DanceEast in Havana
DanceEast is leading delegates from leading UK dance organisations in Havana this week as part of an ongoing cultural programme to support cultural exchange and share expertise between dance artists, students and dance teachers in Britain and Cuba.
Lucy Hegarty, DanceEast Academy Manager and Godiva Apedo, DanceEast Academy Lead Tutor, have travelled to Havana with Jasmine Wilson, Co-Director of Education with DanceEast’s Associate Company, Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, and Helen Laws, Healthier Dance Programme Manager at Dance UK, to deliver a three phase exchange project.
Dance practitioners from both countries will work together to share methods of teaching creative work to dancers, technique and also exploring healthy dance practice in both Britain and Cuba.
The DanceEast Academy is the new Centre for Advanced Training of dance for the East of England, funded by the Department for Children Schools and Families, and opens in September 2008. This scheme will teach contemporary technique to children from the age of 11– 18, alongside ballet technique, and in equal measures. The focus of the course will be producing professional dancers who are able to work at the top of their field, and who have received a bespoke training programme to support a long and healthy career. Cuba produces some of the world’s finest ballet and contemporary dancers and its curriculum is unique, with contemporary dancers trained from a much younger age than in the UK.
DanceEast is keen to develop a unique programme for the DanceEast Academy, which will include working with its international partners to create a bespoke training system that takes elements from the best training systems internationally. In light of this, the opportunity for the partnership with Cuba is potentially very rewarding for both parties.
The National School for Dance in Havana teaches Graham technique to young dancers from the age of 11, alongside ballet technique and other supplementary subjects. The DanceEast Academy will work in a similar way with a balance of contemporary and ballet training. Graham technique is not usually taught to young students, and the exchange is an excellent opportunity for DanceEast to learn from the methods that are employed in Cuba, and to draw inspiration from them for the DanceEast Academy curriculum.
This is DanceEast’s fourth visit to Havana in three years and marks a new milestone in cultural exchange between dance in the two countries.
In 2006 Assis Carreiro, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of DanceEast, travelled to Havana, to visit Cuba’s foremost contemporary dance company, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba to discuss the possibility of working on a cultural collaborative project.
Assis Carreiro, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of DanceEast said “Cuba is producing some of the world’s finest contemporary and ballet dancers. They are not only performing in Cuba, but also dominating the ranks of leading companies around the globe and setting standards of excellence both in terms of teachers and performers. It was perceived that there was however, a lack of exposure to choreographic developments and the work that is produced seems to be naïve rather than showing off the brilliant technical abilities of the dancers. Due to the way in which contemporary dance is often taught to young people in England, through a creative process, there was an obvious link and great interest and stimulus for exchange – of UK choreographers and creativity to Cuba and of Cuban teachers to the UK and in particular to the East of England.”
The initial phase of the exchange took place in 2007 with Spanish-born British-based choreographer Rafael Bonachela commissioned to travel to Havana to create a work for Danza Contemporanea, which premiered in Havana last summer. Cuban dancers and choreographers Georges Cespedes and Julio Cesar from the company came to the UK to lead a professional development course and residency with eight dance artists in Suffolk at Easter 2007.
In April 2008 Danza Contemporanea de Cuba came to England to perform at the London Coliseum in a shared programme with Carlos Acosta, and to present the European premiere of the Bonachela’s new work Demo_n/crazy, alongside work by Dutch dancemaker Jan Linkens and the Cuban choreographer and dancer Georges Cespedes at Snape Maltings in Suffolk.
DanceEast Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Assis Carreiro, said “We love working with our Cuban partners. There is such energy and raw talent amongst the dancers in Cuba and we have so much to learn from them. Our collaborative project of cultural exchange is now in its third year and we very much hope to continue to work with our many friends in Havana to produce yet more new work and to develop new projects for dancers, teachers and students in the years ahead.
DanceEast has led the way in forging close links with the dance education system in Cuba ahead of opening our own Centre for Advanced Training in dance for the East of England, the DanceEast Academy, later this year. We very much hope that the Cuban influence will be a prestigious benefit for our new students and will create yet more opportunities for cultural exchange in the future.”
DanceEast cultural exchange project with Cuba has been funded with assistance from The British Council and Arts Council Escalator International.
Local Suffolk artist Roger Hardy attended the recent Danza Contemporanea de Cuba performances at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, click here to view some of the images taken by Roger.
- Wed 21 May