On Wednesday, November 9th, I attended Lizt Alfonso’s production of Dance Cuba in the Music Hall Center in Detroit. It was choreographed by Lizt Alfonso, Diana Fernandez, and Yadira Hernandez. Dance Cuba travels with 18 dancers and an amazing musical group that is on stage, not in an orchestra pit. As stated by Tom Paul, artistic director, the last time Lizt Alfonso’s Dance Cuba performed in Detroit was in 2003. Having been thirteen years since the last performance, everyone was excited to see what was in store. This production was based on the Cuban dances and music from the 1950’s to today’s style of Cuban dance. Not only did Lizt Alfonso incorporate Cuban dance in this production, but she also weaved ballet, flamenco, and Afro-Cuba …show more content…
The costumes ranged from green, purple, orange, pink, white, blue, 50’s style flowy dresses that were knee length to white or brown see through pant suits. Typically, the types of shoes worn by the women were either black, nude, or white ballroom style heels, black jazz flats, or simply barefoot. The men on the other hand wore pants and long sleeve flowy shirts that were typically dull in color and the shoes they wore were either black jazz shoes or no shoes at all. There was one piece in Act I that was very different from the others. There costumes in this piece were all white and no shoes. The women had on full length white dresses with a white head piece that covered over half of their face and no shoes and the man that danced in this piece wore a white long sleeve shirt, white pants, a white beanie hat, and no shoes. During this piece there was candles used as props that the women held while dancing. This was not the only piece that had props. Another piece some women had hand paper fans and the other half had brooms that they danced …show more content…
In the Riverdance, the men were very rigid, focused, formed lines and shapes all across the stage, and did fast repetitive footwork. Instead of men doing this style dance, in Dance Cuba, women did this style of dance. The first piece in Act II reminded me of how the men were focused, rigid, and intense. The women were trying to show their power and the way they danced made you feel the intensity they were trying to portray. The women were very focused and serious, unlike how they were in the first Act. The other piece that reminded me of the Riverdance, was one closer to the end of the production. This specific piece was performed by eleven women. They would form a line that went across the entire stage from left to right and do repetitive footwork that was very quick, just like the men in the Riverdance. Then the women transitioned out of the strait line and made a V-shape, still using the entire space on the stage. They continued their fierce footwork and never missed a
Elizabethan women dressed reasonably different than we do today. Women often wore many layers. The first layer would always be the shift, which was something similar to a man’s button down shirt seen today. Next, two petticoats were put on. Next, the actual gown was put on. The gown included a full trailing skirt that was often lifted and fastened to make walking easier. Sleeves were commonly full and bell-shaped, as seen in figure one. Belts and girdles were an impor...
The second act began with Sones y Jarabes de Michoacan a traditional folklorico piece originally choreographed by Amalia Hernandez and choreographed for the World Repertory dance ensemble by the Booker T. Washington dance department consultant Fernando Hernandez. The dance began with a
Did you ever wonder how the kids and the teacher felt about the program. In the movie “Mad Hot Ballroom” there is a program where they select several schools to give teachers and kids a opportunity to compete with other kids. They dance tango, merengue ,rumba , bachata, swing , foxtrot ext.
For example, they performed the Samba from Brazil, La Marinera from Peru, Salsa Caleña from Columbia, Bachata and Merengue from the Dominican Republic, and etc. Along with the dancers, there was also live musicians
I decided to write this paper on the documentary film by director Marilyn Agrelo titled Mad Hot Ballroom. This film is about a ballroom dance program in the New York City public school system for fifth grade students and pays particular attention to three schools in the neighborhoods of Tribeca, Bensonhurst, and Washington Heights. In this program the students are taught several dance styles that include: tango, foxtrot, swing, rumba, and merengue over a ten week period to prepare for an opportunity to compete in a citywide competition. Over the ten weeks we not only see that their dancing is culminated, but also their personal growth.
The dance performance of “The Sun King Dances” created and directed by a graduate student that I observed was remarkable. All the dancers performing this piece were women. There were a total of five acts in this performance; Act I, Act II, Act III, Act IV and the Grand Ballet. The dancers were recreating the Sun King’s dances from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Each act had an different set of scenery, choreography, costumes, music and along with a number of dancers performing the dances. All the dances had a similar theme that connected to one another, but each act was unique and had a special story behind it. My favorite act was the first act because when the dancers were performing, their synchronized and repetitive movements reminded me of the hour and minute hands of a clock. My favorite part was when four of the five dancers are holding hands and dancing in a circle while the fifth dancer is in the center of the circle turning and going up and down at the same time.
A movie screen appeared before the second dance a to give us some background information about the upcoming piece. The choreographer admitted that, “we pretty much choreographed the dance in a hallway.” And also that the dance did not have a theme. After hearing this and visually seeing the dance I was immediately able to recognize this in the dance because the dancers did not move from one area to
Sublette, Ned 2004. Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo. Chicago.
not enough of real dancing in the performance.Not really sure what the dances represented by different
The arts is seen as a language or multiple ones in our society. Dance and other art forms give us as individuals the artistic abilities to speak in a way that can’t be spoken with actual words. To tell a story and convey a message in ways others cannot quite express. Art is an inexpressible connection of emotions and creativity that can not be expressed through spoken words. This is something that truly resonated with me as a dancer watching Dance Energies. May O’Donnell exposes this connection in dance through the use of different forces of energy give through the dancers. May O’Donnell choreographed this a work Dance Energies, on her professional company piece in 1959 to represent the importance of difference types of energies and the roles they play in our lives. The dancers use the connection of their own energy through the use of dynamics, musicality and emotional intention to display connectivity of our hidden language.
Shaped by dance, time, education and literature, Cuba is very rich in culture. Cuba’s official language is Spanish (Nation Facts), and its National Anthem is “La Bayamesa”, which translates to “The Bayamo Song” (Central Intelligence Agency). Cuba also has no official religion, though Roman Catholicism is widely practiced (Nation Facts). Dance is also a key piece in the culture of Cuba (Nation Facts). Dance is very popular in Cuba, and it can be seen in many different places in the country. The Bolero, Ma...
Saturday, October 17, 2015 Miramar Cultural Center presented Ballet Hispanico. A ballet that completely left me lost for words… How I’m supposed to write about it now? First of all the Theater was breathtaking, there were three rows that lead to a beautiful stage. I sat in the middle to get the best view. They started right on time introducing the Ballet and explaining some of the importance of the Ballet. Ballet Hispanico was founded by Tina Ramirez in 1970. After the show Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro explained that the purpose of Ballet Hispanico is to reflect the Latin American Culture. Knowing one of the performers Christopher Hernandez, he told me that all the dances gives a feel of what it is like in the Latin culture. The dance
People/Society:In Cuba’s society, most Cubans based their life off spainish traditions. WIth 11 million people in Cuba 99.8% are literate which is the highest literacy rate in the world. 64.1% of the 11 million cubans are white, 26.6% are mixed or another race, and 9.3% are black. The fertility rate is 1.71% which is a 10.7/1000 birth rate. The food in Cuba is based off of spainish traditions and african cooking. With rice that is served daily, rum and Coca-Cola are popular drinks in Cuba. Also a Cuban favorite meal is the Picadillo that is made with ground beef, green pepers, and raisons. Spainish traditions are what cuban’s base their daily life on.
Whether it is the fire dances of the native Hawaiians, or the Tango from Spain, dance is a part of every culture. This event is not an event I would usually attend. I am not into art of any kind except music. At first, there were two reasons I went to this performance.