunter, and Sergio Duran. Jesse is currently pursuing several musical projects covering a wide variety of styles including Salsa, Son, Cumbia, Reggae, Ska, Afrobeat, Mowtown, and House.
