• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 05 / 12 / 2011

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Andrea Mohin/The New York Times. Danza Contemporánea de Cuba performed at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday.By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO. Published: May 11, 2011

Though Danza Contemporánea de Cuba has been in existence for more than five decades, it is only now enjoying its first American tour. Given the dearth of exchange between the United States and Cuba in recent decades, anticipation had been understandably high before Tuesday night, when the troupe made its Joyce Theater debut as part of the interdisciplinary festival ¡Si Cuba! How would these performances compare to those of more familiar companies?

The Cubans have a second program to deliver, but the preliminary answer is that the similarities outweigh the differences. Like many of its peer organizations, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba is full of appealing dancers, capable of athletic feats but artistically constrained by choreography that doesn’t ask much from them, or their audiences.

Tuesday began with the unabashed crowd-pleaser “Mambo 3XXI” (2009), created by the company member George Céspedes in collaboration with the dancers. Set to propulsive music by Alexis de la O Joya and Edwin Casanova González, the vociferous ensemble piece takes a few stabs at deconstructing social and street dance. But mostly it simply delights in a hodgepodge of traditions, unleashing the dancers to give us their virtuosic best.

Mile-high extensions and space-eating twists, turns and jumps share time with fleeting references to lindy hop lifts and martial moves evoking capoeiristas and b-boys. The dancers might tamp down on the “Look at how much fun we are having!” presentation, but they are charmers, and they moved through the physical gantlet with aplomb.

Mr. Céspedes also seems to have a solid sense of pacing, fluidly weaving these disparate threads so the eye never grows too jaded. Though “Mambo 3XXI” offers no revelations and is content to remain in the realm of an American Apparel ad (Dancers! Cubans! Sexy!), it is harmless fun.

“Casi-Casa” (2009) by the heavy-hitter Swedish choreographer Mats Ek, is another beast entirely — one burdened by its earnest striving after Important Life Themes. This striving is made clear in Mr. Ek’s program note, which ends with the sentence “Dance is not life, but it keeps alive all the little things that the big thing is made of.”

Mr. Ek has made works of great power. “Casi-Casa,” which features a bombastic score by the Flesh Quartet and a minimal but evocative set by Katrin Brannstrom and Peder Freiij, thrums with his typically gestural, earthy movement language, capably handled by the Cubans. Strangled desires and heavy emotions seek release and relief.

But these emotions seem dutifully inserted into a chock-a-block string of domestic scenes. The man slumped alone in front of a flickering television, the women muscling defiantly through housework. Such a familiar constellation yields diminishing returns.

It also, at one point, yields a blackened baby doll, pulled matter-of-factly from a smoking oven. Thursday’s audience teetered between giggling and being grossed out. Here was one little thing that dance had not kept alive.

Danza Contemporánea de Cuba performs through May 22 at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 242-0800, joyce.org
   
Source: www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/arts/dance/danza-contemporanea-de-cuba-review...