Fostering the Rhythm of Global Traditions
The Boston Cultural Dance Foundation is committed to celebrating global heritage through movement. Our mission is to promote cultural dance forms as a bridge for community understanding, fostering a vibrant ecosystem where artistic expression and ancestral traditions thrive together.
Upcoming Festivals
Artists
Music Transformed Through Movement - Oliwia Szewczak
An immensely skilled dancer and teacher, Oliwia Szewczak has established a compelling presence at Cuban dance festivals across Europe. This year, we’re bringing her artistry to our festival as she makes her U.S. teaching debut.
She brings bright, generous, and completely infectious energy. Oliwia doesn’t simply move to music - she reshapes it. The accents, the breaks, and the subtle layers of a song all surface through her movement, making musicality something you can actually see unfolding.
What looks effortless is anything but.
Underneath it sits serious training, control, and command of the art form. From solo movement to partnerwork, that precision and vitality run through it all. She is pure joy - and she expects you to meet her there.
Tradition in Motion - Marisol Blanco
Trained in Havana and grounded in Afro-Cuban tradition, she has spent decades teaching, performing, and preserving dances that aren’t trends or styling add-ons, but living cultural practices. Through her work with the Sikan Afro Cuban Dance Project, she’s built a space where technique, rhythm, and heritage sit side by side.
When Marisol teaches, it’s not movement for spectacle, but movement that carries meaning. You’re not just learning steps. You’re learning where they come from, why they matter, and how to move with intention rather than decoration. Expect depth. Expect clarity. Expect to be asked to actually listen - to the music, to the rhythm, to yourself.
Storyteller - Carlos Mateu
Carlos tells stories - through paintings, poetry, and dance. Everything he creates draws from his culture and lived experience.
His connection to the dance is instinctive - there’s a natural ease in how he listens and how he responds with movement.
That same instinct carries into his teaching. Carlos teaches the way he creates - with the same mix of lyricism and spontaneity, making his classes a lot of fun.
Rhythm, Power, and Precision - Javier Jeffer Cumbrera
Javier blends the precision of classical Cuban training with the joy, energy, and expressiveness of Afro-Cuban traditions and social dance.
Born in Havana and trained at Cuba’s National Arts School, Javier is a dancer, choreographer, and musician, whose artistry spans both the stage and the social dance floor.
He has performed as Primer Bailarín with Cuba’s National Contemporary Dance Company and served as lead choreographer and soloist with Madreagua Afro-Cuban Folkloric Music & Dance Theater, and now shares that work internationally as part of the MetaMovements Artist Collective.
Strength Through Motion - Anara Frank
Anara Frank has trained in Cuban dance and other movement disciplines, and spent years exploring how they connect and inform each other.
She shifts with ease between performance and social dance, and her movement stays considered and deliberate.
In her classes, she makes you aware of how your body moves, how different parts work together and respond to each other. It’s less about steps, more about movement.
Always Drawing Outside the Lines - Ethan Wagner
Ethan Wagner is one teacher who needs an introduction.
Some of Ethan’s students call his dancing “inspiring.” A few have even been inspired to move to other countries... and find a new teacher.
Ethan is a proponent of stepping back. Specifically, stepping back to a time before social media arguments about dancing and threats to doxx anyone who does it differently.
He also makes outlandish claims, like saying the word “yambu” is Congolese for “all hail Ethan’s greatness,” and that he’s invented 937 rueda moves, including his latest - the “ethchufla.”
His classes may be called “rueda” or “son,” but they’re really about living your dreams - and, for reasons no one fully understands, people keep coming back.
BCDF considers itself lucky to host such an incredible New Yorker — even if he ate crayons in third grade.
Casinera y ? - Diana Ruiz
Diana Paola Ruiz - that’s really all that needs saying.
But we all know that brevity is not my strength. So here goes...
Diana is not just a mainstay in Boston’s Cuban dance community - she’s a much sought-after teacher at festivals across the U.S. and abroad.
She’s a brilliant choreographer and a master of technique - but in class, she has this way of simplifying the most complex ideas and making them fun to work through. No matter where you are in your dance journey, she meets you there and takes you further than you expected.
Jonathan Burke’s experience in Cuban dance spans its music and culture, across traditional, popular, and folkloric forms.
He has performed and choreographed with various Cuban and Latin dance companies, and recently led the artistic direction of Conjunto Folclórico Okan Nani in Boston.
That depth of experience comes through in how he teaches. In his classes, he brings together the culture, music, and dance, in a way that’s immersive and enjoyable.
Energy and Strength - Jonathan Burke
Community and Connection - Boston Casineros
Amanda Rodrigue and Alejandro Castro have been teaching and performing Casino and AfroCuban movement in Boston for many years and always bring a fierceness to the dance floor when they perform. Their energy is hard to match!
HonORable Rueda Nerd - Or Gadish
Running in Circles - Boston Rueda
Boston Rueda has been offering Rueda and Casino classes to the Boston community for over 20 years and continues to provide a place focused on joy and connection to all who join in our classes.
Or Gadish, formerly of Boston and now from San Francisco, is a Rueda and musicality enthusiast who brings immense joy, energy and expertise to his Rueda's.
Latest from the Foundation
Stay updated with our latest stories, cultural insights, and festival news from around the globe.
DANCE • CELEBRATE • UNITY • BOSTON