Global Rhythms's Yesenia Fernandez Selier on presenting Afro-Cuban dance in public space

Dance artist, educator and MFA student Beatrice Capote
(photo: Russell Hayden)

For my Montclair State University course, Performance Perspectives, Dance MFA student Beatrice Capote interviewed Yesenia Fernandez Selier, Executive Director of the performing arts troupe Global Rhythms.

Global Rhythms is a cultural enterprise devoted to enriching society and empowering individuals and communities through Cuban dance, music, and cultural education. Founded in 2012 by Cuban scholar, activist, and folkloric dancer Yesenia Selier and Hunter Houde, US born Latin dancer and entertainer, Global Rhythms uses these elements to create bonds between people and cultures and to promote a more diverse and tolerant society. With exciting dance performances, live Latin music shows, and interactive academic conferences on the history of popular and religious music and dance from Cuba, our experienced staff blends the talents of traditional artists, scholars, and award winning entertainers to provide an unforgettable cultural experience. Global Rhythms has worked with and alongside world renowned artists such Pedrito Martinez, Roman Diaz, Maykel Fonts, Septeto Nacional de Cuba, Ivan Acosta, Jose Conde, Jane Bunnett, Cita Rodriguez, Grupo Irek, Miguelo Valdes, Mauricio Herrera Tamayo, Gerardo Contino, Venissa Santi, among others. 

Cuban born performer and researcher, Yesenia Fernandez Selier is currently a media, culture and communication PhD candidate at New York University-Steinhart. Yesenia is the recipient of fellowships from CLACSO and the CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program of Hunter College and recognized for her work preserving Latino heritage by the “Save Latin America Organization.” Her work on Afro-Cuban culture, encompassing dance, music and race identity has been published in Cuba, United States and Brazil. Yesenia has developed several projects, like Tambo! and Ibiono Project for the preservation of Afro- Cuban legacy in NYC. She produced, the theater play Women Orishas for Miami Cuban Museum (2013) and the show Cuba en Clave for the Cuban Cultural Center in Miami (2014). She is currently Executive Director of Global Rhythms.

To listen to this audio clip from today's guest contributor, Beatrice Capote, click here (20:51).

Beatrice Capote is a soloist dancer, choreographer and teacher. She started her pre-professional training at PPAS/The Ailey School, and then graduated from University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a dance major. In addition, she continued her college journey at Montclair State University where she received her BA in Dance Education. Professionally, she has worked with INSPIRIT, a dance company, Mavericks dance company, The Wells Performance Project, Areytos Performance Works, Earl Mosley, Matthew Rushing, Darrell Moultrie, Antonio Brown and Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In. Motion. Ms. Capote choreographed and performed her solo work as a guest artist for ASHA Dance Company, the Eric Dolphy Jazz Festival, and recently performed her Newest Solo at the Martha Graham Studios for WestFest Dance, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), Pepatian Dance Concert at Pregones Theater, and Battery Dance Festival. She received a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to choreograph and show new works at the Pier 17 South Street Seaport. She has, also, set work at the Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts Summer Intensive Program, Fort Wayne Ballet Summer Intensive Program, and Steffi Nossen School of Dance. In her work, she gravitates towards the individual artistry/ experience. She asks questions like what, when, where, and who…. Within those questions, she uses gestures to tell her story/ experience. The gestures evolve to expansive movements within the body that reflect to deeper meaning. The movement quality is known to be very energetic and vibrant contemporary modern aesthetic infused with African, ballet, modern, and jazz. Her goal in the work is for the audience to experience and relate to the work. In addition, She is currently faculty at the Ailey School, Joffrey Ballet, Montclair State University and a dancer with Camille A. Brown and Dancers. Website: beatricecapote.com

Free email subscription

to InfiniteBody
Click here! 

Afro-Caribbean legacy: Visit "La Sirene" this weekend

The Afro-Cuban Lukumi Arts--founded in 2008 as "an open and growing collective of artists, orisha/palo priests and practitioners, singers, dancers, percussionists, MCs and producers"--presents La Sirene: Rutas de Azucar at Brooklyn's JACK performance space now through tomorrow evening. Dedicated to the Black mermaid water deity who protected Haitian sugarcane workers on their way to Cuba, the 90-minute program is an immersive experience created by a thriving network of multi-talented, accomplished artists dedicated to the continuing relevance of Afro-Atlantic history and spiritual culture especially in our time of renewed resistance to oppression.

For four days, singer/performer Jadele McPherson in collaboration with Director Charlotte Brathwaite, offers a cosmic sonic journey through black liberation figures, conjurers and spiritual leaders from Haiti and Cuba, surrounded by fellow performers Val Jeanty, Maxine Montilus, Yomaira Gonzalez, Caridad Paisan Garbey, Bembesito Akpon, Hansel Vaillant and Daniel Gil. La Sirene: Rutas de Azucar (“The Siren: Routes of Sugar”) probes Cuban revolutionary José Antonio Aponte's libro de pinturas, a book of paintings, of black heroes that served as a catalyst for an attempted rebellion against colonists, leading to the first conspiracy and abolition charge in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Through sound and movement, McPherson maps the connections between West Indian and Haitian migrations to Cuba to harvest sugarcane and repositions the Cuban ingenio (sugar mill) as a birthplace of freedom that extends beyond borders and waters.

Each performance is followed by a special event. Tonight's--on the eve of Santa Barbara/Shango's day--the cast will offer "Afro-Cuban Rumba for the Vispera de Santa Barbara-Chango." Sunday evening will conclude with "Healing Quisqueya and Beyond," a reference to the Taino name for the island including the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This panel features Dr. Nathalie Guillaume, Goussy Célestin, Jose Perez and Osvaldo Lora.

Dr. Nathalie Guillaume is an alumnus of the University of Miami where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and Foreign Languages. She holds a Master of Science in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Atlantic Institute of Oriental Medicine, and a Clinical Doctorate in Pain Management & Oncology from Bastyr University. She specializes in lifestyle medicine with an emphasis on nutrition, meditation & Qi Gong, and is dedicated to promoting the benefits of holistic health to the community. She is currently adjunct faculty for the Graduate School of Oriental Medicine at the New York College of Health Professions and practices in New York City where she is the CEO and Medical Director of Healing Happy Hour.

Goussy Célestin currently performs throughout the NYC-Tri state area as a musician and dancer. She is an alum of ASE Dance Theater Collective, a neo-folklore ensemble dedicated to the traditional/contemporary arts of the African Diaspora filtered through Haitian music and dance. She is also a member of ¡Retumba!, an all-female multi-ethnic music-dance ensemble dedicated to the traditions of the Caribbean and Latin-America, in addition to serving as lead vocalist for Charanga Soleil. Ms. Célestin's wide range of interests and versatility, has led her to study classical piano, Jazz and Latin music. While in Cuba, she had the honor of performing with members of the Buena Vista Social Club, as well as performing/mentoring with members of Grupo AfroCuba de Matanzas, Yoruba Andabo and Clave Y Guaguanco. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Del Terzo Studio at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, SOB's, the Knitting Factory, NJPAC, Tilles Center, Newark Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, as well as various jazz clubs in NYC.

Osvaldo "Bembesito" Lora. Bembesito is one of the most renowned and versatile "akpons" in the U.S. and maybe even internationally speaking. With over 10 years of experience performing religious ceremonies and as an olo Obatala he brings a level of professionalism that is hard to find in most ceremonies. Bembesito's crew does it all, from cajon to guiro to Aña and even the music of the 21 divisions from the Dominican Republic also called los palos. Over all the experience you will receive at a ceremony where Bembesito performs will be clean, authentic, professional and like no other...

Jose Perez is a writer and editor, an investigative reporter, a West Indian Nationalist, and a public school history teacher at North Miami Middle School where over 80% of his students are Haitian.  He infuses social justice into  his underground curriculum, which has led to him to become a leader in professional development trainings to teachers in the Miami-Dade County Public School System, the 4th largest in the United States. Pérez also was a  Research Assistant for Cuban filmmaker Gloria Rolando during the production of her moving documentary about Haitians in Cuba, Reembarque.  Collaborating with AfroCubaWeb.com and Dr. Andrea Queely of Florida International University, he brought Ms. Rolando to North Miami Middle for her only Florida screening of Reembarque.  Pérez has been recognized by the Haitian American Cultural Society as well as the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners of Miami-Dade County for journalistic coverage of Haitian heritage. Perez's interest in the bridges between Ayiti & Kiba is as deep as the joy found in a plate of homemade legume.

La Sirene: Rutas de Azucar continues tonight and tomorrow with performances at 8pm. Seating is limited. For more information and tickets, click here.

JACK
505 1/2 Waverly Avenue (between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue), Brooklyn
(map/directions)

If you like what you're reading,

subscribe to InfiniteBody!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Infinitebody

Cuba's DanzAbierta presents "Showroom" at The Joyce

Review: Cuba’s DanzAbierta debuts at The Joyce Theater
by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, ZEALnyc, May 15, 2016

"Dance on Camera" at Film Society of Lincoln Center, February 12-16

Above: Dance artist and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer in
Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer
Below: Cuban ballerina Viengsay Valdés in
Horizons/Horizontes
These two documentaries will be screened
at Film Society of Lincoln Center
in the 2016 Dance on Camera festival.

Curated by Liz Woolf and Joanna Ney, the 2016 edition of Dance on Camera once again explores the multifaceted histories and expressions of dance through film documentaries, shorts, features, experimental works, and music videos. You won't want to miss Jack Walsh's Feelings Are Facts: The Life of Yvonne Rainer, an engrossing collage of interviews and footage in which radical dance artist Rainer, now 81, reveals "I love existing in front of spectators" and traces her adventurous, eccentric pathway from the Judson revolution to her filmmaking work and subsequent return to choreography. Why not subtitle this The Lives of Yvonne Rainer? She's had as many as any wily cat.

See Feelings Are Facts (82 min) on the festival's closing night, Friday, February 16 at 8pm, including a Rainer/Walsh Q&A. (Click for details and tickets.)

I also got advance look at two films with a Cuban connection:

My body is in Cuba, but my soul is in Africa, and it is my African soul that nourishes my Cuban body.

--Alfredo Duquesne Mora (El Duque), Cuban artist, woodcarver and stonemason, in They Are We

They Are We: In this affecting film, anthropologist and first-time director Emma Christopher documents how she united people from an Afro-Cuban ethnic group, Ganga-Longoba, with their counterparts across the Atlantic in a Sierra Leone village. Learning that these Cubans, descendants of African slaves, know and regularly practice their traditional songs and dances, the Africans react with surprise, keen interest and generosity. Despite notable redundancy, Christopher's film has genuine emotional impact.

See The Are We (77 min) on Monday, February 15 at 3:15pm, including a Q&A with Emma Christopher. (Click for details and tickets.)

All along, I knew there's an easy life I could have chosen but did not.

--lyrics from "With My Heart" by Heidi Happy, in Horizons/Horizonte 

Horizons/Horizontes: Eileen Hofer connects intimate and ultimately poignant portraits of three generations of Cuban ballet dancers. The film opens with vintage footage of Cuba's queen of classical dance, the now nonagenarian Alicia Alonso, flawlessly performing multiple fouettes. Then Hofer quickly introduces us to two younger women aspiring to follow in Alonso's footsteps at Ballet Nacional de Cuba--Viengsay Valdés, a rising star, and Amanda de Jesús Pérez Duarte, a student hoping to join the company. Their stories demonstrate how much ballet requires--a sacrificial investment of body and psyche to create the illusion of effortless grace, an art both sensual and brutal. Cuba keeps ballet and its stellar dancers tied closely to the glory of its revolution--a political relationship completely unimaginable on the US scene.

See Horizons/Horizontes (71 min) on Saturday, February 13, 1pm. (Click for details and tickets.)

For a complete lineup of 

Dance on Camera screenings

and associated events, click here.

Screenings will be held at:

Walter Reade Theater
16 West 65th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Panels and free events will be held at:

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Auditorium
144 West 65th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

If you like what you're reading,

subscribe to InfiniteBody!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Infinitebody

Cuba's Malpaso Dance Company returns to the Joyce

Scene from Trey McIntyre's Under Fire,
performed by Dunia Acosta, Maria Karla Arujo and Tahimy Miranda
(photo: Yi-Chun Wu) 

Besides the new thaw in relations between Washington and Havana, there's another big Cuban story in the news--the return of Malpaso Dance Company to eager US hosts at The Joyce Theater. Last year, the Joyce helped the company make its first trip out of Cuba and first landing in the states. New York was charmed especially by the combination of this young but tremendously capable ensemble and the choreography of our own Ronald K. Brown.

This season, New York premieres of Under Fire by another US dancemaker, Trey McIntyre, and Despedida/Farewell by Malpaso's artistic director Osnel Delgado offer a telling contrast. Both works are fresh to the troupe, premiered just this year, but only one appears to have already taken firm root in muscles and bones.

Osnel Delgado (standing rear) with his company in Under Fire
(photo: Yi-Chun Wu)

Set to unvarnished country folk by Idaho singer-songwriter Kelsey Swope (aka Grandma Kelsey or, now on Facebook, Bijoux), Under Fire commands the stage, re-imagining every molecule of space on and above it. The air seems a thick-ish, malleable, animated substance immediately surrounding the dancers' bodies. Not just transitioning from step to step, dancers acknowledge space as partner and platform. Legs hitching up, arms hooking over, using superb flexibility and facility throughout their bodies, they pair up or group up, swirling or twisting around one another in remarkable chain reactions. McIntyre's flow across the stage seems endless and endlessly inventive.

Under Fire's interesting backstory concerns McIntyre's decision to disband his own Boise-based company to pursue independent projects within and outside of dance. One night, he made a bonfire of his old documents. Clearing away the charred paper, he discovered untouched materials beneath. The sight of those remains--he called them "pristine"--recalled his own search for authenticity. In Swope's ragged voice--especially her chilling delivery of Dolly Parton's "Jolene"--I hear another sign of longing for what's true, what's essential, even when it scares you.

Under Fire fits so handsomely on Malpaso's bodies that I can only hope McIntyre, as he moves on in life and artistry, will maintain strong ties with these Cuban dancers--and with dancemaking.

For the score for Despedida/Farewell, Delgado partners again with Arturo O'Farrill, Mexico-born son of Cuban jazz legend Chico O'Farrill. O'Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble perform live, a feast in itself. In fact, their music is such a tasty feast that one wonders why Delgado did not turn his dancers loose to feed on it.

Make no mistake, they dance this thing. They're good but muted and blunted while O'Farrill's music struts out and busts out all around them, confident in its energy. As in Under Fire, pliable Joan Rodriguez, forceful Dunia Acosta and Delgado himself make the looking rewarding, but Under Fire provides the more persuasive introduction to every one of Malpaso's dancers.

Dancers: Osnel Delgado Wambrug, Daile Carrazana Gonzalez, Taimy Miranda Ruiz de Villa, Randy Cívico Rivas, Maria Karla Araújo, Joan Rodriguez Hernandez, Dunia Acosta Arias, Manuel Durán Calzado, Isvel Bello Rodriguez, Beatriz García Díaz

Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble: Arturo O'Farrill (piano), Vince Cherico (drums), Carlo de Rosa (bass), Carly Maldonado (percussion, bongos), Rafi Malkiel (trombone), Ivan Renta (tenor sax), Tony Rosa (congas), Adam O'Farrill (trumpet, replacing Jim Seeley)

Malpaso Dance Company continues at the Joyce through Sunday, March 8. For the complete schedule and ticket information, click here.

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (corner of 19th Street), Manhattan
(directions)

Bronx Museum plans exchange with Cuba

Bronx Plans Art Exchange With Cuba
by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, January 21, 2015

New hope for cultural exchange with Cuba

For Cuban Artists, Bigger World Awaits After Restoration of Ties
by Michael Cooper, The New York Times, December 19, 2014

What I learned: Cuba's Danay Suárez, "Yo Aprendí"

Danay Suárez Web site

Danay Suárez Facebook page

Latin Alternative Music Conference

(New York City, July 8-12)

Juan Formell, 71

Juan Formell, 71, Cuban Dance-Band Leader, Dies
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, May 2, 2014

Roberto Fonseca coming to Highline Ballroom, September 23

Roberto Fonseca
Photos (c)Carlos Pericas

Miraculously clear. Chiming. Deep and capacious. Cuban-born Roberto Fonseca's vital compositions and piano work speak the languages of the Latin world, West Africa, the Maghreb, jazz, funk and electronica. Check this out on his collection Yo (Concord Jazz), now in US release. Particularly scrumptious: the sweet, kora-influenced "Bibisa"--in both its original and remixed forms--and the North African-influenced "Chabani" and "Gnawa Stop." And hear Fonseca and his band live, later this month, in New York!

Highline Ballroom
Monday, September 23 -- 8pm (doors: 6pm)

431 W 16th Street, Manhattan (between 9th and 10th Avenues)

(map/directions)

PROGRAM AND TICKET INFORMATION

Roberto Fonseca Web site

Remaining US tour dates

Fernando Alonso, 98

Fernando Alonso, a Founder of Cuban Ballet, Dies at 98
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, August 2, 2013

Dispute over the fate of a Cuban ballet school

Cuba Debates a Ballet Star’s Dream Project
by Victoria Burnett, The New York Times, November 15, 2012

US conservatives object to cultural tourists dancing in Cuba

Licensing Rules Slow Tours to Cuba
by Damien Cave, The New York Times, September 11, 2012

Asuka!

So, tell me, how does this sound?

• live music by Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra...
• a dance homage to salsa legend Celia Cruz...
• and more dances to the music of the Buena Vista Social Club and Tito Puente

Ballet Hispanico 

at The Apollo Theater

December 17 (2pm and 8pm)

Catch the world premiere of Asuka, Eduardo Vilaro's first work for Ballet Hispanico since becoming Artistic Director.

Get all the details--and tickets, too--right here.

Roots + Rumba!

Cuba's fabulous Los Muñequitos de Matanzas

ROOTS + RUMBA WORKSHOP

presented in collaboration with  

Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance,  

MAPP International Productions 

and Max Pollak's RumbaTap

Friday, May 6 (12noon-2pm)

The Cornerstone Center
178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th Street), Manhattan
Take the A train to 190th Street.

Los Muñequitos de Matanzas offer the purest sounds and movements of their Afro-Cuban heritage, with live music, presented and explained in a very accessible and friendly way. They begin with Yoruba Orisha dances through all Rumba styles, bringing all the power and joy of their performance to energize workshop participants. This is a dance workshop but singers and drummers are welcome as well. All levels welcome. Please wear comfortable clothing to dance.

By performing Max Pollak's RumbaTap choreography in their shows over the last decade, Los Muñequitos have helped popularize this new element in Afro-Cuban folklore all over Cuba and worldwide.

Workshop fee: $20 (no reservations necessary)

For more info, email rumbatap@gmail.com.

Don't miss Los Muñequitos de Matanzas LIVE at Symphony Space May 5-7 and The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, SUNY May 8.

Roots and future at Hostos Center

Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture proudly announces its new music and dance program, The Young Roots Performance Series, designed to "showcase emerging artists experimenting with the artistic roots of Afro-Latino traditions to create new branches that reach into the future."

Check out Young Roots' first event: a collaborative exploration between dancer-choreographer Noemi Segarra and percussionist Henry Cole, "in which the artists loosely work on the edges of Cuban rumba and jazz improvisation." The audience will be seated on the stage!

Thursday-Friday, April 7-8 (7:30pm)

Also: Cultural Trolley preview, Wednesday, April 6 (6pm)

For further information about Young Roots and a conversation with Noemi Segarra, click here. 

Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture
450 Grand Concourse (at 149th Street), Bronx
(directions)

Lift every voice!

New York City Labor Chorus Adds Strength to Message
by Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, March 24, 2011

Cuban arts to grace New York

A Cuban Arts Festival Is Announced for New York
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, February 8, 2011

Cuban artists issued US visas

US Welcomes Cuban Artists

by AIA Staff, Art in America, October 25, 2010

U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchange

Artists See Increase in U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchanges

by Victoria Burnett, The New York Times, July 24, 2010