In rural North Carolina, there is not much access to events centered around exhibiting Latin and Hispanic cultures. It is rare for a large-scale production celebrating and exhibiting aspects of my culture to be held near or in Wilson, North Carolina and for that reason, whenever the opportunity does arise, I make sure to attend these events. Ballet Hispanico has joined the short list of Latin and Hispanic cultural exhibitions that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in North Carolina.
Ballet Hispanico performed on campus in the Duke Family Performance Hall on the evening of October 4th. This program consisted of four dance works, with a five-minute pause after the first and fifteen-minute intermissions after the second and third. Each dance followed a different theme and narrative which was elevated through space, sound, lighting and ability of the dancers. The program served as an exhibition and celebration of Latin and Hispanic culture through the inclusion of various dance genres like salsa, rumba, and ballet. Thes variety of genres showcased the intricacies of Latin and Hispanic cultures.
The dance that stood out above the rest for me was New Sleep. This performance had no eye-catching scenery or backdrop. With an all-black set, the stage design for this dance appeared as an interpretation of a black void. The lack of colors and special lighting for this dance brought the focus to the dancers and their movements. New Sleep is a contemporary ballet pas de deux to a neoclassical piece by Thom Willems. At the beginning of the dance, a loud voice called for the attention of the audience. As the curtains began to open, the female and male dancer in their all-black attire were revealed standing on stage in their starting poses. The music began, and the dancers followed. The dancers matched the energy of the music, speeding up and slowing down whenever the music did. This choice in the choreography resulted in precise and calculated movements from the dancers, giving New Sleep a futuristic feel. The mood conveyed through this performance made it stand out from the rest, especially since it was the first one. Though it had characteristics common in traditional Latin dances, New Sleep deviated from the dance genres typically associated with Latin cultures. This suggested that the rest of the performance would not follow the typical genres covered in Latin cultures.
Through the incorporation of non-traditional genres in the performance, Ballet Hispanico expanded upon the public’s initial perception of Latin and Hispanic cultures and captured the complexities of these cultures. Simply by having the word “hispanico” in the title an assumption can be made that the performance would be Latin themed and filled with Latin styled dances. Ballet Hispanico accomplished its goal of leaving a lasting impression on their audience in regard to dance and culture by demonstrating what a body can do when we’re given the opportunity to deviate from other’s expectations.
In plenary for What Can a Body Do? we discussed how one’s understanding of a space, how it will be used and why it affects how we expect our bodies and other people’s bodies to move in that space. This leads to us placing limits on what our body can or cannot do in anticipation of what we assume other’s bodies will and will not do in the given space. This idea applied to Ballet Hispanico. I expected the dancers’ bodies to move a certain way based on my preconception that Latin and Hispanic dances were going to be the sole focus of the program. For these reasons, performances like New Sleep stood out to me because they deviated from the expectations I had. The program overall made me realize how I limit the perspective I have of not only my own culture but other Latin cultures as well. The structure of Ballet Hispanico has also made me realize how, in its own distinct way, dance adds on to the intricacies of Latin and Hispanic cultures, heightening its importance to the cultures. Although being able to verbally communicate the beauty of one’s culture is important, being able to interpret those cultural concepts through a visual medium such as dancing is just as important and provides new perspectives that one would not get otherwise.