Artistic directors Robert Moses of Robert Moses’ KIN and Ramón Ramos Alayo of CubaCaribe Festival of Music & Dance have had a huge impact on the field of dance, providing platforms for other artists while also making important work themselves. They are highly regarded choreographers, mentors, educators, colleagues, and friends—and each are presenting major seasons in March.
Robert Moses’ KIN celebrates their 30th anniversary with The Kennings, an all-world-premiere program (March 14-16 at Z Space) and CubaCaribe is celebrating their 19th season featuring seven companies and a series of educational and celebratory special events (March 28-April 4, various SF locations.)
Because of their stature and friendship, I thought it would be interesting to interview them together. What resulted was a conversation with two local Black artists whose work and creative lineage is very different, but whose impact on the Bay Area dance world has been substantial.
I wondered about their thoughts on recent threats to NEA funding, Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, raids on immigrants, and the poorly veiled racism and xenophobia (among other hatreds and phobias) of the new administration. It was poignant to hear them reminisce, and to find out what they are looking forward to—or perhaps bracing against.
For the upcoming 30th anniversary season of Robert Moses’ KIN, Moses explains he is working on choreographing, scoring, and writing text for The Kennings, which he describes as “a narrative impressionist anthology, a meditation on the emotional, societal, racial, political, and gender-oriented expectations placed on all of us, with a specific focus at times on the experiences of Black men and African American diasporic concerns.”
The word kennings is defined as a compound or figurative phrase replacing a common noun, i.e. heartsick, bookworm, love bomb, etc. Moses says The Kennings “is about this moment of hypocrisy, artistic hubris, power, and people bullshitting. It’s about how we can do better.” He adds, “For me, the most direct way to effect social change and meaningful human interaction is by characterizing society through the body and the word.”
It will be joined on the program by new works generated through RMK’s New Legacies: One Acts, a platform for emerging and established voices in contemporary dance featuring collaborative teams working with choreography, text, and music. This season’s New Legacies choreographers are Yayoi Kambara, Loni Landon, Nol Simonse, and Megan and Shannon Kurashige.
“New choreographers come in and I get a chance to make my dancers stretch. If it’s just me, things start looking the same,” Moses comments. “When someone else works with the company, suddenly I see that we can do stuff that I hadn’t imagined. It cracks me open. It gives the dancers a chance to stretch and we can come together fresh. We all learn something new.”
“I really enjoy that you’re doing that,” Ramos says. “Sometimes a choreographer creates a monopoly and it’s all about me and my work. Robert has already created his signature. It doesn’t go away.”
Ramos continues, “I really like it when other choreographers come in with their own creativity. Sometimes I want to do something, but I don’t know how to put it together. If I ask a choreographer to make a work about something, he’s going to bring a new perspective. He’s going to educate the audience and me. The work is more diverse.”
The pair’s history together spans decades. “I remember meeting Ramón at the old LINES Dance Center at 50 Oak Street. He came up to me and told me he was a dancer from Cuba looking for work,” recalls Moses.
“I came to the US in October 1997 and started dancing first with Robert Henry Johnson and Kim Epifano then with Robert and later with Joanna Haigood and Zaccho Dance Theatre,“ Ramos says.
Moses had been dancing in the Bay Area since 1984 and launched Robert Moses’ KIN in 1995. Ramos founded Alayo Dance Company in 2001 and CubaCaribe with co-founder and executive director Jamaica Itule in 2006.
Devoted to folkloric and contemporary dance and music of the Afro-Caribbean, CubaCaribe Festival of Music & Dance is known for its performances, panel discussions, film screenings, dance classes and an always-celebratory after party. Notably, its 19th anniversary edition will honor respected elder, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and priestess Bobi Cespedes, and host a very special lecture/demo on the history of urban music in Cuba with DJ Jigüe, visiting from Havana.
The theme for this year’s Festival is “A Fire Within,” which Itule describes as “a celebration of the passion and drive that artists must carry for their art that propels their work out into the world and ultimately moves and inspires us. Our mission is to celebrate and with A Fire Within we celebrate that art is a way of surviving.”
Bay Area-based companies performing in CubaCaribe are Batey Tambó, Batuki, Dimensions Dance Theater, Folklo Ayisyen Lakay, Herencia Guantanamera, Los Lupeños de San José, and Rueda Con Ritmo. These groups represent a diverse array of musical and movement genres and traditions, including Afro-Puerto Rican bomba, Brazilian, modern, West African, Afro-Haitian, Afro-Cuban, Mexican son huasteco, Cuban salsa, rumba, son, and changüí-pilón-timba.
“When I came to this country I was focused on doing what I had learned to do and I was eager to learn how the system worked,” says Ramos. “There were so many different choreographers with so many different styles and there was money in the arts. I never imagined I would be a choreographer or have a company where I could make my own work. In Cuba you always work for someone else, you don’t have dreams, you don’t write grants and make a company.”
“Ramón always had his own voice and his own point of view,” says Moses. “He comes from this whole other history of dance and how it operates.”
“Your work was about the community, Black people and what happens to Black people,” Ramos counters. “I came here without knowing anything about Black history in the US. Robert and Joanna taught me about American Black people in different ways. I learned a lot from both of them.”
He adds that in the early days of Robert Moses’ KIN, the company was composed almost entirely of Black dancers, adding, “Now it is super hard to find Black dancers in the Bay Area. For my last work, I had to hire people from all over.”
“It is so hard to get Black dancers because it’s so expensive to live in the City and to pay a living wage,” Moses says.
“When I do my work I try to bring dancers for a month or six weeks before the show,” Ramos continues. “We get a lot of support from the community, who provide housing and meals for them. That makes it so much easier to bring the dancers that I want, Cuban dancers from LA, Miami, and New York, for example. When I have Cuban dancers we speak the same language, which makes it so much easier to work.”
“The money thing is very difficult,” Moses says. “Everytime you return to work the cost goes up, but the resources don’t. You have to get skilled at not spending money. For a long time I pretty much only hired people who live in San Francisco because I figured if you’re committed to being here, being in the community, part of the ecology, it may be easier to work with you. I’ve brought in dancers who have moved here because they find the dance community is supportive. I try to make things possible for them.”
Moses explains that this season, he prioritized budgeting for a longer rehearsal period. He explains, “The last few years because of money and time, I have gotten maybe only four to five weeks in the studio and have ended up feeling like the work isn’t done.”
I asked both men for their take on the impact of the new administration on the arts. As to Trump taking over the Kennedy Center, Moses says, “Ridiculous. The Kennedy Center is supposed to be a bulwark of fine art, community engagement, America’s history of self, culture and community. Someone who has a gold toilet as their highest aesthetic statement does not understand it.”
About Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement last month that the United States would reinstate sanctions on Cuba that Biden had reversed just before leaving office, Ramos expresses concern. “We’re hearing that they’re going to cut flights to Cuba. It’s going to have a big impact on my work, the family, friends and community we have there.”
Moses asks, “How are the dancers you work with feeling about this current climate? Are they nervous?”
“Yes,” Ramos responds. “Some of them don’t understand the system. There are people who don’t want to produce or travel because they’re waiting for their papers. They don’t know how they will work and make money.”
“Why would you vote for Trump when he’s going after people who are Spanish-speaking without really caring who they are? Why would the Cuban community support him?” asks Moses.
“Cubans are used to being under a dictator,” Ramos explains. “They hate communism. We have a dictator right now. We’re used to that.”
“They’re coming for Black people eventually,” Moses says. “Erasing DEI is about getting Black people out of jobs.”
I asked Moses if he’s planning to do things differently due to any news coming out of Washington, DC. He responded, “I think we’re just going to be paying a lot more attention to the news regarding compliance and shifts in federal grant opportunities. It will take more effort to listen than it did in the past.”
What, if anything, do they think journalism could be doing meanwhile to better cover Black and Caribbean artists?
“Writers should know the history of a company before they write about it,” Ramos responds. “They should come with deeper questions about the work and really listen to what the choreographer says. Come see a rehearsal, learn more about what you’re seeing. Sometimes there’s a lot of flowery language in what they write, but not a lot of deep information about the people, where they come from and what they’re trying to create.”
“Yes, know the work, know the culture,” says Moses. “Think about choreographers as if they were philosophers. When people talk about philosophers they go deeply into their worldviews and by doing that they change the lens, explore the roots and illuminate their vision of the world. My worldview is as important as the subject I’m making work about. I get it: dance writers make less money than we do and for them it’s often a labor of love, but you have to ask what’s happening this time. As a journalist you have to get deep and it’s my job to show as much as I can.”
He recalls, “I remember being interviewed and telling the journalist, ‘Ask better questions. Ask questions that have something to do with my life.’ I feel like when people try to get above your subject matter, they blow it.”
Ramos offers, “Don’t just do an interview before the show. Go to the show and write about what you really saw. Write it the way it is. I think we’re missing information about the people.”
ROBERT MOSES’ KIN 30TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON runs March 14-16. Z Space, SF. Tickets and more info here.
19TH ANNUAL CUBACARIBE FESTIVAL OF DANCE & MUSIC runs March 28-April 4. Various SF locations. Tickets and more info here.
