The Cuban company E.Co Dance, which fuses dance genres and acting, celebrates its seventh anniversary with the show LlamArte.
By. Lizabet García Romero / Photos. Courtesy of E.CO Dance
Hello? Does anyone listen to me? I called because…I really don’t know; I only know that I called and the company E.Co Dance answered. The spotlights illuminated the stage of the Tito Junco room, of the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Center. He was soon inundated with sparkly outfits and combo moves. The celebration for the seventh anniversary of the company began.
“E.Co Dance did not have a show of that magnitude and it became an urgent need. I began to revolutionize my neurons until I managed to concretize the ideas. I let my imagination fly and LlamArte was born”, says Ernesto Codner, founder and artistic director.
Call waiting…
Success does not come with luck, but with sacrifice. Little more than a year the preparation of the show took. Anxiety and desires brought together a group of rebellious dancers in a rehearsal room.
“We started with a mambo that only men dance and we dragged the number for a while. He had a very crazy, weird and disorganized idea. Contracts and evaluations slowed down the process, until September 2022, when we began intense work that lasted five months”.
“The main objective was to provide the public with a message in five calls. Contemporary conflicts that are present in art; stories narrated by an interrelated actor and dancer. The use of video functioned as a synthetic visual support for the next scene. All the manifestations used built the universal language of the work”.
Ring! Ring! Who calls?
The telephone booth received the actors. Actors? problematic Each monologue loaded in his call an alert of existence and power: ties, light, family, freedom and vices.
The dancers interpreted ten illustrative choreographies in correspondence with the scenes of the show. The movements flirted with the public’s sensitivity to prevailing realities: that art serves to make the masks fall.
“LlamArte was developed at the right time. The dancers were mature enough to take on the roles. He had the financial support of the production company represented by Yaima Morfa, who provided the budget to make the dream possible”, confessed the dancer Ernesto Cordner, also recognized for his performance in the Calendar series.
“I intend to expand my art, reach every corner where we may only be known through projects like Lucas and programs like 23 and M. Deliver our essence with shows like this, not only to Cubans, but also to other cultures.”
Listening? She’s already ringing the bell once more.
