Shefali Shah

Shefali Shah is a dance instructor, singer, songwriter, choreographer, and education consultant. She is the co-director of the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop at La Peña Cultural Center, where she teaches weekly adult and youth Bomba dance classes. She is the founder and artistic director of performance ensemble Aguacero, the youth ensemble Quenepas and is a principal dancer with La Mixta Criolla.

Shefali regularly presents at schools, universities, festivals, and events throughout California. For over 25 years Shefali has dedicated herself to the study, practice, and education of Puerto Rican Bomba music and dance. She trained extensively and performed with members of the legendary Cepeda Family at “Maestros de Bomba en la Bahía,” an event that she co-founded and co-produced, featuring master drummers and dancers from Puerto Rico. She has performed at the SF Ethnic Festival Dance, and with Aguacero at the Annual Cuba Caribe Festival (2013, 2015, 2016) , at the 2016 BomPlenazo in NYC, and West Wave Dance Festival. She co-produced “Maestros de Plena y Bomba en la Bahia,” featuring Los Pleneros de la 21 and Alma Moyo.

Shefali has performed with renowned artists such as Modesto Cepeda, Roman “Ito” Carrillo, Hector Lugo, and John Santos to name a few. In 2017 Shefali was Awarded the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Master Apprentice grant to mentor and teach apprentice Melody Gonzalez from Los Angeles California. Under her and Hector Lugo’s direction, the Quenepas Youth Ensemble opened for La Santa Cecilia at the Brava Theatre in San Francisco in 2011. In 2017, Quenepas’ Puerto Rico educational tour culminated in a performance at the world renown “Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian” where they opened for La Sonora Ponceña. Shefali, was one of four leaders of the 2019 9th annual “Encuentro de Tambores” in Cataño, Puerto Rico, dancing and singing with the Diaspora Delegation.

In December 2023, Shefali was invited as a guest artist to sing and dance at Tamboricua's 25th anniversary in Puerto Rico at the Coca Cola Music Hall. She has taught at universities in Northern and Southern California, New York and Puerto Rico. Through her teaching, music, dance and education, Shefali supports community healing and creativity to give way to cultural work that resists socio-political barriers and oppression.

Artistic experiences that have shaped Shefali as an artist

2011 - Co-led the Quenepas youth Ensemble performance at Brava Theatre in San Francisco. Quenepas opened for La Santa Cecilia.

2013, 2015, 2016 - Aguacero performed new work at the annual Cuba Caribe Festival.

2017 - Quenepas Youth Ensemble performed new work choreographed and produced by Shefali Shah and Hector Lugo at the annual Cuba Caribe Festival.

2016 - Aguacero performed at the annual BomPlenazo Festival in Hostos College in the Bronx

2017 - Co-led Quenepas Youth Ensemble for their tour in Puerto Rico. The tour culminated in a Performance at the world renown "Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian" where they opened for La Sonora Ponceña.

2017 - Awarded ACTA Master apprentice grant with apprentice Melody Gonzalez from Los Angeles California

2018 - Co-produced and co- directed “Yo Cantare: Women’s Voices in Puerto Rican Music and Art” alongside Hector Lugo. This show was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and La Peña Cultural Center as part of a four- part concert series exploring timeless archetypes of womanhood in music and dance.

2019 - Led and performed (with three other representatives from Diaspora) the Diaspora Delegation of the 9th Annual Encuentro de Tambores in Cataño, Puerto Rico.

2023 - Was invited as a guest artist to sing and dance at Tamboricua's 25th anniversary in Puerto Rico at the Coca Cola Music Hall.

Héctor Lugo

Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, songwriter, and educator. Born in Puerto Rico, he grew up immersed in the creole musical culture of the Island. He has recorded with a wide range of artists and performed nationally and internationally with numerous Latin, jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music ensembles. He is the founder and director of Latin Roots band La Mixta Criolla. His compositions and arrangements are featured in the acclaimed compilation Salsa de La Bahía (vol. 2), in the documentary film Dolores about the life and work of Dolores Huertas, and in La Mixta Criolla’s album AfroTaino. One of the pioneers of the bombamovement in California, Héctor co-founded The Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop in 2000, and is a founding member of bomba ensembles Cacike y Kongo and Aguacero. He has collaborated in the design and implementation of music and arts integration programs with SFJAZZ, the San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Community Music Center, Oakland Youth Chorus, and several other arts organizations. Presently he is a teaching-artist with Sfjazz and Living Jazz. Héctor is also a youth baseball coach and a passionate cook specializing in, of course, comida criolla puertorriqueña!

Román “Ito” Carrillo

Raised in Puerto Rico, Roman “Ito” Carrillo began to learn Bomba as a teenager, studying with Rafael Cepeda Afiles, founder of Familia Cepeda and the patriarch of Puerto Rican Bomba. Ito also danced with the First National Folkloric Ballet of Puerto Rico, one of the most important Bomba institutions in Puerto Rico. Since then, he has played with many of the leading Bomba groups on the island and in the diaspora, including the legendary Pleneros de la 21 in New York. He began teaching Bomba in the mid 1990s (leading workshops and participating multiple times in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program), and has recorded Bomba professionally on two albums (with a third in production).

Jo-Annie Seda

Jo-Annie Seda is a dancer, singer, and long standing member of the Bay Area bomba community. Growing up on the East Coast she always loved music, dance, and especially singing. But it was not until she arrived in the Bay Area that she began to study bomba after seeing a performance at a nightclub in San Francisco. That performance inspired her to connect with her Puerto Rican roots and launched her on a journey of personal, cultural and artistic growth that continues 22 years later. Jo-Annies’ other passions include being the mother of a 18 year old, Spartan racing, working out, traveling and having fun with her furbabies.

Ali Luna

Ali Luna is a percussionist and culture bearer with over 20 years of experience performing across Afro-Caribbean and Latin music traditions. Rooted deeply in Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena, Ali is a lifelong student of folklore dance and drums, honoring rhythm as both music and living history. Ali has performed with groups such as Aguacero, Saboriqua, Rasquache Liberation Front, Los Lobos, Candelaria, Cuarteto León, Agua Libre, and La Familia SC. Known as a Bay Area powerhouse of Bomba, Ali brings ancestral energy, precision, and heart to every stage.

Sarita Shah

Coming soon

Ayla Davila

Ayla Davila is a Bay Area native of Guatemalan descent and an accomplished musician. A Berklee College of Music graduate, she is a seasoned bassist, composer, arranger, and instrumentalist, recognized as one of the most talented bass players in the Bay Area. As a founding member of notable bands like Los Cenzontles, La Mixta Criolla, and Carne Cruda, Ayla has made a significant impact on the local music scene. Her versatility and expertise have also led her to tour and collaborate with renowned Latin bands, including Mario y Su Timbeko, La Moderna Tradición, and Jesús Díaz y su Qba.

Forooza Baradar

Daughter of a political activist who started her activism in her late 60’s, Forooza Baradar is a reminder that it is never too late to find your purpose and passion in life. Forooza Baradar began taking weekly Sunday Bomba and Plena classes at La Peña Cultural Center in 2011 after hearing Bomba played by a friend at her cousin’s party. She fell in love with the music and the  community values.  In addition to weekly Sunday classes under the direction of her teachers, Shefali Shah and Hector Lugo, she was invited to a weekly Friday gathering of women dedicated to studying, playing, singing and dancing Bomba. The supportive environment helped her grow in her musicianship and deepened her dedication to the Bomba and Plena workshop community. Also in attendance at these workshops and gatherings was her 3 year old daughter who is currently a member of the young women’s bomba group, Enraizar. 

Eileen C.V. Skorman

I’m a Puerto Rican vocalist and cultural worker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, I moved to California in 2015 and joined Aguacero in 2017. I grew up performing with traditional dance groups, studied music at Inter Metro and the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe, and I continue vocal training with Eileen Larracuente. My voice is my craft I explore multiple genres while staying rooted in bomba and plena.

Living in the diaspora and encountering other cultures have deepened my understanding of who we are. By setting ideology aside, I’ve learned to cherish a heritage I experience as humble and family-centered, grounded in faith; for me, music is our language to the world. This perspective is my own, shaped by personal experience.

I study bomba and plena with teachers on the island and in the diaspora, including Ito Román Carrillo, Marien Torres, Shefali Shah, Héctor Lugo, Jorge Emmanuelli, and Elia Cortés. I make my home in the Bay Area with my husband, Charles Skorman, and our son, Noah. Alongside my artistic work, I co-own a personal training business with Charles in San Mateo, where the same discipline and care I bring to movement and voice guide my work with clients. I’m grateful to be part of Aguacero’s ensemble, and I’m committed to carrying this living tradition forward as a legacy my son can share with generations to come.

Marina Romani

Dr. Marina Romani is a queer multimedia writer and artist, editor, translator, educator, and performer of Western classical music and Puerto Rican music. She holds a PhD in from UC Berkeley, and she is a lecturer in the Sociology Department at UC Berkeley, teaching upper-division courses in sociology of culture and cross-cultural communications. She presented her original research at international conferences in Europe and in the US. She was the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center, the Berkeley Language Center, among others. As a singer, Marina has performed with Aguacero in concerts supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Commission, and at venues such as Brava Theater, Dance Mission Theater, Stanford University, CubaCaribe Festival, MACLA Cultural Center in San Jose, California Environmental Justice Alliance, La Peña Cultural Center.