La Tarumba and Chebo Ballumbrosio

This is a photo of Chebo and I and the children that I worked with at La Tarumba in Lima, Peru during the summer of 2001. La Tarumba is one of my main inspirations for starting our school. Since that summer, I have dreamed of manifesting a school or a Casa De Cultura (house of culture) like this. La Tarumba teaches children PreK into adulthood through classes and workshops in music, theatre, dance and circus arts. During the summer in a rotating schedule, the kids participate in all of these activities and at the end there is a grand performance that combines all that they have learned. Ah, I must tell you about Chebo Ballumbrosio! Chebo is an accomplished Afro-Peruvian percussionist and dancer who carries the tradition of his people from Chincha Del Carmen, Peru. I have learned so much about music from this amazing man. He was the first person that introduced me to using my body as a percussion instrument. Mine and Chebo's relationship started off with me taking percussion lessons from him and then we discovered that his fancy footwork (Zapateo) and my traditional fancy footwork (clogging and tap) were not really all that different from one another! I learned so much about the impact of cross-cultural exchange that year! Aside from music and dance Chebo is also an amazing clown, painter and chef.