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• 01 / 30 / 2010

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Contemporary Dance professor, dancer and director Lorna Burdsall passed away in Havana at the age of 80.

She was recently granted the Cuban Arts Teaching Prize for 2010 in recognition of her merits and life dedicated to the training and formation of dancers and artists in Cuba.

She has mentored and inspired generations of dancers.Burdsall was born in the United States and trained at Juilliard’s Dance Division, among other dance centers.

Once the Cuban Revolution triumphed, the development of arts and culture became a priority and Burdsall taught at the National Dance School and was a founding member of Conjunto Nacional de Danza Moderna (National Modern Dance Ensemble), which she eventually directed.

Burdsall was with the company (now Danza Contemporánea de Cuba) for nearly 20 years, and created numerous works reflecting the spirit of the Cuban people.

A humorous, 40-minute dance created in 1981 with a group of students in Burdsall’s living room sparked the formation of a unique dance-image-theater company named after that first work: Así Somos (The Way We Are). Burdsall created avant-garde works that utilized props such as plastic barrels illuminated with flashlights for striking effects, and introduced roasted pumpkin seeds to her audience from baskets onstage.

Lorna Burdsall was awarded the Cuban National Dance Prize for 2008.

Source: RHC