Images of Dance in Cuba
Gil Garcetti's book of photographs, Dance in Cuba (Balcony Press, 2005, 144 pages. Hardcover 12" x 13", $65) takes us to a land of dynamic dance that has influenced the world. Major dance companies now have Cuban dancers, some defectors, others abroad with government permission. For example, in ballet, we see renowned award-winning ballet dancers Carlos Acosta, José Manuel Carreño, Lorna Feijoo, Nelson Madrigo and Rolando Sarabia; the 49 members of Havana Night Club Review recently granted U.S. asylum; and Aramis Pazos, my Afro-Cuban teacher at the DC Dance Collective studio in Washington, D.C.
Garcetti does not think of himself as a dance photographer but rather as an urban photographer. He has achieved national and critical acclaim for his work in Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Balcony Press, 2002), a documentation of the labors of ironworkers on the building designed by Frank Gehry, and Frozen Music (Balcony Press, 2004), the limited collection edition sequel capturing the mystery, fluidity, lyricism and reflecting light of Gehry's shapes.
To capture Cuban dance images, Garcetti used a Hasselblad XPan and a Nikon F100 34 mm with focal length lenses from 24 mm to 300 mm. His frozen dramatic moments in Dance in Cuba were on display at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in early 2006.
I witnessed part of the making of Garcetti's beautiful "coffee table" book of photographs of Cuban dancers. The Cuban Ministry of Culture had invited me to "Los Dias de la Danza" ("Days of Dance") in Havana, April 23-29, 2004, to deliver a keynote address on "Challenges to Dance in the 21st Century" for the theory portion of the festival (see "Cuba, a Little Island & a Lot of Dance," Dancer, July, pp. 44-49, 2004). It was at the festival that I met Garcetti, as well as Alkis Raftis, President of UNESCO's International Dance Council (Conseil International de la Danse, cid@unesco.org).
The three of us were VIPS taken to various dance performances, rehearsals, schools, studios, theaters, nightclubs, hotels and other dance venues. One afternoon we had lunch the 83 year-old Alicia Alonzo, former prima ballerina, co-founder with Fernando Alonzo in 1950 of the Alicia Alonso Ballet School where they propagated the Cuban method of dance education, and in 1962 co-founder with Fernando and artistic director of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Alicia told us, "What I have loved about dancing is you can speak to any country through the dance....One of the most beautiful Cuban things is aesthetics, style. The Cuban dancer has sensuality; it comes from our folklore and it goes through our blood."
In Havana, the name Gil Garcetti kept ringing in my ears, but my memory failed to tell me why. The light bulb went off upon my return home. Garcetti was the elected Los Angeles District Attorney from 1992-2000, having spent a 32-year career in the DA's office.
Garcetti began his photography in high school, continued it through his legal career, and upon retirement from the government turned to his long-time love. Upon first contact with an Afro-Cuban dance group in the streets of Old Havana, Garcetti became intoxicated with "how effortlessly, seductively, and rhythmically they moved their hips, bodies, arms, and legs. Their faces were energized, joyful." Thus began Garcetti's dance book project that took him to Cuba seven times over a four-year period. His photographs poetically and humorously evoke aspects of Cuban dance from ballerina to carnival street performer. Garcetti said he has included many photos of dancers in rehearsal, practice or class because he continually heard them say they practice hard to become a better dancers.
Viengsay Valdes, Cuba's prima ballerina, featured prominently in Garcetti's book, told him, "Dance is the way Cubans throw away their problems. It is a way to escape. There are so many different dances Cubans enjoy, and our spirit can be seen in each of them." The marvelously sassy principal dancer, choreographer, singer and comedian of Danza Contemporánea, Lidice Nuñez, who appears in two images in Garcetti's book, is quoted as saying: "For Cubans, dance is about feelings, emotions--dancer and audience transmitting energy." During Los Dias de la Danza in 2004, we saw this connection as she led the highly responsive audience with delight in movements at their seats as part of the company's "Compás," an evening-length work that included social dance forms, African movements and rhythms, palmas (syncopated hand clapping) and speech.
Dance in Cuba has a preface by José Carreño, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, and an introduction by Miguel Cabrera, official historian of Ballet Nacional de Cuba.
The book has some printing problems. An index that is supposed to identify the photographs by page numbers, dance companies, leading dancers or places of folk dances unfortunately do not match the actual page numbers, and there is no text about specific pictures. Dancer quotes are not always illustrated by the images that follow them. For example, Miguel A.
Iglesias Ferrer, Director, Danza Contemporánea, is quoted as saying: "We prepare the dancer. The dancer is the secret light of the company. The pieces may change, but the preparation for the dancers is unique." Yet the warming up or training movements shown in the adjacent photos are common worldwide. The meaning of some images is unclear. Cubans appear behind a carved dowel fence -- almost as if behind prison bars -- with the adjacent quote from Armando Rigual, Vice Director, Centro Pro Danza: "At any moment we can feel sad. But when we dance, we feel and give joy and hope." Yet the black, gray and white images shot under natural conditions sometimes convey a gloominess rather than joy.
Before going to Cuba for the first time in 2001, I asked friends who had lived there where I should go to see dance. The answer: "It is everywhere." Garcetti notes that in spite of Cuba's poverty and everyday life struggles, "so many people find time to dance or to watch dance. As Cubans dance, they are living in the moment. Their energy, their enjoyment, their dance facility is all evident. One can actually feel the spirit of the Cuban people through their dance."