Malpaso Dance Company

Indomitable Waltz

choreography: Aszure Barton
music: Alexandre Balanescu, Michael Nyman, Nils Frahm
costume design: Fritz Masten
lighting design: Nicole Pearce
assistant to the choreographer: Jonathan Emanuell Alsberry

duration: 26’
premiere:

“Indomitable Waltz” was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from; the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Executive Director’s Fund at The Joyce Theater Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was co-commissioned by DANCECleveland and the Cleveland Foundation. A technical residency was generously provided by Duncan Theater at Palm Beach State College for the US premiere of Indomitable Waltz by Aszure Barton.

At the beginning of her collaboration with Malpaso on “Indomitable Waltz”, Aszure Barton thought she wanted to make “something super bright and celebratory, with colorful costumes”. But just before the creative residency, her father had fallen ill. “I was confronted with the possibility of loss”, she explained, “but as one does as a professional, I went down to Havana, felt the warmth, and found there a healing atmosphere in which to create, with people I came to love… We were there together, everyone respectful of everyone else as an equal. The work was the thing”. As the work developed, Barton came to terms with the reality that, “there is weight in this piece”. So they ended up abandoning the original costume designs in favor of simple black clothing instead…

Aszure Barton was born in Canada, where she received her formal dance training from Canada’s National Ballet School. She has now been creating dances for over 25 years and has collaborated with celebrated dance artists and companies including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Teatro alla Scala, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, English National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Nederlands Dans Theater, National Ballet of Canada, Martha Graham Company, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Sydney Dance Company, Houston Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, among many others. Her works have been performed on countless international stages including the Palais Garnier in Paris, Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg, The Kennedy Center in DC, The Alicia Alonso Grand Theater in Havana, and Lincoln Center (NY). She is the founder of Aszure Barton & Artists, an inter-disciplinary international dance project. Other choreography credits include the Broadway production of “The Threepenny Opera” directed by Scott Elliott, and starring Cyndi Lauper, Alan Cumming, Jim Dale, Nellie Mackay and Ana Gasteyer; film and installation projects, and international outreach activities such as Kenya’s Earth Project: Healing the Rift, at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy. Her choreography has been featured in numerous television projects, including the Sundance Channel’s series with Alice Waters and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She has received numerous awards and honors, while as an educator she is regularly invited to give workshops at universities and art institutions around the globe.

24 Hours and a Dog

choreography: Osnel Delgado, in collaboration with the dancers
music: Arturo O'Farrill, recorded by the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble
costume design: Eric Grass
lighting design: Crawford

duration: 35’
premiere:

Working in a breezy, street-dance style, with a kick leading naturally into a roll, Delgado's choreography seems to fall inevitably, like dominoes. The movement is relaxed and intrinsic to the body, almost as if it appears improvisational. The dancers are the conduits of expression that listens to the body's natural rhythms, breath, pulse and heartbeat. The technique is, of course, there, but rules and regulations seem to have been stripped away, leaving pure movement and pure expression.

Osnel Delgado was a member of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba from 2003 to 2011, before founding Malpaso Dance Company in 2013, where he currently serves as choreographer and artistic director. He has worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Rafael Bonachela, Kenneth Kvarnström, Itzik Galili, Samir Akika, Pedro Ruiz, Isidro Rolando and George Cespedes, among others. Delgado has created works for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Rakatan and Ebony Dance of Cuba. Delgado is a 2003 graduate of the National Dance School of Havana, where he is also a professor of dance studies. Delgado has received major Cuban dance awards.

Tabula Rasa

choreography, light design: Ohad Naharin
music: Arvo Part
costume design: Eri Nakamura
assistants to the choreographer: Matan David, Bret Easterling

duration: 30’
premiere: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, 1986./Malpaso Dance Company, 2018. in Havana.

“Tabula Rasa” was originally created for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in 1986. The phrase means “clean slate” in Latin, and refers to the state of a human being at birth, before being marked by circumstances and life experiences. In a sense, Naharin also gave “Tabula Rasa” a clean slate when he decided to restage the work for Cuba’s Malpaso, more than three decades after its premiere. In an interview with The Joyce Theater, Naharin said that the passage of time has given him a “different toolbox” to interpret the work, and that sharing new experiences and discoveries helps in the collaborative process with dancers. In the first half of Arvo Part's score, a violin melody builds and fades with an affecting melancholy that radiates a general sense of loss. The second half becomes meditative as the dancers move, trance-like, through a textured melodic haze. In speaking about the choreographic process for the work, Naharin said, “dancers need to be convinced that less is better, that they need to create a meditation experience for themselves that has nothing to do with being in front of [the] audience”.

Ohad Naharin is the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company and creator of the Gaga movement language. Naharin was born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel. His mother is a choreographer, dance teacher, and Feldenkrais instructor, and his father was an actor and psychologist. He joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little formal training. During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York. Between 1975 and 1976, Naharin studied at the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School, and with Maggie Black and David Howard. He then joined Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siecle in Brussels for one season. Naharin returned to New York in 1979 and made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio the following year. From 1980 until 1990, he presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, Kibbutz Dance Company and Nederlands Dans Theater. At the same time, he worked with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara and a group of dancers in New York. Naharin and Kajiwara continued to work together until she died in 2001. In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva Ensemble. He has since created over 35 works for both companies. After almost thirty years of leading Batsheva, in 2018 Naharin stepped down as Artistic Director, and continues to serve as the House Choreographer. In addition to his stagework, he also developed Gaga, an innovative movement language based on research into heightening sensation and imagination, becoming aware of form, finding new movement habits, and going beyond familiar limits. Gaga is the daily training of Batsheva’s dancers and has spread globally among both dancers and non-dancers. Naharin trained in music throughout his childhood and continues to infuse his work with a unique musicality. He collaborated with the Israeli rock group, The Tractor’s Revenge (“Kyr”, 1990), Avi Balleli and Dan Makov (“Anaphaza”, 1993), Ivri Lider (“Z/na”, 1995), and Grischa Lichtenberger (“Last Work”, 2015). Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed music for “MAX” (2007) and edited and mixed the soundtracks for “Mamootot” (2003), “Hora” (2009), “Sadeh21” (2011), “The Hole” (2013), “Last Work” (2015), “Venezuela” (2017)… Naharin’s work has also been featured in several films. In his 2007 documentary “Out of Focus”, director Tomer Heymann filmed the process of restaging “Decadance” with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. In 2015, the Heymann Brothers released “Mr. Gaga”, a documentary about Naharin. A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura and their daughter, Noga.

Since its establishment in 2012, Malpaso Dance Company has become one of the most sought after Cuban dance companies with a growing international profile. Emphasizing a collaborative creative process, Malpaso is committed to working with top international choreographers while also nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. The company tours with 11 dancers and is led by its three original founders: Osnel Delgado, Fernando Sáez and Daileidys Carrazana. An Associate Company of Joyce Theater Productions, Malpaso — together with The Joyce— has commissioned original works from a number of prominent North American choreographers, including Ronald K. Brown, Trey McIntyre, Aszure Barton, Emmy-award winning Sonya Tayeh, and most recently, Robin Mineko Williams. As part of its commitment to Cuban choreographers, Malpaso has also recently premiered works by company members Beatriz Garcia and Abel Rojo, who was nominated for a prestigious Benois de la Danse award. The company also continues to tour works by Artistic Director Delgado, which are often accompanied by Grammy award-winning, Cuban-American composer/pianist Arturo O’Farrill and Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble. The company recently added works by the legendary Merce Cunningham, famous Swedish choreographer Mats Ek and the world renowned Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin to their repertory. Naharin traveled to Cuba in 2018 to work one on one with Malpaso dancers to re-stage his seldom performed, 30 year old masterwork, “Tabula Rasa”.

...a pinch-me moment, one of those times when you catch an artistic dawning… Malpaso’s dancers are exceptional.
© LA Times