Performances of Cuban Ballet Lizt Alfonso

After a successful tour in the USA, the Cuban Ballet of Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba prepares new tours inside and outside the country, and a special show to celebrate in 2011 the 20 th anniversary of the company.

After his return, Alfonso told that the tour was short but fruitful and opened the doors in the United States where the company is very popular.

The cast, composed of women only, plus the musical group, presented the spectacle Fuerza y Compas (Force and Compass) in five U.S. cities during his sixth visit to that country, who had last visited seven years ago.

Dance Cuba performed in Cleveland, Chicago, New Bedford, Durango and Scottsdale, where it was praised by media.

In his choreography, the young group (average age 21 years) combines various styles and traditions mixed in Cuba for centuries, from Spanish flamenco to Afro-Cuban rhythms, accompanied by the usual joy of the island.

Alfonso drew special attention to stay in Chicago where they gave two performances at the Auditorium Theater and also taught master classes for children and adolescents, who were very enthusiastic and even expressed great interest in studying dance in Cuba.

Alfonso also said that by 2011 the company has a very intensive program, which includes presentations in five countries: Canada, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and Germany, and Cuba.

In December 2010, the Ballet Lizt Alfonso will perform in Pinar del Rio and will give a special show for disabled children.

Cutumba Folkloric Ballet Invited to American Festival

The Cuban Folkloric Company Cutumba was invited to perform at the opening of the Next Wave Festival 2011 of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York city.

This is the second time Cutumba is invited to participate in this international event in the United States. The first time was in 2002 when the Cutumba Folkloric Ballet was very well received asnd successful in the American city.

This time the African-Haitian dance and music company will present its show Estampas del Carnaval santiaguero (Scenes from Santiago’s Carnival), a choreography by director Idalberto Bandera, premiered in 1983.

The show recreates one of the most popular carnivals in Cuba with colourful costumes and the traditional beat of the eastern conga characterized by the sound of the Chinese bugle and fictitious characters.

All the members of the group are very happy to represent Cuba at the BAM Festival. Cutumba emerged in Santiago de Cuba in 1959 as part of the Conjunto Folclorico de Oriente, and took its current name in 1970. It has been performing in many countries since its very beginning.

Fifty Years of Cine Cubano Magazine

The 176th edition of the Cine Cubano (Cuban Cinema) magazine, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of its creation, was launched at the ‘Fresa y Chocolate’ cultural Center in Havana.

Omar Gonzalez, president of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), said during the ceremony that Cine Cubano has always had a national reach that goes beyond ICAIC and filmmakers.

He expressed his satisfaction with the high quality of the publication which, he noted, is one of the oldest of its type in the world.

During the event, tribute was paid to founders and intellectuals, who have contributed with their works to the magazine’s pages along the past 50 years, such as Julio García Espinosa, Jose Massip, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Alfredo Guevara, Luis Rogelio Nogueras, Gloria Villazon and Hector Garcia Mesa.

The new edition of the magazine includes a dossier on the movie ‘Jose Marti: el ojo del canario’ by Fernando Perez, which includes texts by outstanding intellectuals such as Fina Garcia Marruz and Fernando Martinez Heredia.

In addition, there are articles by Victor Fowler, Ambrosio Fornet and Francisco López Sacha. It also includes a dossier on the significance of the magazine and the work of its creators over the past 50 years.

Next Doors FIART 2010

Some 200 artisans from 19 countries, including Argentina, India, Italy and Colombia will participate in the International Fair of Havana FIART 2010, from December 9 to 19. For the first time artisans from Russia, El Salvador and Senegal will also participate.

Guillermo Solenzal, director of the Cuban Cultural Fund, told reporters that the fair will increase by 20 the number of stands with respect to the previous edition, and will exhibit high quality products. From morning until late at night, the leading craftsmen of Cuba will also show their talents in different fields, including painting and design.

The fair will honor the eastern province of Holguin and its long tradition. Artisans of the city will present a collection of wooden vessels of different designs and techniques, and a project inspired by the work of the late painter Wifredo Lam. During the fair, fashion shows, workshops and theoretical meetings on development and marketing for visual arts and crafts will also be held.

Again JoJazz Music Contest in Havana

The JoJazz Contest 2010 is one of the proposals of great importance for the booming jazz movement in Cuba by early 2010, which will highlight the legacy of outstanding contrabassist Orlando (Cachaito) Lopez (1933-2009).

The 13th edition of that contest, starting yesterday, November 25 through 28, will prove what the island’s new jazz musicians can do on stage.

The opening will be at Havana Mella Theater, main venue of the contest, where young instrument players and renowned Cuban music figures will give, through jazz, an overview of the main stages of Cachaito’s artistic life. Cachaito was one of the main figures of the All Star band, Buena Vista Social Club.

Italian saxophonist Stefano Di Battista and his band, made up of pianist Roberto Tarenzi, contrabassist Francesco Puglisi, and drummer Roberto Pistolesi, will also participate in the opening ceremony.

This year, JoJazz welcomes 23 new musicians from the island’s different provinces, who will show their abilities in interpretation and harmony workshops, performances at La Zorra y El Cuervo emblematic club in Havana, as well as composition and interpretation contests.

Mexican Film Will Open Havana Festival

Revolution, a Mexican film comprising ten shorts of 10 minutes each, will open the 32nd Havana Film Festival, which is dedicated to that historical event.

Revolution will premiere at the opening ceremony on December 2, festival director Ivan Giroud told reporters.

The shorts deal with different historical periods and star Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo García, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, and Carlos Reygadas.

Each short gives an outline of contemporary Mexican society, and asks what is left of those struggles and values. For instance, Chenillo represents the working class basing on the romance of two store employees.

This year, the festival will devote one of its sections to festivities for the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution: 17 films, 14 of them cartoons. They include: Chicogrande (Big Boy), by Felipe Cazals; El atentado (The Attack), by Jorge Fons, and El cometa del centenario (The comet of the Centennial) by Rene Castillo.

A total of 515 films and short films will be presented at the 32nd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which will take place in Havana between 2 and 12 next December, said the chairman of the event, Alfredo Guevara. During a press conference, held at Havana's Hotel Nacional, Guevara said that the filmmakers arrive in the Island at a crucial moment for the future of the Cuban Revolution.

Awards for Cuban Film

The Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez was awarded the Colón de Plata or Silver Columbus Prize as best artistic director with his movie José Martí: El Ojo del Canario (José Martí: the Eye of the Canary) at the famous 36 Iberoamerican Film Festival in Huelva, Spain.

This Cuban-Spanish coproduction also received a similar award in the category of best photography, presented to 2010 Cuban National Film Prize Winner Raúl Pérez Ureta for his work in the movie, to which he contributes an exquisite careful image with a highly aesthetic poetic value.

The Cuban film covers the teenaged life of Cuban writer and National Hero José Martí, when an important part of his personality was shaped. In the movie, Pérez shows a living and human Martí in the middle of the contradictions of the time when the island was struggling for its independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Carlos Acosta in Santiago de Cuba

Our Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta kicks off his first national tour of Cuba last Sunday at the Heredia Theater in Santiago, fulfilling a longstanding desire of the artist and his fans.

The renowned artist, principal guest artist of the Royal Ballet of London, performed "Suite of dances," by Jerome Robbins, as the feature piece of the program, accompanied by Cuban cello player Amparo del Riego and ballerinas Viengsay Valdes and Laura Rios.

His tour will cover the cities of Camaguey on November 23, Cienfuegos on November 25 and Pinar del Rio on November 27, and conclude in Havana on November 30.

In statements to the press, the young dancer said performances in the country’s east, center and west were his settling of an old debt with his audience in Cuba, where his intensive and successful career is followed and admired.

This Cuban dancer has worked with prestigious companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, the Houston Ballet, the English National Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet.

After this long-awaited tour of Cuba, Acosta will return to the Royal Ballet to resume his regular performances with Giselle, Swan Lake, Manon, and the show Premier, which will be presented across the United Kingdom.

Debuts in Film Festival of Latin American Cinema

The 32nd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, to run from December 2-12 in Havana, includes the premier of one documentary film, two cartoons and four feature-lengths within the contending categories.

Actress Marilyn Solaya, known for her role as Vivian in "Fresa y Chocolate" (1994), is the main character in the documentary En el cuerpo equivocado (In the Wrong Body). Solaya won the 2009 award for the promotion of TV Documentary Production and Broadcast DOCTV IB Latin America.

Producer Juan Padron, veteran of Cuban cartoons, competes with "Nikita Chama Boom", a story on the 1962 missile crisis, while Ernesto Piña runs for a Coral with Pubertad (Puberty), with a script by Mariela Castro Espín on the evolution from childhood to adolescence.

The Festival's four contending feature-length films include "La casa vieja" (The Old House) of Lester Hamlet, co-producer of "Tres veces dos" (3 x 2) with Esteban Insausti and Pavel Giroud.