CoDanza
Founded in 1992 in the city of Holguín by dancer and choreographer Maricel Godoy, the members of this company are graduates from the National School of Arts and from provincial dance schools. While during its first years, it focused on modern dance, today the company favours dance-theatre, which demands both technical dexterity and the application of theatre codes from the dancers, to express universal feelings such as love or the search for utopias. Distinguishing features of this company-which has received important awards for different works, including Pasajera la lluvia, Reflejo, Eva y él and Imagen en el lente-are the predominance and prominence of its male dancers and the harmonious unity of its stage conception. It has also extended its work to workshops for amateurs and professionals alike.
Danza Espiral
Founded in Matanzas in 1987 by dancer, choreographer and teacher Liliam Padrón-its artistic and general director since then-the company has gone on tour of the Americas and Europe and has performed at the most important dance festivals held in Cuba. Much appreciated for its outstanding performances, its ductile dancers have assimilated the most current trends of dance combining them with shows based on popular and Afro-Cuban dances. Invernal, La última noche, El no and Quiéreme mucho are a sample of their most outstanding works. The company organizes dance workshops for children, and cosponsors the National Meeting on Dance Theory and Criticism.
Compañía Rosario Cárdenas de Danza Combinatoria
A former member of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba where she pursued a brilliant career as a professional dancer, Rosario Cárdenas, who is also a choreographer and teacher, founded this company in 1990 in which she applies elements of combinatorial analysis and José Lezama Lima's poetic approach to everyday motions and to the expressions of Afro-Cuban folklore, seeking to capture the complexities of today's society and spirituality. The company has performed in numerous countries to the general acclaim of audiences and experts exhibiting their artistic excellence and conceptual depth in works such as Dador, based on a text by Cuban poet Lezama Lima or María Viván, based on a poem by Cuban playwright, narrator and poet Virgilio Piñera.
Danza Fragmentada
With the particular characteristic of having been founded initially with people who had no previous academic formation, this company was born in the most-eastern Cuban province of Guantánamo in 1993, suggested by Prof. Ladislao Navarro, a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte, who created his own method based on modern dance and classical ballet techniques, plus folklore and acting elements, to train his dancers. Plasticity and an expressive theatrical feeling were highlighted by the critics in plays such as Vivanco, Naufragios and La barca, which has been later enriched by an approach to Cuban folklore and popular dances, always in novel stagings, a permanent feature of this choreographer and his company. The company also runs Danza Fragmentada Academy for children and adolescents.
Danza Contemporánea de Cuba
Founded in 1959 by celebrated choreographer and teacher Ramiro Guerra-who introduced modern dance in Cuba-this company would become the backbone of Cuban contemporary dance with Lorna Burdsall, Santiago Alfonso, Irma Obermayer and Eduardo Rivero as founding members, just to mention a few. It has premiered over 250 works with the premise of integrating modern theatre to current dance styles, African and Spanish roots and the rich popular Cuban cultural heritage. The majority of its members, who are graduates of the National School of Arts, are characterized by their technique and ductility. The company has toured extensively the Americas, Europe and Africa and has performed at the most important international dance festivals with works by famous choreographers, such as Doris Humphrey, classical Cuban pieces including Suite Yoruba by Ramiro Guerra, or Michelangelo by Víctor Cuellar, and newer works also by Cuban choreographers. In recent years, the company, which is now directed by former dancer Miguel Iglesias, has worked in collaboration with international choreographers Jan Linkens, Luca Bruni and Kenneth Kwamström, among others, although it has continued its experimental trend with works by Cuban dancers and musicians, such as Jorge Abril's solo Cara o cruz, with music by Leo Brouwer and Guido López Gavilán.
Retazos
In 1987 dancer and choreographer Isabel Bustos, who at first gave performances in the living room of her home, founded a company through which she could express her interests: the sublimation of emotions, through an avant-garde technique that would serve the purpose of expressing and integrating dance with other arts: visual art, music, cinema and literature. Since 1996 the company holds the International Dance Festival in Urban Landscapes: Old Havana, City in Motion, taking advantage of suggestive old streets, plazas and buildings of Havana's historical centre to display the communicative and improvisational potentials of dancers and choreographers. Important works include Mujeres, Carmina Burana, Las lunas de Lorca and Peces en las manos.
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Danza Voluminosa
A unique medium of expression for those who on account of their "generous" physique have been excluded from regular dance academies, this company founded in 1996 under the sponsorship of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba and director Juan Miguel Más, adapts modern dance techniques to the physical possibilities of overweight people and helps feelings and emotions come to the surface in its dancers. The company has established relations with dancers and choreographers from other companies, with poets and playwrights, painters and musicians, who are ready and willing to bet on a company that makes a difference.
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Teatro de la Danza del Caribe
Under the general and artistic direction of dancer and choreographer Eduardo Rivero, a founding member of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba and author of such emblematic pieces as Sulkari and Okantomí, this company opened in 1988 and is characterized by a stylistic diversity and the use of modern and contemporary dance techniques in Afro-Caribbean manifestations. The expressiveness of corporal designs is a distinguishing feature in the work of the company, which is formed by young dancers, graduates for the most part of the National School of Arts. In addition to Rivero's works, the company's repertoire includes works by other Cuban choreographers, such as Narciso Medina and his successful Metamorfosis, and works by Gabriela Fabro from Argentina and Ivan Felipa from Curaçao.
Compañía Santiago Alfonso
Possibly the newest Cuban dance company around, it was founded in February 2007 by dancer, choreographer and teacher Santiago Alfonso, one of the founding members of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, who was subsequently choreographer and director of the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional and artistic director of the famous Tropicana cabaret. Santiago's work points toward incorporating modern and contemporary dance, theatre codes and popular dances into shows conceived both for the stage and nightclubs with a fresh and experimental spirit. Opening night was a total sell-out with Transporte by Rafael Olivera, a piece which was favourably received by the critics for its philosophy of movement and impeccable execution.
INTRODUCTION
The first known manifestation of dance and music in Cuba was a ceremony called areito performed by the island's indigenous population, but due to their rapid extinction, they left no substantial cultural traces; it would be Spaniards and Africans who would shape the individualities of a people who, since colonial times, from slaves' quarters to aristocratic halls, would exhibit a true passion for dance. During the 19th century, performances by professional dancers-both Spanish folk dances and ballet-in Havana's theatres would reinforce this gusto for
dance, which remains to this day. However, Cuba's first ballet company was created during the 1940s by Alicia Alonso, and only after 1959 would modern dance groups and other ensembles which dramatized folk dances appear. For the first time, these disciplines were taught in a systemic manner; thus, theatricalized dance is a relatively recent phenomenon. At present, there are around 50 dance companies, and new companies continue proliferating in keeping with the love for dance of the Cuban people.
Cuban Music
Cuban Music
