US choreographer Pedro Ruiz today will premiere a ballet with music by the prizewinning Cuban pianist Frank Fernandez, on the occasion of the XII Biennial of Havana.
A group of students from the National Ballet School of Cuba Fernando Alonso and two members of the Endedans Contemporary Ballet will perform the piece “The light in Cuban eyes”, named after a book by the US art scholar Madeleine Plonsker.
The ballet will also be presented at the Marti Theater in Havana. The renowned concert pianist will open the gala by playing the two most famous compositions of the Hail Mary, the version by Charles Gounod and Johann Sebastian Bach, and the one by Franz Schubert, pieces which are usually included in his concerts.
“The light in Cuban eyes” portrays real pictures and interweaves the plasticity of dance with the loose Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Ruiz concatenated complex steps and shifts to an unusual speed in classical ballet performances, but that are very common in the Cuban ballet repertoire.
The dynamic piece requires a different way of breathing and usage of the classic technique on a very Cuban music, said the choreographer to Prensa Latina and thus exposed the major novelty of the show divided into three movements.
Summer Place, Lasting Embrace and Three States of the Soul that appeal to different emotions depending on the expressiveness raised by Fernandez with his music.
The choreographer connects the arts through movement and, therefore; compares his work with the birth of a flower.
(Prensa Latina)