list.co.uk/festival Balletronic | FESTIVAL FEATURES
REHERSAL PHOTOS© ALEJANDRO ERNESTO
PHOTO LEFT & BELOW © ANNA BRUCE
national ballet, a company with a sterling reputation for its dancers’ technique, but also one in which tradition is rooted in iron, having been headed by the same director, Alicia Alonso, since 1959. Now 93, Alonso holds a formidable name as a grande dame of dance and in 2010 told The Guardian ‘I’ll still be running this company in a hundred years’ time.’
Contemporary dancer Lianett Rodriguez Gonzalez says that when Ballet Revolución performed their original show in Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba it was ‘an incidente total’ – a real event. ‘It was an inspiration for the dancers who came to see it because it was something new. For me, the interesting thing has been the ability to change styles, to go wherever they want you to go. To not be a linear dancer. I like the transformation.’ For Balletronic – as with Ballet Revolución – Cuban choreographer Roclan Gonzalez Chavez is teaming up with Cash, whose eclectic background leads him to happily call himself a ‘mongrel’ of dance. Cash trained classically but is equally proud of his commercial success, having worked with Twyla Tharp, Cher and LA Ballet, as well as being one of the original Tap Dogs. ‘I love coming here because the dancers are so creative,’ says Cash. ‘Their individuality, their passion, it’s that laid-back Caribbean thing. I mean you’ve hung out with these guys, you can see it.’ It’s true that in almost every conversation I’ve had since arriving the theme has been the proliferation of dance and music in Cuban culture. Right now, the dancers are chilling out at a barbecue by the seaside but on the way here, onboard a battered off-duty school bus, following a gruelling morning’s rehearsal in ‘the sweat box’, some of them took to the aisles to groove to the bus
13–20 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 15