Dancing across Cultures in Cuba

By Mike Fuller

Havana, Jan 19 (Prensa Latina) Glocalized choreographies by the Cuban Danza Contemporanea muscled modernity into representations it could never have made of itself.

On its 50th year this troupe offered a sweaty vision only possible from the bottom up as it deconstructed simple acts like fishing or the complex machinery of fascism.
Weaving multilingual operatic sound tracks with homemade and historical video segments, they hybridized images as powerful as a nuclear tsunami with the female nude.
Some of the first pieces in this commemorative year were Breath Fragment and Carmina Burana, performed at the Gran Teatro de la Habana this weekend after the latter opened to twelve thousand seats at the Mexico National Auditorium in November.
Common to both was a sophisticated critique of power, whether from an underwater view of a fish negotiating with the hook, or dancers mocking military march films in the background.

The strength created by fusing local imagery with world history is nothing new for transculturalized Cuba, and after 280 original pieces since its creation, this group can even put the apple back on the tree.