Nothing in this first-ever Scottish performance by Danza Contemporanea de Cuba (DCC) is quite what you would expect – and that, along with the athletic energy and unstinting versatility of the dancers, makes this programme a lively introduction to a thoroughly likeable company.
Sombrisa, Itzik Galili's new commission, sends everyone into combat against the pounding rhythms of Steve Reich's Drumming Part I wearing ... boxing gloves. Any contact between the sexes is, until the final, a rather tender moment when the gloves come off, devoid of hands-on touching. Yet this doesn't really feel like any battle of the sexes. The lighting design, with descents into moody darkness, hints at more than a sporting workout but the repetitive motifs and playground games of leap-frog are outshone by the choreographic invention and social commentary in Mambo 3XXI by DCC's George Cespedes.
What begins as a meticulously regimented repetition of basic steps (matched to an electro back-beat), shifts into an exuberant discovery of individual moves and tempi. The ensemble breaks ranks, dons brighter clothing and partners up as Cespedes details how bodies can communicate without words and how old-style mambo can be re-invented with a new zing in its step.
All this complexity is delivered with a mighty, crowd-pleasing smoulder, filled with hot outbursts of fast-moving footwork. The middle piece, by Kenneth Kvarmstrom, is Carmen, but not as we know it. Seven lads account for the story, with oodles of macho swagger and episodes of cod-female flirtation. They mimic the bull, act the goat, get graphically horny but, above all, dance their hip-swaying butts off in a riposte to Carmen-cliches. Brilliant.
HHHH
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