Preview: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

Danza Contemporánea de Cuba goes deep into Cuban culture and mentality, allowing individuality to shine through the stereotypes. By Kelly Apter

Outside on the street, Madrid is suffering an unseasonably cold late winter. Temperatures have dropped to almost zero and the Spaniards are wrapping up warm. Inside the Teatro Real, however, things couldn’t be hotter.

On stage, some of the finest, most exciting modern dancers in the world are giving their all; the heat from their native land radiating from them. Touring Europe, and soon to arrive in Edinburgh, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba meets expectations and confounds them in equal measure.

Think Cuban dance, think a melting-pot of cultures, infectious rhythms and large-scale entertainment. With all those boxes ticked, this fascinating company goes on to tick a few more, such as philosophical, questioning and – in a very accessible way – challenging.

It’s also a product of its environment. If dancers in the UK turned up for work to find there would be no electricity that day or, despite the thermometer hitting 30C, no water, chances are they’d turn tail and head back home. In the Havana headquarters of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, it’s business as usual.

“We’re used to it,” says dancer and company choreographer George Céspedes. “When you grow up with this kind of stuff, you find a way to survive. You have no choice, so you have to adapt. Having no water or electricity is nothing new for us, but human beings work better under pressure.”

Unlike the vast majority of Cubans, Céspedes has travelled the world, taking with him a tolerance born of necessity.

“I remember waiting for a train in Germany, and it was delayed five minutes,” he recalls. “The people were going crazy. In Cuba you wait two hours for a bus, and even then you might not get on. So you wait another couple of hours and then you walk. That experience makes you different. Because I’ve experienced that, I know how to deal with things.”

Céspedes is “different” in more ways than one. The morning after that electrifying performance at the Teatro Real, I’m scheduled to meet him in the hotel bar at 10am. But that’s 10am “Cuban time”, I’m warned, implying a probability of lateness. In reality, Céspedes has been there since 9am, drinking coffee and “thinking”.

Having seen his work the night before, this comes as no surprise. Mambo 3XXI is dynamic yet thought-provoking piece – much like its creator. Asked by the Dance Consortium to create a piece with “Cuban music and rhythms”, Céspedes was initially sceptical: “I said ‘Look, I’m not that guy, that’s not my style, but I can put you in touch with people who can do that really well.’ They said, ‘No, we want you.’ So I said OK, but on my terms.”

Céspedes’s reluctance came from a desire not to perpetuate the kind of stereotypes Cuba has been dogged by (and to a degree, thrived on) for years. “We have a lot of clichés in Cuba, thousands of them, and I hate it. From the outside, Cuba is the black guy with drums, coffee, cigars, loud people. I’m more of a global person.”

That said, for Mambo 3XXI Céspedes has gone deep into the Cuban culture and mentality. Eschewing the obvious Cuban dance – salsa – he opted instead for the popular 1940s and 50s style mambo, but with a twist. Approaching friends who compose electronic music, he charged them with “re-making the mambo”. With new rhythms in place, he began searching for an alternative way to depict Cuban life.

“I tried to bring some ideas from my childhood,” says Céspedes. “I grew up with the idea that we are Communist, everybody is the same. In school we had to dress, think and feel the same. At the same time, our culture on the street is the same – if you are Cuban, you must dance salsa, you must like rum, you must like everything that Cuba is. But of course, that’s not true.”

Translate this into dance and you end up with a piece that not only demonstrates the company’s technical ability (tight unison) but takes you on a journey from uniformity to wild, carefree individuality. It’s a life-affirming piece, that has been a huge hit around the world.

In Edinburgh, it’s in good company, sitting in a triple-bill alongside Kenneth Kvarnström’s all-male take on Bizet, Carmen?!, and a new work by Itzik Galili set to Steve Reich’s Drumming Part 1.

Despite claiming he’s “not an entertainer”, that’s exactly what Céspedes does, both with his choreography, and as a dancer in the company. But, just like the country he hails from, there’s more to him than meets the eye.

“Someone once said that art doesn’t have to be clever,” says Céspedes, with what can only be described as a serious smile. “And to that I add, but it doesn’t have to be stupid to entertain.”

• Danza Contemporánea de Cuba are at Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 15 and 16 May.