Registration is ongoing for the Adults workshops! Stop by any Saturday from now through June 2008 for energetic classes on Bomba and Plena Dance and Percussion! Reservations/Registrations are also accepted for incoming Fall 2008 students of the Baby/Youth Workshops – Complete a Registration Form now!

LP21 announces its popular Bomba and Plena Community Workshops. In its second year as an exciting Family format, the classes welcome beginners, intermediates and advanced level students of all ages, from toddlers to adults!

Now in its 18th year, the Community Workshops offer bomba and plena singing, dance, and percussion with carnival costume and mask making for children. Hosted every Saturday by LP21’s roster of master artists and practitioners, the Community Workshops encourage families, neighbors and communities to embrace beautiful traditions of Bomba and Plena together, with simultaneous classes for adults, adolescents, youth and our newest addition - Baby Bomba - for toddlers.

Your kids can join many other participating children in the fun Bomba & Plena music and dance workshop and carnival & costume-making activities, while you can get busy as well in a dynamic dance, drumming and chants Bomba & Plena workshop, exclusively for grown-ups. After you are done, feel free to enjoy everything our great community of El Barrio has to offer: great restaurants, museums, galleries, parks, shopping, the list is endless.

BABY BOMBA

This innovative program brings parent and child (ages 3 to 6) together to explore the fundamentals of rhythm, music, and social dynamics through the basics of bomba and plena dance, percussion playing and call and response singing. Children also make creative masks and compose colorful carnival costumes through the guidance of parents and instructors.

CHILDREN/YOUTH
The pioneer component of our Community Workshops teaches youth and adolescents, aged 7 through 17, basic and intermediate Bomba and Plena instruction, fostering the next generation of NYC’s Bomba and Plena practitioners. Classes engage youth to navigate their individual expressions within these age-old traditions by teaching them to sing their own songs, play percussion techniques and dance to unique choreographies. Like Baby Bomba, the youth session also includes a carnival costume and mask making class where students explore and engage the carnival traditions from Puerto Rico.

LAST DAY TO REGISTER FOR BABY AND CHILDREN/YOUTH SESSION IS JANUARY 26TH 2008

Adults
In its 8th year, the adult component of our community workshops welcome parents and community members in intensive sessions that provide engaging plena and bomba percussion, dance, song and history in every session. Participants learn how to write their own songs, percussion and dance techniques hailing from different regions in Puerto Rico and New York. These distinctive sessions begin with warm up and climax in “mini bomplenazo” exercises. Due to popular demand, Adult sessions also run continuously through the year through the summer of 2008.

All Community Workshop workshop sessions are conducted by Juan Manuel Usera, Sandra Bell, Juango Gutiérrez, Camilo Molina-Gaetán, Indira Córdova, Obanilú Allende-Solana and Julia Loíza Gutiérrez-Rivera, as well as other guest performers from ¡Goza y baila la Plena! concert series. Program coordinator: Nellie Tanco.

Apply Today! Download a pdf file of the application for the Bomba y Plena Community Workshop. (You will need Adobe Reader to download, view and print the application. If you don't have Acrobat Reader you can download it from the Adobe website.)

All Community Workshop sessions are conducted by Juan Manuel Usera, Sandra Bell, Juango Gutiérrez, Obanilú Allende-Solana, Alexander LaSalle, and Julia Gutiérrez-Rivera.

Program coordinator: Nellie Tanco.

For Workshop cost and discounts, please contact LP22: