Community is at the heart of all of CubaCaribe’s programming. Our unwavering focus is on building a thriving community of Caribbean artists in the Bay Area. CubaCaribe’s services include offering ongoing education and performance opportunities for artists and audiences, as well as a fiscal sponsorship to help artists raise money for their work. We also maintain an online archive of professionally shot video of festival programming from 2003 onward. This open access archive is an historical documentation of the region’s artists, provides artists with high quality samples of their performances and is readily available to producers, scholars and general public. The CubaCaribe Honoree is awarded annually to an elder artist who has made a major contribution to the region’s community of Cuban and Caribbean Diaspora artists over a sustained period of time.

CubaCaribe’s programs are as follows:

The Annual CubaCaribe Festival of Dance and Music, which includes performances, lectures, demos, workshops, film screenings, celebrations and more (2005-present);

Alayo Dance Company, CubaCaribe’s resident company featuring the artistic director’s innovative fusion of Afro-Cuban modern, folkloric and popular Cuban dance (2004-present);

Moving Juntos, a series of Afro-Cuban Dance & Music classes for ages 4-12 (2021-present);

CubaCaribe’s San Francisco Carnaval Contingent, which features original choreography taught in a series of classes and performed to live music at Carnaval (2006, 2008 & 2019-present);

Maestros y Raíces, a series of master classes by visiting teachers (debuted in 2024); and

Cuba Camp, which offers adult campers an intensive two-four days of Caribbean dance and music classes (2004-2006, 2014, 2021).