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Chipping In for the Alliance’s New Video Camera

Normally we begin The New Moon with a story about a California traditional artist or organization whose work is supported through one of our programs. But this month, we’re asking you to support a small project for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. We’re asking for help in raising $3,028 to buy a new video camera so our staff can take great video of the exceptional artists and organizations we work with.

We'll share copies of the videos with the artists, as well as share the wealth of California's living cultural heritage in music, dance, and craft with the public at large – on our website and in our archives where the tapes will be carefully stored and prepared as part of our permanent archival collections.

We’re thinking about this project as a potluck – today we’ve raised $1,190 through 26 generous contributions ranging from $5 to $250. If 183 New Moon readers gave $10 after reading this, we’d reach our goal right away and could begin using the camera. We’d like as many people as possible to contribute, as we’ll be putting these donations to use through use of this camera over the years.

We’ve created a ChipIn.com webpage that makes it easy and convenient for you to make your contribution online. To donate visit ACTA’s ChipIn.com webpage or click the button above. Some people may prefer to send checks in the mail directly to the Alliance at 1245 Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, CA, 93721.

As the Alliance gains experience with new fundraising strategies, we’ll also be able to share what we learned with traditional artists and organizations in California.

We hope that you'll give every consideration to this effort to support our work in documenting the great work of California's traditional artists.

Sincerely,

Amy Kitchener
Executive Director

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Take the California Cultural Census!

This summer, the James Irvine Foundation is taking stock of the cultural activities of residents in two regions of California – the San Joaquin Valley (from Bakersfield to Stockton) and the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties). The foundation will use the results of this research to consider how best to support arts and culture in these regions in the future. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts is working as the local partner on the study organized by WolfBrown.

The California Cultural Census is a public survey that explores the types of arts and cultural activities that people like to do. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. At the end of the survey, you may enter yourself into a drawing to win a $500 cash prize. The survey is available both online and in paper format, and in both Spanish and English. To take the survey online, visit their website. To request a paper version of the survey, email Shannon Hunter, Census Coordinator, or call (559) 237-9811.

It is important that the results of the survey reflect the richness and diversity of your community. Please help us spread the word by forwarding this invitation to participate in the California Cultural Census to your network of friends and colleagues in the San Joaquin Valley and the Inland Empire.

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Maestros De Bomba en La Bahía Encuentro 2007

Dr. Modesto Cepeda and his grandson Exan

Dr. Modesto Cepeda and his grandson, 2 ½ year old Exan.
“Keeping their family legacy is important to them and as a result they
work together to keep it going which, in turn, keeps their family strong.
This statement is also significant because through their work, they are
aware that bomba is a tradition that brings families together because it is an
activity that everyone can take part in. They encourage the participation of
children in their workshops and for those who have been born in the tradition;
we have many examples of elder bomberos who have children that
continue the tradition.”
—Cynthia Renta, a workshop participant and dancer from the Bay Area Puerto Rican community
Photo: Lily Kharrazi

Lily Kharrazi, Living Cultures Grants Program Manager

Editor’s Note: The Bay Area Boricuas, Inc.’s Living Cultures Grants Program project took place in the San Francisco Bay Area during July 2007 – with a series of workshops, performances, and informal jam sessions (bombazos) – to focus on the rich African legacy of the bomba, a Puerto Rican dance and music style steeply rooted in the culture of the African slaves who were brought to the island in the late 1600’s. The resurgence of this form has been credited to a few key persons, but one family is legendary: La Familia Cepeda. Their singular focus for five generations has been to keep the African-based arts alive.

Although not the primary focus of these workshops per se, people will often refer to Puerto Rican music styles as bomba y plena, as if they are one form. Given the popularity of Latin dance music, it may be helpful to understand this simple distinction between the two:

Plena is a musical style that is a narrative song. The style originated in the coastal areas of the island and can revolve around anything at all in subject matter. It has a call-and-response format. In the early 1900’s horns were added to the plena sound and its evolution today is heard mixed in with other popular genres from Brazil, Cuba and Jamaica. Plena can occur without the dance.

Bomba is the percussion-driven music style that occurs with the dance component. A single dancer or a couple will interact with the drummer. Traditional bomba ensembles featured two or three differently pitched drums, typically made from rum barrels known as barriles, a single maraca, and a pair of sticks (palitos) called cuá or fuá that tap out a fixed organizing rhythmic timeline on the side of the drum. A solo singer is answered by a chorus call-and-response style, singing over the great variety of rhythmic patterns that comprise the bomba. The lyrics are generally of topical nature, revolving around the life of the community and island history, and include improvised parts referring to the dance and music performed.

“Keeping the tradition makes the family strong.” This sentiment was the departing thought of Gladys Camara, dancer and choreographer whose month-long residency, sponsored by Bay Area Boricuas, Inc., ended in a spirited performance on stage at the La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. She and her sister, Brenda Cepeda, another performer, are the daughters of Dr. Modesto Cepeda. The family completed their second visit to the Bay Area, taking a break from the academy founded by Dr. Cepeda in 1977, which is dedicated to the teaching and perpetuating of the African based-arts in Puerto Rico.

Gladys made this statement several times before this final performance to the Bay Area workshop participants, and to see her share the stage with her father and her 2 ½ year old son, Exan, might have been ample demonstration of what she meant. But to more fully understand the impact of her words, the resurgence of this music and dance form signaled a distinct break from the stronghold of Puerto Rico’s elite which dominated the cultural milieu of the island.

For decades the ruling elite were effective in distancing themselves from the dance and music that were directly related to the descendents of the slave trade. These West Africans were brought to the island by the Spaniards in the late 1600’s to work the sugar plantations. It is speculated that the bomba grew from the social gatherings of these slaves and while the dance and music were initially of a social nature, the form also came to embody some religious aspects that the slaves were prohibited from practicing. This 400 year history has added to the complexity of the island’s identity.

Just as the island’s population is an amalgamation of cultures, the hybrid bomba mirrors these influences rather ingeniously. The language of song is Spanish, the percussion and choral style African and indigenous Indian, and the dress is European influenced. Each layer infers the long journey from colonization, to integration, and rebirth into a unique form of expression.

Bomba Performance

Oxil Febles, another guest artist and long time student of the Cepeda family.
“A people who know their roots is a people with a healthy identity that
comprise healthy communities.” For a tradition that is born out of slavery and
has remained in tact for centuries, it gives you a perspective on how
significant this has been for community healing and building over the years.”
—Cynthia Renta
Photo: Lily Kharrazi

A number of Boricuas, or Puerto Rican, participants in the workshops said they had never heard of bomba growing up. It was something remote and hidden from them. The resurgence of the dance form has been a way in which to reclaim and assert the African contribution to the Puerto Rican national and cultural consciousness. The Bay Area Puerto Rican community has its roots in activism, going back to the 1960’s with the free speech movement at UC Berkeley. Outside of New York and Miami, enclaves of Puerto Rican culture are lesser known but growing. Some of the Boricuas settled in the West came here via Hawai’i, having worked the sugar plantations of that island before settling in California.

The thirst to connect around music and dance for the bay area community was lead by Hector Lugo and Shefali Shah who hold weekly classes in music and dance. As interest grew, Hector and Shefali, along with a number of other Boricuas who make the Bay Area their home, had the foresight to bring master culture bearers to the West Coast for a shot of adrenaline. This year marked the second year that the Cepedas were in-residence, as well as Oxil Febles, Angel Luis Reyes and his son Otoqui Reyes Pizarro. All of these artists are masters in the Santurce-style (Northern) and also the Loiza-style (Eastern). Loiza has been significant to represent because it has been the most marginalized style since it emerges from the “blackest” town in the island. This coastal town was the area where freed slaves escaped to, and so, what has emerged there has been movement that is clearly more African in aesthetic.

Bombazo

On a Sunday afternoon, the community gathered for the informal bombzo
where people switched roles from singing, to playing percussion, to dancing,
and socializing with one another. “Community celebrations, like bombazos and
other more private times for learning of songs, improving drumming
techniques, learning of history and learning of movements are points of
connection among family and other communtiy members”
—Cynthia Renta

The bombazo gathering held on July 22, 2007, was an informal affair which encouraged all the participants in the café space to revolve through various roles: singer, dancer, and percussionist. The same participants who said they had only discovered the bomba later in life, assumed all roles.

The bomba is totally improvisatory and cajoles the drummer and dancer into a dialogue of movement. It requires a sense of playfulness and musicality which requires skill. The movements can range from subtle body vibrations to large movements of a lady’s skirt. Unlike most dance forms where the dancer must listen for the directions from the drum in order to move, the bomba reverses this. The lead drummer must follow the directions of the dancer. And so the dialogue begins.

Bombazo: Lead drummer and dancer

The lead drummer and dancer must have the connection that dictates
where the dance will go.
Photo: Lily Kharrazi

In the presence of confident artists, the intensity of this interaction between dancer and percussionist is the dramatic point of bomba. The dancer will signal the drummer with certain moves but how this is interpreted and what kind of chemistry or connection occurs has endless variables. It is a highly participatory event for all to see and to encourage with singing, clapping, and shouts of encouragement. At the end of a song, sung in call-and-response style, the lead singer will shout out, “Bomba!” The cycle is complete.

View an online slideshow of the July 22, 2007, bombazo.

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California Traditional Artists to be Featured in Historic Dance Festival in New York

Jwala Flame: Dance Festival

Ramaa (front) and Swetha Bharadvaj
Photo: Scott Ellis

Editor's Note: The Alliance for California Traditional Arts would like to congratulate Ramaa and Swetha Bharadvaj on their upcoming presentation of their original choreography Jwala-Flame at the historic Downtown Dance Festival at Battery Park in New York. They will perform on Sunday, August 26, 2007. Ramaa is a former master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program.

To learn more about Ramaa Bharadvaj, visit the Angahara Ensemble’s website.

Ramaa & Swetha Bharadvaj of Yorba Linda, California, have been invited to present their acclaimed choreography Jwala-Flame at the historic Downtown Dance Festival at Battery Park in New York.

This dance, dedicated to the Statue of Liberty, was first commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in 2005. It celebrates the processes through which immigrants rediscover their roots in their new home. The choreography combines classical Bharata Natyam dance vocabulary and jazz inspired freestyle movements to tell this story.

“Lady Liberty stands welcoming us immigrants with her jwala, her flame, symbolizing hope, liberty and freedom. Into her embrace we come bringing our jwala, the ‘flame’ of our land through our culture and art forms. But how do we define our place in this new land? Do we flee our traditions in our eagerness to fit in? Or do we retreat into the safety of the known? How do we flow if we resist change? These were the questions that inspired this dance,” says Ramaa Bharadvaj who is thrilled to be invited to present this dance in the actual presence of The Statue of Liberty in whose honor it was created.

“This dance portrays the transformational stages through which immigrants acculturate themselves to their new environment – the adventure, the adjustment, and finally finding the equilibrium not just through sharing of their own culture but learning from the new as well. In that sense this is a biographical tale for both my mom and me,” says Swetha Bharadvaj, who choreographed the piece along with her mother.

Ramaa Bharadvaj, the director of Angahara Dance Ensemble, is a performer, writer and dance activist. She has won multiple Lester Horton Dance Awards in Los Angeles. In 2003 she was honored by the California Arts Council with its exclusive Directors Award for exemplary contributions to the arts in California. She has created commissioned works for California Choreographer's Festival, Hollywood Bowl's Summersounds Festival, and Skirball Cultural Center. She was selected as one of twenty-one exceptional South Asian women living in the U.S., whose lives and stories are presented in the book “Spices in the Melting Pot,” released in 2005. Ramaa is on the Dance Faculty at Orange Coast College and Pomona College.

Swetha Bharadvaj, daughter and student of Ramaa Bharadvaj, gave her first performance in Madras, India, when she was only 4, and was hailed as a “child prodigy.” In July 2000, Ramaa and Swetha became the first Indian dancers in over 45 years to be featured on the cover of the prestigious Dance Magazine. Their Jwala-Flame was telecast on PBS in 2006 and was also nominated for the Lester Horton Dance Award in March 2007.

The Annual Downtown Dance Festival of New York was initiated by Battery Dance Company in 1982 with emphasis on the inclusion of diverse dance styles and a multi-ethnic roster of performers. Providing an opportunity for high caliber dancers and choreographers to present original works of high artistic merit in a free public forum and presented on a professionally erected outdoor stage, this Festival has come to be regarded as Manhattan's historic summer event. American choreographers Paul Taylor, Mary Anthony, Lê Minh Tâm, and Darrell Moultrie have all presented their works alongside pre-eminent companies from Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean.

This year Ramaa & Swetha are among 19 dance companies that have been invited from a pool of over 75 submissions. “Our judges were highly impressed with Jwala-Flame,” remarked Emily Sekine, Festival Coordinator.

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In Memoriam

Medha Yodh, 1927-2007

Lily Kharrazi, Living Cultures Grants Program Manager

Medha Yodh, a distinguished classical Indian dancer and arts advocate who taught for many years at UCLA, died on July 11, 2007, in her daughter’s home in San Diego, at the age of 79.

I had the great honor and opportunity to know Medha Yodh at a formative time of my professional life where the disciplines of dance and anthropology were coming together at UCLA under the visionary guidance of Allegra Fuller Snyder. Western dance and choreography was still fighting for academic recognition as a legitimate discipline in its own right, as opposed to an offshoot of recreation or physical education. Dance as a cultural artifact was still suspect as “soft.” In this context of the late 1970’s, Medha Yodh was invited to join the UCLA dance faculty. She sat in our dance ethnology seminars and was a full participant in these years of creating and thinking about the discipline. Medha was not only a beautiful dance artist whose clarity of form reflected the teaching of the great Balasaraswati, whom she met for the first time as a young student in California while attending Stanford, but she also was on an explorer. I can remember so many discussions where she was feisty, tender, a sturdy realist, and a dreamer. In my last conversation with Medha just a year ago, she called me out of the blue to announce that indeed she was still alive! We chatted and caught up with one another, and although her failing health was evident, she was a woman whose life force and energy permeated even the most difficult of personal circumstances.

Read Medha Yodh’s obituary in the Los Angeles Times on their website.

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