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A night of enthusiastic promise Danza Contemporanea de Cuba Birmingham Hippodrome
THE Caribbean island of Cuba is certainly
providing plenty of material for International Dance Festival
Birmingham. With previous festivals having featured National
Ballet of Cuba and Havana-born Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta, this
year it is the turn of contemporary dance. Danza Contemporanea de Cuba is slowly but surely
gaining itself an international reputation, not least because of the
athleticism and pure enthusiasm of its dancers. This programme is a mix of old and new, taking in
influences from across the globe. It begins with a new piece by Israeli
choreographer Itzik Galili called Sombrisa. Inspired by boxing, it sees
dancers racing around the stage, coming together, pulling apart and
brandishing boxing gloves in the air in a mix of triumph and
confrontation. Set to incessant drumming, it has plenty of
energy but does become a bit repetitive. Furthermore in the performance
I watched it was really poorly synchronised with dancers out of time
with each other. Maybe this is the intention but it just looks messy. Similarly Kenneth Kvarnstrom's Carmen?! which
aims to be a sideways look at Bizet's famous opera was also suffering
from a lack of cohesion. Its all male cast are certainly adept at the
humour and the power but again their timing was out. In many ways Carmen?! is a missed opportunity. It
takes a wonderfully dramatic score, plays around with a well-known story
resonant with symbolism and delivers a group of guys running around like
bulls. There are so many directions this could have taken and so many
more layers it could have developed that watching a guy taking on the
role of a mating bull is just a little simplistic. Finally in Mambo 3XXI, created by DCC
choreographer and dancer George Céspedes, the group came together as
one. In a new take on the traditional mambo dance, the action shifts
from a stage full of almost automaton-like dancers breaking out into
sudden movement to tender duets. This triple bill programme certainly shows the
versatility of a company who are prepared to take on new challenges but
it would have benefited from much tighter presentation. Diane Parkes Meanwhile on the other foot . . . *** THERE was tremendous energy and skill on
display in the three very different dance pieces staged by this Cuban
company as part of the Birmingham International Dance Festival. Winners of the Laurence Olivier Award for
outstanding achievement in dance three years ago, they left the stage to
cheers from the audience after the first of two performances. The enthusiasm and variety in their dancing was
impressive, but the lack of colourful costumes disappointed. Wearing
what might have been rehearsal casuals, the cast looked sombre rather
than bristling with Cuban charisma. An extraordinary opening number, called Sombrisa,
saw the men and woman dancers in vests and shorts....and boxing gloves,
performing some amazing twists, turns and leaps to the constant throb of
tom-toms. Even Muhammad Ali in his pomp - floating like a butterfly and
stinging like a bee - couldn't have matched it. That was followed by 'Carmen?!', with a
bullfighting atmosphere, and finally 'Mambo 3XXI' in which some couples
of the same sex danced together with obvious affection. Paul Marston
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