Reflections on 2023 Student Dance and Drum Classes at the Eugene Young Environmental Education Center and Raíces' New Home
by Francisco G. Gómez
Raíces unofficially restarted its performing arts classes in dance and drum during the Spring and Summer of 2022. These two seasons were the catalyst that would trigger a struggle to officially make the Environmental Center in Highland Park, NJ, Raíces’ new home and it became a reality. Read about the Center’s history here.
Our Spring sessions of Afro Puertorican and Afro Cuban dance and drum classes began in July of 2023 and have been going strong for five months now.
Both Nicole and I have been teaching the rudiments of Bomba and Güiro in the Puertorican and Cuban traditions of the Caribbean. These are genres of African music that were brought to the islands during the period of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and were further developed over several hundred years in Puerto Rico and Cuba, as well as in the diaspora.
See the pictures below of our students in their dance and drum classes. So, why don’t you come and experience some Caribbean dance and/or drum! Register here and prepare yourself to have lots of fun!
