Dancing from Havana to Vail
Malpaso Dance Company is Cuba’s most sought-after touring dance group. The acclaimed ensemble will make its Vail Dance Festival debut this summer. Founding Artistic Director Osnel Delgado named the company “Malpaso” or “misstep” in a cheeky response to the initial skepticism he received when he, Executive Director Fernando Sáez and dancer and Co-founder Daileidys Carrazana broke in 2012 from the revered national company Danza Contemporañea de Cuba. Since making its United States debut in 2014, the company has dazzled audiences all over the world.
The eleven virtuosic, versatile, and charming dancers show supple strength in their exquisite musical movements, building off of their extensive training in the Cuban contemporary dance technique “técnica cubana.” The technique was forged in 1959 in Havana as a coalescence of several movement identities that range from classical ballet to Martha Graham Technique to Afro-Cuban folkloric and social dances. The melding of these multiple techniques illustrates the myriad cultural identities that converge into cubanía or a collective sense of “Cuban-ness.”
Having roots in many movement traditions has allowed the company to tackle a wide range of exhilaratingly new works. For Vail, the company will debut with pieces created for them by acclaimed American choreographers Ronald K. Brown and Sonya Tayeh.
Brown, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Bessie Award recipient, was one of the first international choreographers to collaborate with Malpaso. He describes his own work as “telling stories, almost always of spiritual journeys,” and frequently of the African diaspora. Brown said of his collaboration with Malpaso: “I was trying to show them the connections we share,” he said, “and to introduce an idea of liberation.” He wanted to give them a way forward through looking back, as he had discovered in Africa and Cuba. “Why am I in love with Cuban folkloric dance?” he said. “Because without it, I’m brand new. And we know what happens to buildings that are brand new.”
Tayeh is also attuned to the necessity of a stable foundation. Martha Graham Dance Company Artistic Director Janet Eilber described the Emmy and Obie Award winner as “a kind of great granddaughter of the Graham style because the physicality describes the emotions. Sonya is part of our family tree.” Such historical grounding creates the foundation for what comes next in dance, and creates a new base for the artists of Malpaso.
Technically rigorous yet deeply expressive, culturally specific and universally meaningful, Malpaso promises an illuminating window into the contemporary creative richness spilling over the shores of Havana today.
Malpaso will perform at the Vilar Performing Arts Center on July 28.