Leading Cuban Dance Company and GRAMMY-winning Afro-Latin Orchestra Come to Arts Commons Presents
In this exclusive Canadian engagement, Calgary audiences will be enraptured by the combination of stunning contemporary dance and live music with Malpaso Dance Company and GRAMMY-winner Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
Join Arts Commons Presents for Malpaso Dance Company with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons.
Leading the contemporary dance world in their native Cuba, Malpaso Dance Company has been described as “exceptional” with dancers who “deliver at the highest level” by the Los Angeles Times, and as imbued with “precision and fire” by the New York Times. Renowned around the world, few dance companies match their critical acclaim. Led by the dance company’s founders, Osnel Delgado, Fernando Saez, and Daileidys Carrazana, they have performed worldwide and are thrilled to be making their Calgary debut.
“At a very modest scale we can be ambassadors for our culture. The worst possible enemy of Cuban culture, in fact of any culture, is isolation, and hopefully in a very modest way we can open dialogue between the American and Cuban cultures,” says co-founder Fernando Saez. “I would be pretentious to consider that we’ve reached our own voice. The crystallization of our voice will take a little bit of time. Nevertheless, I think there is total commitment to serious artistic dance not compromised at all by commercial intention. Holding high artistic standards and technical standards.”
Providing the musical backdrop for the dancers in the second act of the show is multi-GRAMMY Award winning composer Arturo O’Farrill conducting the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. Son of the legendary Latin jazz musician Chico O’Farrill, Arturo is a frequent collaborator with Malpaso Dance Company, composing “24 Hours and a Dog” for the company in 2014. Described as “ripe, radiant, highly danceable composition” by The New York Times, “24 Hours and a Dog” encapsulates a day in the life of someone living in Havana, expressed through highly emotive physicality. O’Farrill is stylistically commended for capturing sounds from throughout Latin America leading his band to dig “deeper into the textures and rhythms of South America and the Caribbean" than ever before, as noted by JazzTimes.
The evening will also include “Lullaby for Insomnia,” a solo inspired by the legendary Cuban singer, Bola de Nieve and choreographed by Malpaso co-founder Daile Carrazana, and “Stillness in Bloom,” choreographed by Edmonton-born contemporary dance icon Aszure Barton.
“The muscularity and sensuality of their work is astounding,” says VP of Programming, Sarah Garton Stanley (SGS). “As the musical beats unfold, the dancers’ bodies fuse with the rhythms, creating an ecstatic sense of joy, heat, and a reminder of all that is beautiful in the world!”
Arts Commons Presents – Malpaso Dance Company with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
When: Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons
Tickets: 403-294-9494 or learn more.