6:00 pm: Pre-Show Talk with Elizabeth Sayre, musical director of Arenas Dance Company: How music and dance are inextricably linked in Afro-Cuban artistic traditions.

An arresting performer with a deep, resonant voice who’s also a master of the gourd chekeré, the Oakland-based Bobi Céspedes embodies the music’s sacred roots as a priestess in the Yoruba-derived Lucumí faith. Sharing narratives about her family life and love, and the wisdom of Afro-Cuban fables for this special Healdsburg presentation, she’s joined by music director Marco Díaz on piano, trumpet and vocals, guitarist José Roberto Hernández, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelán, percussionists Julio Pérez and Javier Navarrette, and Lichi Fuentes on vocals, chekeré and güiro.

Arenas Dance Company is a predominantly all-women Cuban dance and drum ensemble. This special Healdsburg presentation honors the resilience, strength, sensuality, and vibrancy of Cuban women: workers, sisters, grandmothers, neighbors, politicians, artists, friends. The performance moves between Afro-Cuban folklore and popular dances to bring together the powerful spiritual and joyful aspects of la mujer cubana. The dancers create polyrhythmic patterns with brooms. They celebrate work as spiritual practice.