The 2nd Saturday of the month, from February through June, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture is presenting low-cost dance workshops for the community. They’ll be held at 2 p.m. and cost just $5 per class. Or pay just $20 for all the classes. Gantt Center members can attend for free.
February 11: Palo Mayombe, Cuba
March 11: Moving Spirits Guest Artist
April 8: Samba Afro, Brazil
May 13: Rumba, Cuba
June 10: Movements of the Orixá Brazil
Here is some information on the February 11 workshop:
This Central-African based Cuban religion is centered on help from ancestors and a relationship with the earth, one’s land and one’s home. The supreme power in the faith is Nzambi Mpungu, and under the patronage of this power, practitioners revere spirits of their ancestors and spirits of natural forces. The Indian is one of the ancestral forces recognized in the religion; it signifies land and home in the Americas.
Palo Monté is an ancient Afro-Cuban religion related to Santería. Called “paleros” or “ngangleros,” followers of this form of worship believe they can use human body parts to contact, and enslave, the spirits of the dead. The spirits are then compelled to do the palero’s bidding – almost exclusively in the service of evil.
Paleros must learn complicated rules involving skulls, arrows, crosses and other symbols that are drawn on the floor to summon up spirits.
Charlotte on the Cheap is a member of 
