Polvo, Palabras, Sombras, Nada

Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, founded in 1959, has now become the country’s leading contemporary dance company, with a hybrid style, and a piquant mix of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, jazzy American modernism and European ballet inflections. It is here, in the bustling heart of the Cuban capital, that the company celebrates Camille Saint-Saëns. 

In his striking contemporary dance production, Polvo, Palabras, Sombras, Nada (“Dust, Words, Shadows, Nothingness”), Cuban choreographer George Céspedes presents an innovative choreography that mirrors the hope and fear he perceives in the world around him. This is a work of great artistic maturity, in which the dancers, always equal in performance, sign with this ballet a great tribute to the French composer.

George Céspedes was born in Holguin in 1979. He studied classical, modern and contemporary dance at the National Ballet School in his home country. Immediately after graduation, he joined Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, where he has since danced in the works of numerous modern choreographers, from Jan Linkens to Samir Akika and Carlos Acosta.
He began creating his own choreographies in 1997 for Danza Contemporánea, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and the National Ballet School. Today he is considered one of Cuba’s leading contemporary choreographers, and he recently founded his own company with the beautiful name “Los hijos del director” (“The director’s children”).
Céspedes has won numerous prizes in his home country, in 2010 he was awarded the audience prize for “La Ecuacion” at the Choreographers’ Competition in Hanover, in the same year he was nominated for an Olivier Award in London with “Mambo 3XX1”. He says of himself that he is “obsessively, almost compulsively” obsessed with bringing choreographies to the stage.

The Sacral Dance by Danza Contemporanea de Cuba