Danza Contemporanea de Cuba

Taken on stage at Newcastle Theatre Royal during yesterday's rehearsal for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba's debut performance the same night.

There's a review in today's Telegraph and today's Times if you are interested. My review was also published in today's Northern Echo. The bonus was that I also got to play with my new camera.

My Review:

Danza Contemporanea de Cuba made their debut performance at Newcastle Theatre Royal on Tuesday evening with an extraordinary dance triptych of superb Cuban rhythm. The distinct style of this company is spontaneous and full of a Spanish magic tangled with African inspiration. Brought together by Artistic Director, Miguel A. Iglesias Ferrer, the three pieces are soaked in Cuban culture with Jan Linkens choreography of Folia flooding the stage in blood red; George Cėspedes choreography and costume design switches gears from delicate to atom splitting energy in a heartbeat with the 21 dancers all in perfect formation in his juicy production of Mambo 3XXI.

But it was Spanish born choreographer, Rafael Bonachela, who opened tonight's Cuban dance-theatre with Demo-N/Crazy, a piece of rhythmic hooliganism that pulled the emotion out of mayhem with the raw elegance of innovation. This is dance as you don't know it; dance that stretches the body twice more than the imagination, way past movement, past contemporary dance and beyond gymnastic. Bonachela's choreography is full of surprising, disconcerting moves that are angular, compelling and strangely natural in their violence. His male and female dancers with their simple white shorts show us the delicious androgenised purity of simple nudity and his interpretation of Nina Simone's 'If you go away' made me want to go back again and again to feel that unmistakable heartbeat of Cuba.

Personally, I loved it and am looking forward to a rather neat and pioneering project involving five Danza performers and five Newcastle boxers when they come together in July to perform a brand new dance experience called 'Seconds Out'. This project is inspired by the 2012 Olympics and is set to take place at Dance City on 16 July and will celebrate the diversity of sport and dance. Choreographed by Israeli born Itzik Galili, and as part of a full programme, Seconds Out has all the creative ingredients to produce a project that's full of North Eastern promise and a bit more.


Thanks for looking and for your patience. helen

Title:	Danza Contemporanea de Cuba
Username:	aitchbrown
Uploaded:	25 Feb 2010 - 11:46 AM
Camera:	Canon EOS 50D
Recording media:	JPEG (digital)
Tags:	General, Photo journalism, Portraits / people
Votes:	29