A report from Radio Cadena Agramonte.
September 25 will mark the 65th anniversary of the father of modern dance in Cuba, Ramiro Guerra, founding the Modern Dance Complex of the National Theatre, which became the company Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. Directed for 39 years by the teacher Miguel Iglesias, he continues to defend the legacy and bet on innovation in favor of the development of dance, art in general, and Cuban culture.
Cuba’s Contemporary Dance will celebrate its 65 years of founding with a special season from 15 to 29 September, in which there will be confluencer performances, performances, workshops, demonstrative classes, the second edition of the CubeArt Festival, among other activities. That’s how he made himself known at a press conference.
To also celebrate the 65 years of the National Theatre of Cuba, whose halls are the headquarters of the company, since its foundation, the event will involve other spaces that are within the cultural complex such as the Avellaneda and Covarrubias halls, and the piano bar Delirio Habanero.
The second edition of the CubeArt Festival aims to be a space in which various forms of art can converge, break barriers, promote exchange, show other ways of doing and conceiving dance and art in the world.
To this end, crochet workshops, live electronic music concerts, video dance, among other proposals will be offered. Cuban choreographers working in international companies, as well as invited foreigners will offer, in the Contemporary Dance halls of Cuba, workshops and classes open to the public in which professional dancers from other companies or with a middle level who are previously enrolled will be able to participate.
To close with this period of celebrations, Contemporary Dance of Cuba will offer functions of the work Carmina Burana, on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Sunday 29 at 5:00 p.m.
In statements to Granma, Miguel Iglesias believes that maintaining the technical and artistic level of the company, for 65 years, has been achieved with a lot of work and discipline. These celebrations are yet another pretext for further work.
He insists that in the formation of a dancer it is not only necessary to teach the technique, a dancer must have culture. Contemporary dance offers dissimilarity of possibilities, but to be able to apply them requires a contamination of knowledge and intelligence, in order to be able to use everything in the stage everything that knows.
Prepare your dancers to be as integral artists as possible, who can sing, act and project the voice while dancing, know the structure of theaters and the lighting so that they know where and how to place themselves on stage. All the learnings and experiences I’ve had over 57 years of artistic career, I try to broadcast them every day.