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Viento de Agua exemplifies gracimá and hoyoemula rhythms in “Mayela” and “Siré-Siré,” and Raul and Freddy Ayala perform the yubá or “Juba” rhythm. It is generally believed to have started during the 17 th century in Loiza, a town in the northeastern part of the island. The bomba resembles the Cuban rumba in its spatial pattern. Bomba instruments include the subidor or primo ( bomba barrel or drum), maracas, and the cuá or fuá, two sticks played against the wood of the barrels or another piece of wood. Bomba music is made for dance and is unique to Puerto Rico. In Latin American dance: Puerto Rico on these plantations created the bomba in the 18th century as their primary social dance it spread throughout the island to diverse groups. The rhythms mark the pace of the singing and dance. As a result, bomba now has sixteen different rhythms.
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The music evolved through contact between slave populations from different Caribbean colonies and regions, including the Dutch colonies, Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Haití.
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But bomba also moved them to dance and celebrate, helping them create community and identity. The lyrics conveyed a sense of anger and sadness about their condition, and songs served as a catalyst for rebellions and uprisings. To them, bomba music was a source of political and spiritual expression. It comes out of the musical traditions brought by enslaved Africans in the 17th century. Its origins are rooted in the island’s history of African slavery but today has evolved into a community expression of Afro-Puerto Rican culture. Its African origins included such names as: cocobale, lero, cunya, among others. What is Bomba dance Bomba is both a traditional dance and musical style of Puerto Rico. Historians say that the bomba dances were influenced by African and French cultures. BPCW has evolved as the place where students can come to learn and embrace. T he bomba dance is composed of an array of dances and songs with no specific choreographic characteristics. The workshops, offered since 1989, are a staple program in the community, and offer engaging music, dance, and creative arts classes to students and adults of all ages. In “Baila, Julia Loíza” the drums or barriles are lower pitched and form a different rhythmic accompaniment than the pandereta drums in the plena example, “Báilala hasta las dos.”īomba dates back to the early European colonial period in Puerto Rico. The Bomba & Plena Community Workshops is LP21’s own community school for cultural arts learning. You can hear the difference in these songs. Many of us flee our countries in search of a.
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This work represents a sub community within a community the queer community within the Latinx culture. Often mentioned together as though they were a single musical style, both reflect the African heritage of Puerto Rico, but there are basic distinctions between them in rhythm, instrumentation, and lyrics. The dance is documented though video and photographs that are then translated into vibrant posters, stencils, collages and laser cut wooden pieces of the dancers. Here is wonderful article that explains what Bomb y Plena from Smithsonian Folkwaysīomba and plena are percussion-driven musical traditions from Puerto Rico that move people to dance.
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