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
Coming soon
Ali Luna
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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
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Eileen Cardona Vazquez
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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.