CLASS DESCRIPTION
 

This class will provide students with the opportunity to explore dance forms of Afro-Peruvian culture as well as develop an understanding of its cultural and historical context. Class warm-ups are designed to increase flexibility, strength, and introduce students to the Afro-Peruvian idiom including articulation of the hips and torso. Class will include floor work, across the floor phrases, and pattern repetition in order to build student’s muscle memory in Afro-Peruvian dance technique. Please wear comfortable clothing that will allow for full motion of the body.

EVERY SUNDAY DANCE CLASS:
**No Class May 14 & May 21**

TIME: 
Dance 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Cajón with Pedro: Sunday's 1:00pm to 1:50pm

COST:
$15 drop- in
 -OR-
$125 for 10 classes**

**Cost, if paid in full.

The Afro-Peruvian Tradition
 

In these workshops we will be learning about the dance and musical forms of African descendants in the coastal region of Peru. While a consistent practice over many generations in the region, Afro-Peruvian music and dance traditions gained greater visibility during what’s referred to as the revival period of the 1950s-1970s. It is a unique blend of African, Spanish, and Indigenous elements.

Carmen Román (DANCE INSTRUCTOR)
 

Carmen Román is a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She was raised both in Lima, Peru, and in the Bay Area. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Cunamacué, an Oakland based music and dance company that seeks to promote Afro-Peruvian culture representing it as a vibrant, living, and evolving form. Her interest with Afro-Peruvian dance lies in the intersection of the practice as a way to strengthen traditions and cultural identity, and using the practice as an art form and vehicle for self-expression. Her work has been presented at festivals both nationally and internationally.

Carmen was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Dance to Peru (2015 - 2016) to conduct research on Afro-Peruvian dance. Her first dance documentary “Herencia de Un Pueblo (Inheriting a Legacy)”, shot in the Afro-Peruvian town of El Carmen will be screening this year in Peru at Festival Afroperuano Kutuká, and in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. In 2012, Carmen was published in a special edition of the African Performance Review with her article titled “The Danced Spirituality of African Descendants in Peru”.

Carmen holds a B.A. in Dance from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Dance from Mills College with an emphasis in Choreography.