WOMAD

Danza Libre

From Cuba

Biography 2001This young and innovative Cuban dance company blends Afro-Cuban and contemporary styles with the voodoo dance of the Orientes, the island’s eastern region. Voodoo here does not have the black magic connotations of Haiti. Its dances are an amalgam of styles that originated in West Africa and came to Cuba with Haitian slaves who arrived as refugees following the slaves revolt of the eighteenth century. Danza Libre was formed in 1990 by Elfriede Mahler (a US choreographer who had trained with Martha Graham and who moved to the island during the McCarthy witch-hunts) and Ramiro Guerra, one of the island’s most distinguished dancers, who brought the fiery Voodoo styles and contemporary dance together in their search for a contemporary but distinctly Cuban form. Mahler died two years ago, but Danza Libre, here on a second UK tour, is her lasting legacy.Biography by Campbell Stevenson, July 2001short biography 2001:Combining contemporary and Afro Cuban Dance, Danza Libre are visiting the UK in 2001 for their second tour. The 18-piece Company will perform, conduct extensive workshops and will also participate in the festival's famous Sunday afternoon procession.