Old Havana Dances Conclude: City in Motion

Havana.- The oldest part of the Cuban capital was the great scene of about 20 foreign companies invited to the XXI International Dance Festival in Old Havana Urban Landscapes: City in Motion, which concludes today. Streets, squares, parks, doorways of colonial mansions and even the museums were used as served as scenery for dancers and choreographers for five days, who bet on urban landscapes in their creations.

The main promoter of the event, Isabel Bustos, director of the Dance-Theater company Retazos (Bit and Pieces of various works), highlighted how the event expanded over the years and this year includes an ambitious program where different manifestations converged.

"It is now much bigger than what I dreamed, as there are nearly 1,000 people visiting us from everywhere, having the opportunity to see really how is Cuba, Cubans and its culture'.

This festival began as a small battle for having a space for this type of dance in urban landscapes and over the time we have open channels to other aspects such as plastic arts, photography, video art, theater and music, he pointed out.

Since April 6, about 20 foreign companies flooded the streets of Old Havana, declared a World Heritage Site in December 1982 by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

There were also more than 30 representatives of various Cuban provinces like the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Matanzas and eastern Guantanamo, plus groups from the capital.

The festival tries to give opportunity to choreographers and creators to use unconventional spaces for their work, he noted. It also covers a broad spectrum of trends and artistic expressions, exhibitions, concerts, presentations of video art, and performance.

Since 1996, the event is organized every year in the Historic Center of Havana, by the company Danza Teatro Retazos, the Office of the Historian of the City and with the support of the Havana Theater Center.

Source: PL