HAVANA (AP) — It wasn’t that long ago that Cuba’s rich percussion scene was essentially a boys’ club, dominated by men due to macho attitudes and religious tradition.

Perceived as too weak for the physical demands of drumming, and unsuitable for an instrument considered a means of communicating with the gods, women were shut out of rehearsal spaces and barred from using “bata” drums belonging to the National Folkloric Ensemble. Instructors were warned that if they taught women, it could cost them a place in a traveling tour or a major performance.