DanzAbierta [Photo: Antoine Tempe]
Cuban contemporary dance company DanzAbierta makes its U.S. debut at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts July 13 through 17. DanzAbierta will perform MalSon choreographed by Susana Pous:
“Awarded the Villanueva Critics Award in 2009, MalSon is a lively, inventive ‘love letter’ to Havana, set in a virtual world with videos and music by X Alfonso, one of South America’s most innovative Afro-rock/fusion composers. In this high-energy dance of love and longing, dancers interact directly with choreographed film vignettes of people, places, and movement including Cuba’s busy streets, cityscapes, and the sea.”
DanzAbierta in MalSon [Source: Jacob’s Pillow]
From the folks at Jacob’s Pillow:
“Choreographer Susana Pous, originally from Barcelona, Spain, is now based in Cuba. She created the work as a dedication to her new home, calling it her ‘love letter to Havana.’ Pous studied at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, José Limón Institute, and graduated from Catalonia’s Center of Cinematographic Studies. Her connection to cinema inspired MalSon’s unique use of video projections in relation to dancers’ movements on stage.”
Pous has found dance to be an exceptionally important aspect of Cuban life and states:
“Dancing is vital here. Cubans reflect a lot, think about the future…Dancing is a space of total freedom. Here, people are on edge. They live in a very intense good and evil [manner.] Expression is very important to them. That is why the dancers give everything on stage. They play their lives.”
Marianela Boán founded DanzAbierta in 1988 after 15 years of dancing and choreographing for Contemporary Dance of Cuba. She integrated multiple art forms to create what she termed “polluted dance”, a style that continues to be presented by DanzAbierta, now under the direction of Guido Gali.
Polluted dance! I like the sound of that. Purists have held too much institutional power in dance as far as I’m concerned though I value their work as well. All World Dance joins DanzAbierta in polluting the world of dance!
For more information see DanzAbierta at Jacob’s Pillow.