Cuba's Malpaso Dance Company to Return to The Joyce in January

The Joyce Theater Foundation will welcome the return of Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company in its landmark tenth engagement at The Joyce. Presenting a program of premiere commissions from Cuban artists, the esteemed company will play The Joyce Theater from January 21-26.

Since its founding in 2012 by Daile Carrazana, Osnel Delgado, and Fernando Sáez, Malpaso Dance Company has remained committed to nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. With its dancers unparalleled technical strength and limitless passion, the company is now poised to present an evening of new commissions from choreographers of its homeland and abroad during its tenth Joyce engagement—nearly once for every year of the company’s existence.

Resident choreographer and Artistic Director Osnel Delgado pulls double duty in the world premiere of his latest work, Ara, serving as both choreographer and dancer. Delgado is set to dance the duet with guest artist Grettel Morejón, Principal Dancer with Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Brothers Aldo and Ilmar López-Gavilán, subjects of the poignant documentary Los Hermanos, provide virtuosic live music on piano and violin, respectively. The three remaining works in the evening’s repertory all feature live music as well, this time by the Havana-based, all-female Alma Quartet. Company member Esteban Aguilar will premiere his latest work, Retrato de Familia, or Family Portrait, alongside Spanish choreographer and longtime Cuba resident Susana Pous’ Vertigo. Rounding out the bill is a Malpaso Dance Company hallmark work, Indomitable Waltz by Aszure Barton. The company’s first collaboration with Barton, the piece has toured extensively since its premiere in 2016, yet will be given new life at The Joyce as it is performed for the first time with live music in the United States. In its latest season at The Joyce, Malpaso demonstrates fully the two prongs of its mission—giving Cuban voices in dance the platform they so rightfully deserve and challenging its dancers by working with the world’s most in-demand choreographers.