FESTIVAL FEATURES | Balletronic PHOTO © ANNA BRUCE
‘We lose all our frustration when we dance’
PHOTO © ALEJANDRO ERNESTO PHOTO © ALEJANDRO ERNESTO
working on for Balletronic. Elegant with clean-lined duets and shifting formations, the piece also played around with narratives of relationships, and the kind of mixture of literal and i gurative movement usually found in classical ballet.
But there were other, more specii cally Cuban inl uences at work, too. The kaleidoscopic way large groups of dancers on stage are managed is typical, co-producer Jon Lee explains, of the classic 1950s Cuban Cabaret style. Meanwhile, Chavez says some of the piece’s folkloric moves are associated with the Yoruba gods of Cuba’s Santería religion.
‘Though rather than folkloric I’d really like to say Afro-Cuban,’ he says. ‘I think the Africans have a very strong culture and every single place in the world they brought something from their own lives and put it into that area.’ There are some 360 African rhythms, Chavez says, the result being that Cuban dancers are ‘like a drum – they take the rhythm very fast, they can separate the torso from the leg from the arm from the head.’ Chavez – who earlier admitted one of his childhood stabs at choreography was recreating the moves from Dirty Dancing – doesn’t separate these inl uences out when he choreographs, but just allows his ideas to go where they go. So what is he hoping Edinburgh audiences will make of this? ‘They are going to be able to see our country in a proper way. That’s what I’m looking forward to.’
Balletronic, Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, until 31 Aug (not 18, 24), 9.30pm, £12.50–£16.50 (£10–£14).
radio’s reggaeton, ignoring the pothole thumps coming hard and fast through the bus l oor. The musicians, too, tell me that they jam together, sometimes for hours after each rehearsal. ‘If you have an idea and they are all into it, it goes even further than you thought it could because everyone gets on board and you can feel it. It’s a very open environment – they are incredibly generous with what they can do,’ says Cash.
He talks with passion about the individuality of each dancer and remembers with vivid precision their auditions; you sense spending time with the group that there is an immense amount of camaraderie here. But Roclan Gonzalez Chavez has a different opinion on why they work so well in the studio. ‘Cuban dancers can give you what you’re asking for. The ENA provides very good dancers, not only for Ballet Revolución, but for every show in Cuba – every single style. Ballet Revolución is not the only show in Cuba.’ He says it with a smile but it’s hard to blame him for being pointed. The notion of Cuban dance carries its own cultural baggage, broadly divided into perceptions of the rigid Soviet-style discipline of the Ballet Nacional or, more commonly – including in Balletronic’s own press release – descriptions like ‘sizzling’, ‘raw’ and ‘hot-blooded’. Chavez is keen to show a rounded but no less popular side. ‘Our dancers can do whatever you want. I think that’s the case if you’re born into a world full of music and full of dance. We lose all our frustration when we dance and when we listen to music – it’s food for us. It provides good energy.’
Earlier, back in the studio, he showed us a segment he had been
16 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015