Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba Company Returns in Grand Style to Cuban Stages

October 24, 2020

Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba (LADC) ended seven months of inactivity with joy, dynamism, sensuality and coordination, outstanding elements in the program it presents at the Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso.

The company leads the return to the stage of the country's largest dance ensembles, established in the capital, and not even the mandatory use of masks contained yesterday the emotion of the audience that had been deprived for several months of theatrical performances due to measures imposed to protect the population from COVID-19.

After more than half a year of confinement at home and without having concluded the bombardment of tense news about the pandemic around the world, the audience appreciates every display of joy, every refreshing proposal, and LADC exhibits charisma and sufficient repertoire to deliver and still accumulate reserves.

The concert program brings together choreographies of Fuerza y Compás, Alas y Latido that draw applause and bravos, scene by scene, as the level remains high from beginning to end.

The mixture allows one to appreciate sensual dancers with flamenco skirts, other times with dresses and some with shorts in works where elements of the African and Spanish roots that make up the basis of Cuba's cultural identity stand out.

With heels, barefoot or with wooden sandals, the LADC artists provide a visual delight and the musical selection also marks diversity, as it gifts brushstrokes of jazz, Cuban percussion, rock and roll, guaguancó, conga, among other rhythms.

The performances will continue this Saturday, October 24, and tomorrow, the 25th, to celebrate the 29 years of the founding of a very singular company that has known how to uphold the name of its country on any stage in the world.

The new coronavirus subjected everyone to a trial by fire and LADC surpassed it greatly; the months of social isolation did not tarnish its quality, nor did they cloud its mark, a style that they call fusion and that combines aspects of flamenco, ballet, contemporary dance, folklore and diverse popular dances from its native island.

There lies the key to the complexity of its choreographic proposals that equally demand turns—slow and fast—, chainés, piqués en dedans, grand jetés en tournant, grand battement, typical of ballet, as well as the pelvic and hip movements of folklore, the arm undulations of contemporary dance or the arm movements of Spanish dance along with its spectacular footwork.

If something precisely distinguishes LADC it is the spectacularity through the conjunction of all this and its commitment, not to the exposure of soloists, but to a company as a single body that beats in perfect harmony.

Special applause for the dancers who change clothes in a matter of seconds to come back renewed, how do they do it? The energy never wanes, it only transforms to fill other choreographies and styles with brilliance.