Havana International Dance Festival

It is a fact that The International Dance Festival "Urban Landscape, Old Havana: A City in Development" may be considered a usual event within the Cuban capital's socio-cultural life. This festival, that takes place each year at the beginning of the spring season, has just arrived to its thirteenth edition. During the last thirteen years of dancing in the streets, parks, squares and courtyards of the historical city the festival has made of this event a family meeting. Even when it started as a socio-cultural activity that has now taken place for over a decade, this festival still astonishes the Cuban audience, not only by the big number of old national and international dancing companies that participate in it each year, to which new one join; but also by the increasing number of the audience that follows with great attention each of their performances, no matter what dancing movement these companies belong to. The parade ground was very crowded by the public that came to enjoy the music of the so popular musicians and dancers from the Camagey Folkloric Group. It was also very difficult to find a seat at Ruminahui Park when "Danza del Alma" Post-Modern Dancing Company performed with their intrepid and provocative way of dancing, expressing, through its movements, conflicts and concepts related to the personalities and sexuality of the human beings. On the other hand, the urban element was not only present in this event, represented by the dancers' performances; but also the virtual element, seen through the dancing-video tapes that trapped the night passers-by at the Plaza Vieja square. It has to be said, for instance that the exhibition and promotion of the dancing-video tapes was one of the most interesting and attractive topics of this festival. These projections contributed to increase the number of foreign companies that visit us, because if in previous editions the program only included countries like Spain, France, Norway, Brazil, Equator, Chile, Mexico, England, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Dominican Republic, Denmark, Angola, Venezuela, Colombia and Japan; today the video program has added companies from Holland, Belgium, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Australia, Israel and Egypt. There was any difference in as much as gender, politics or dancing manifestation in this socio-cultural activity that joined so many artists and peoples from all-over-the-world. The dancing festival "Old Havana: A City in Development" fostered the fusion of different cultures and nations, expressed through the collective improvisations and the dancers' staff from the different dance companies. Among the surprises that brought the festival by this thirteenth edition was the fact of being visited by three international dance companies directed by three Cuban artists. They were the "Pepe Hevia" and the "Entremans" companies, both from Spain, and the "Transit" company, from Sweden. This meant, above all, the great opportunity of seeing dance once more Cuban outstanding dancers like Alexis Fernandez (a.k.a., El Maca), performing the pas-de-deux "Ven" ("come" in English), together with the Spanish Catherine Valera. It was one of the most sensible and significant moments of the festival. "El Maca" showed that he's still an excellent dancer; the third movement of "Ven" is one of the most suggesting and original body contact ever seen and remembered in Cuban Modern Dance. The International Dance Festival "Urban Landscape, Old Havana: A City in Development" have showed once again its importance within the Cuban people culture.

La Jiribilla, Cubarte Site News posted on 5/28/2008 12:13:45 PM

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