instructors who are accomplished performers, well-known in their respective
communities, and wherever possible, native to the communities they represent.
CARMEN ROMAN

Carmen Roman is a founding member of De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association, a music and dance troupe dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Afro-Peruvian culture. She has been performing with the troupe since 1995 at various venues and festivals including SF International Arts Festival, Encuentro Del Canto Popular, and several appearances at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival including the 2008 performance of Homenaje a Mis Maestros (A Tribute to the Masters) which earned an Izzie Dance Award nomination for “Outstanding Achievement in Performance”. She is earning her B.A. in Dance from San Francisco State University in December 2009. Her participation in the program has brought her opportunities such as: receiving intensive training in Dunham Technique; acting as a lead teacher for the Village Dancers, a program that brings dance to inner city children; and traveling to El Salvador with the Colima Project to offer for the first time in the project’s 7-year history, dance workshops for the children in the rural area of Colima. She is a teacher of Afro-Peruvian dance for children and adults and believes in fusing creative dance with traditional dance forms to challenge her students to go through their own creative process, and allow them to internalize the dance.
Hannah Romanowsky- Middle Eastern
Portsha Jefferson – Afro-Haitian
Julia Tsitsi Chigamba - Zimbabwean
Kompiang Davis – Balinese and Gamelan
Kamala Devam – South Indian, modern
Tom Mayock – creative movement, jazz
Naby Bangoura - West African/Guinean
Azriel “El Moreno” Goldschmidt - flamenco
Jade Itiene – Global Groove/Camp Counselor
Melanie Hogan – Arabic/Qi-gong
Lily Storm - Eastern-European singing
Renata Marson Teixiera de Andrade