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By decision of the seven members of the jury, the only two prizes awarded by the First Caribbean Dance Biennial went to Cuba by way of dancer Luvyen Mederos for the performance of her piece Coca Cola Dreams, in the category of solo dances, and the Dominican Republic for Exclamaciones, by the Bló a Bló dance company, created by founding members Awilda Polanco and Cecilia Camino, in the category of collective works.
The prize consists of two tours—both for the solo dancer and the company—in the fall of 2008 around Latin America, and in 2009, around a number of cities in France and/or other European countries. The founder of Cuban modern dance, author of important essays on dance and national dance prize-winner, Ramiro Guerra, as president of the jury and on behalf of the other members, dance professionals from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France and Senegal, upon announcing the prize to the national and international press and in the presence of the contestants, said that there were other noteworthy works that made the election of only two winners very difficult and that therefore the jury had agreed to make a special mention to the pieces presented by the DanzaAbierta dance company and its young choreographer, dancer Sandra Ramy, both from Cuba, and to Resilience, a solo performed by dancer Annabel Guérédrat, from Martinique. "This has been an event of great significance for Cuba, (and having been chosen as the venue for its first edition is an acknowledgement to the level of development achieved in this artistic manifestation), the Caribbean and the world of dance because the festival is in itself, greater than what has been happened on the stage," said Mr. Guerra. "We do not aspire," he added, "to create a Mediterranean culture, but we do want to show what we do and we want to demonstrate what the 'south' can create and how we can enrich the 'north'." "The dancers from the Caribbean," he stated, "astonish with their bodies and with our captivating music. We are a strong musical and dance region with a great diversity. However, we must bear in mind that these islands that make up the region have not had the necessary interrelation for communicating and getting to know what each of us has created." "This event," he concluded, "which has been supported by several French entities, mainly—financially and spiritually—by CULTURESFRANCE, has provided for the artistic confrontation among us, and we expect this to continue every two years in a different country of the island or continental Caribbean." Noel Bonilla, a researcher and theoretician of Cuban dance, who carried out an intensive work since 2007 as coordinator of the event, noted that "it became a reality and was very successful, with the presence of numerous critics and reporters from the media in France: Le Monde and Libération newspapers; Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, and France 3 TV network. The jury expressed their opinions on the competing pieces, as well as those outside the competition, the general organization of the event with its collateral program and meetings of the South American Dance Network, and the extensive and varied program of the Video-Dance Festival. Of the works outside the competition, several stand out: the solo En mi rostro, performed with corporal virtuosity by local dancer Nikolai Almeida from the Danza del Alma dance company (Santa Clara city), and two collective performances from the series Escenario diáspora: Va-vis (Go and Live), and extensive minimalist proposal from the fusion of Caribbean and African traditions, by dancer and choreographer of international fame, Norma Claire (French Guiana), with the accompaniment of dancer Nelson Ewandé and two sensational performers of traditional African musical instruments; and the work Correspondances, presented by choreographers and performers Kettly Noel and Nelisiwe Xaba, from Mali/Haiti/South Africa. PRIZE-WINNING WORKS The collective work Exclamaciones, performed by its choreographers Awilda Polanco and Cecilia Camino from the Dominican Republic and Mexico, respectively, together with five other expressive young dancers, totally captivated the audience (and jury) with the coherent conception of the show, and with the key and brilliant support of the lighting design by artist Meri Ekola and the selection of the music in keeping with their work. According to the notes to the program, Polanco and Camino got together with the aim of beginning a new project and founded Bló a Bló, which is a Dominican expression that refers to building a house "bloque a bloque" (block by block), usually with scarce resources. Thus, the creators of the project established the basis of their singular corporal style, which is "open, susceptible to new human and artistic connections." From improvisations, they compose a material "based on the modalities of the stage presence, between the vertigo and the risk of the display." The proposal has a feminist discourse, which is woven with fugitive metaphors during a woman's life. In the solo category, Coca Cola Dreams by Luvyen Mederos—young dancer from Danza Contemporánea de Cuba—"probes" into the individual as a reproducer of stereotypes accepted by society, aptly making use of multimedia with a large screen in the background and limiting the stage with a black cyclorama. By means of an adverse criticism to the excesses that this absence of perspective, conceived by Mederos for his solo, creates (here again according to the notes to the program), it aptly goes from one "effervescent"—and free?—body to a subjugated, channelled and, finally, controlled one. The piece ends with a disturbing image where the dancer mumbles a pathetic popular song, as a catharsis or a sort of self-exorcism before the burden of subduing stereotypes and the information flow that "bombard" and cloud his notion of identity. Both pieces were performed during the closing gala on 1st April to a packed Mella theatre with the bonus of the world premiere by Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, choreographed by prize-winning George Céspedes, of El peso de la Isla, which will be seen by London audiences this month at the Sadler's Wells theatre. The closing ceremony was performed by the Santiago Alonso Company: a spectacular choreography based on the carnival congas of the eastern provinces of Cuba. |
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