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
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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
The tradition still takes place today in many areas of Mexico. However, some parts of Mexico do the dance a little differently. The dance is more common in the central regi...
Mad Hot Ballroom, directed by Marilyn Argrelo, is a documentary about the ballroom dance program in the New York Public School system. The documentary follows the journey of fifth grade students as they learn how to ballroom dance, and enter a citywide competition. The children in the documentary express their perspectives on ballroom dancing, goals and inspirations, and what it is like to grow up in their neighborhoods. The documentary highlights the benefits of exposing urban youth to ballroom dancing (Agrelo, 2005).
Renowned choreographer Alonzo King is the Balanchine of a new style of dance, his style of dance, a style shying away from the expected and catapulting its audience into a state of wonderment. Alonzo King uses sharp lines intertwined with severe movements all engaging a classical technique in order to create movements, unseen to the dance world. King’s impressive résumé includes having trained with a number of world-renowned ballet companies, and setting works on an even more substantial number of companies, along with establishing his own celebrated company: Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco, California.
Wisner, Heather. “With a Hop, A Kick, And A Turn, Cumbia Enters the Global Stage.” Dance Magazine 80.9 (2006): 64-68. Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 Dec. 2011
Dance is just as important and music in Afro-Cuban Culture. The music is made to be danced to, and most of the popular Cuban dances that exist today are of African decent. The most popular are the rumba, danzon, and son. Especially among the working class poor, dancing and music was simply a way to blow off steam and have a good time.
Hispanic American community are rooted from their origins in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other Spanish speaking countries that have come together and form a culture in the United State of America. The culture is built in different categories; for instance, religion, social custom, health practices their privacy, and birth. They come from a comprehensive familiar culture that has been called the second in America. Because of their pride and affection they feel unsafe to give up their past. Their notoriety in the United State has been their resistance to assimilate; their guarded image of Hispanic-American culture has been the tongue of flame. However, their remarkable legacy, Hispanics carry from Latin America is not their language, an inflatable skin, but breathe itself, capacity of soul, an inclination to live. The genius of Latin America is the habit synthesis. Their dance is colorful and beautiful. The dance is to keep in touch with their culture, pass down their culture heritage, and to unite people from different ethnicity who share their passion for dance. Through dancing, help in meditation, to promote health, and spiritual well being.
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.
On the inside of the club door a large notice is pinned up. The notice
In the late 1970s, when the postmodern dance revolution was coming to an end, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane arrived in New York with the intention of finding an opportunity as dancers-choreographers. Already experienced in the cultivation of dance, this pair of intrepid dumps all their knowledge (sports, gymnastics, social dances, Afro-Caribbean dance, art history, photography, contact improvisation and a recent training in modern dance) discovering, at every step, how to do choreography or the meaning of dance.
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
During my visit, I was able to observe different dances that were very interesting. Two dances that caught my attention were the “Toro Mambo” representing the state of Sinaloa and “Payasos of Tlaxcala” representing Tlaxcala. The “Toro Mambo” from the region of Sinaloa is one of the most popular dances in Mexico. The dance is really interesting for the reason that it represents a story in where a bull would dance on a place known as the “mambo.” In this folk dance the dancer do movements at the same paste while trying to imitate how the bull would dance. In this dance the women wear long colorful dresses to represent joy and in order to move the skirts higher. In contrast, the men wear light color shirts and jeans that matches with their partner. In the other side the dance of the “Payasos de Tlaxcala” represents a story of a festival in the region of Tlaxcala. To perform this dance men and women dress like clowns in colorful outfits to amuse the people in the festival. During the dance, the dancers try to satisfy the public by putting humor in the dance and doing crazy movements. This dances are both very great and enjoyable to watch. It is amazing how you could learn so much in a little bit of time and in a beautiful art
not enough of real dancing in the performance.Not really sure what the dances represented by different
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
Dance is a part of every culture. 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.
Sublette, Ned 2004. Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo. Chicago.