Contemporary Dance of Cuba is a group founded on September, 1959 by the master Ramiro Guerra. He organized the dancers since the very beginning of the Modern Dance Department of the National Theater of Cuba to form a new company. It was an attempt to establish, definitively, the aesthetic of a new dance assimilated by him in the United States of America with Martha Graham and other icons of the epoch.
Since that time, the group, directed for three decades by the National Prize of Dance Miguel Iglesias, has realized more than ninety tours through the countries of America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and it has participated in the most important dance festivals and events of the world. Contemporary Dance of Cuba has been estimated by the critic as one of the best of its kind in Latin America. It has received the public applauses through its 61 years and also the praises of the International Press because of its brilliant performances in the principal stages of the world.
The active repertory of the company includes the most dissimilar works that show the universality that identify it, its unique and unrepeatable style, characterized by wide choreographic and technical-interpretative possibilities, as well as the harmonic and functional integration from the rest of the arts to the language of contemporary dance, merged with the African ancestors. But these not only reaffirm the “ajiaco” multi-ethnic (cultural and spiritual) that, as Don Fernando Ortiz said, feeds the Cuban basic personality, they also mix styles and forms sui generis in the context of these type of dance.
During these six decades the most relevant figures of the panorama of Caribbean dance have been formed in the heart of this company; and many projects have been developed, more and more original every time from the choreographic, technical and interpretative viewpoints.
Contemporary Dance of Cuba, with its originals premises aesthetic-artistic, continues opened to the last tendencies of the dance in the world in an unlimited research. The company experiments with dissimilar styles; this has facilitated a close union among creator and schools of different nations, without ever neglecting its technical essence characterized by the deepest Cuban identity.
Today, Contemporary Dance of Cuba shows a stable quality and the essential key that characterize it: an eclecticism –because it experiments with many styles-. The company has skillfully combined the modern techniques with the creole traditions, without any fissures to be noticed. Hence it can be said that the germ of a new contemporary school has arisen, in which the ballet culture, dissimilar techniques assimilated in the West Indies warmth, and the folklore have basic roles. And here it is necessary to express that the Contemporary Dance of Cuba choreographers approach the roots but by means of a dance full of requirements, and above all, marking a virtuosity replete of sense.
We add the magnetism very typical of the troop directed by the Maître Miguel Iglesias, its key is no more than the technical magnificence and his energy, achieved by the wise combination of grace and force inherited since its beginnings. Aside from the physical preparation of its members, also a significant characteristic of their stage work.
