The American choreographer Pedro Ruiz embraced Camagüey city when he wrote “Momentos en el viento” (Moments in the wind) for Endedans Contemporary Ballet. When weeks ago he publicly declared his charm by this city in the central region of Cuba, he was not saying courtesy compliments but genuine euphoria by that province founded as villa 500 years ago.
A public mostly made up by Cubans and Americans that traveled to the island specifically to watch this season fell into a state of intoxication before the technical and dramaturgical excellence of the group led by the renowned creator Tania Vergara.
Ruiz knew how including in “Moments in the wind” that mobility and dynamism feeling that invades the walker in this labyrinthine city, located about 500 kilometers from Havana. While Endedans dancers gave t hat perspective rhythm, sensuality and brilliance in the execution of the steps, which enhanced the uniqueness of this province with its intricate streets and architecture surprised by a mixture of styles from colonial to the mysterious depredations of 21st century.
Lots of applause confirmed the successful start of the staging in three consecutive days of performances culminating on Sunday January 26 at Camagüey’s Principal Theater.
Endedans long ago transcended the barrier of Auteur Company and has opened more its doors to dance through the invitation to various choreographers to work with the ensemble. The most recent examples are “40 palillos por 10 pesos,” by Maura Morales, with which they toured much of the country; a staging by Pepe Hevia to accompany a concert of the singer Liuba María Hevia in Havana and “Moments in the wind” , by Ruiz , former leading dancer for two decades of American company Ballet Hispanico.
It is clear a management style based on talent recognition and styles diversity as an enrichment source of dance and dancers. Tania Vergara´s humility has strengthened the company and her creative genius and sensitivity stamp a typical seal within Cuba.
The program began with the play that won the Iberoamerican Award for Choreography in 2008, “A los confines de la tierra¨, in which Vergara scrutinizes soul limits from the need of the other, the departure, absence, encounters and conflicts . The use of curtains in the second scene to hide the partenaires of the four ballerinas contributes to the aesthetic pleasure in order to highlight the effects of the absence, the clemency of lights and interpretative sweetness of Galician music group Luar Na Lubre.
No other company in the country has been able to interpret this piece with such sublimity and poetry as that conceived by Endedans.
“La muerte del hombre”, also choreographed by Vergara together with Lainier Bernal, besides exposing boredom to structural and technological excesses of modern society, in turn transmits a escape hope or transformation of life apart from the firmness of the environment.
The dancer René Montes de Oca reached this idyllic figuration more maturely in each staging and convinced the audience that begins to see this work with skepticism but ends up succumbing to the intrinsic necessity of unfettered expression. It is really worth the effort to make differences and dying in the attempt to change in favor of what we really are and love.
If we were all so brave, Bernaldas would not exist, another fabulous composition by Vergara talking about consequences, confinement and delusions, inner demons and inevitability. In “Las Bernaldas; el entierro de la vida”, Camagüey’s choreographer suggests an understanding of the strong woman ful of fears that Federico García Lorca described as a despot.
The soloist in this creation, Maisnelys Lavin, assumed with the exact dose of theatricality the conflict of being caged by own will, stalked by very personal demons, while six ballerinas embodied with full conviction other projections of the character.
While the women of the company deserve praise, it is fair to say that the performance of males provides emotional fullness and multiplies energy because Endedans has excellent partenaires with technical brilliance and who are fans of dance as art and means of enjoyment.
This, often forgotten by dance groups in the interest of commercialism and simple demonstration of movements like a circus act, defines today this Camagüey’s company, immersed in motivating feelings of pleasure that the audience thanked in this last season.
Attempts of some to defer its passages in order to dilate the stay in that Cuban city to see all the performances were proof enough. Blessed are those who could get it.
