The cofounders of San Francisco’s annual CubaCaribe Festival of Dance and Music easily decided on “A Fire Within,” the theme of this year’s event.
With performances “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,” each artist will “delve into when this spark ignited, how it was realized, and how the drive to create continues. Our mission is to celebrate, and with ‘A Fire Within,’ we celebrate that art is a way of surviving,” states CubaCaribe Executive Director Jamaica Itule.
Showcasing folkloric and contemporary dance and music of the Afro-Caribbean and its diaspora, the 19th festival, with performances March 28-30 at ODC Theater in the Mission District, features seven Bay Area dance companies: Batey Tambó, Batuki, Folklo Ayisyen Lakay, Herencia Guantanamera, Los Lupeños de San Jose, Rueda Con Ritmo and Dimensions Dance Theater.
Programming also includes Afro-Cuban folkloric dance classes led by Emilio Hernandez Gonzalez on March 29-31, a screening of short films with directors in attendance on April 2, an artists’ panel discussion on April 3, and, on April 4, a lecture and demonstration on the history of urban music in Cuba and reception with DJ Jigüe visiting from Havana.
Selecting this year’s performers from an abundance of companies provided a bit of a challenge.
“Sometimes we do an open call and sometimes we reach out with an invite and/or a commission,” says CubaCaribe cofounder Ramón Ramos Alayo, artistic director of Alayo Dance Company, CubaCaribe’s resident troupe. “This year was a mixture. Our aim is to nurture newly emerging companies while also supporting groups that have been doing the work for years. We’re equally committed to new and legacy artists.”
“We have some of the best artists in the Bay Area in terms of their artistry, heritage and training,” says Itule.
Pointing to Herencia Guantanamera, practitioners of tumba francesca, an Afro-Cuban style rarely performed outside of Cuba, let alone in the U.S., Itule adds, “It’s not superficial or tokenism. These are real forms that are often not seen or spoken about very often, artistry that is specific to certain regions or countries with dynamic rich and layered histories.’
Calling Bay Area audiences “astute and invested,” Itule notes that a company from Vancouver appearing in a previous festival “wasn’t as appreciated here, I think, because the Bay Area has such richness and depth of culture and artists. There is an expectation that work will be deep, meaningful and sophisticated.”
While Alayo and Itule are aware of negative perceptions of Afro-Caribbean people and culture in mainstream America, including Donald Trump’s demonizing of Haitians and more, they say such stereotyping is not new.
“I honestly feel like we’ve been dealing with all of this for years,” Itule says. “As a producer, I don’t feel as though it’s worse, per se. It feels like these are hard times, and hard times are coming. We’ve dealt with so many administrations and barriers over the years, that it feels like it’s part of it. It’s not really unexpected. The artists, however, may be experiencing things differently depending on where they’re coming from or what their goals are.”
Nevertheless, as Itule and Alayo anticipate this year’s festival, they already have begun planning for 2026.
“We haven’t talked that much about how to do things differently in the future, but we are anticipating changes. We’ve promoted a lot of dance companies over the years. Counting dancers and musicians, it’s been over 100 artists every year, so that’s at least 2,200 artists since we began,” says Alayo.
The CubaCaribe Festival runs March 28-30 with “A Fire Within” at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco; tickets are $26-$38. Additional programs are April 2-3 at Peoples Cultural Arts Healing Center, 683 Florida St., S.F.; and April 4 at Community Music Center, 544 Capp St., S.F. For the full schedule, visit cubacaribe.org.
Charles Lewis III is a San Francisco-born journalist and performing artist. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and more. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.wordpress.com.
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