Havana, August 22 (RHC) – Dancers of Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba’s Youth Company will compete at the International Active Dance competition in Panama August 30/September 2. The company’s direction announced that, considered the most importance dance meet in the Central American country, the competition will take place at the capital’s Megapolis Convention Center, with the participation of dance students from different Latin American nations. Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba –LADC- founder and director, Lizt Alfonso, was a jury member of the previous contest.
According to the LADC announcement, this year’s jury will be made up of the Director and choreographer of the Empire of Dream Dance Academy of Mallorca, Spanish dancer Sebastian Linares; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre ballet master Caridad Martínez; and Julliard School and Joffrey Ballet professor, Colombia’s Juan Carlos Peñuela. Different institutions are scheduled to grant scholarships at Active Dance 2019, including the New York Dance Project, the Joffrey Ballet School and the Julio Bocca Foundation.
LADC regisseur and choreographer Claudia Valdivia will travel to the gathering with the young Cuban dancers’ delegation and professor Idania La Villa. For almost three decades the company’s director has been promoting the ‘fusion’ dance style in Cuba which mixes flamenco, ballet, contemporary and folk dance and popular Cuban dances.
The delegation of young Cuban dancers, whose ages range from 14 to 18, are set to compete in modern/contemporary dance and flamenco/character dances with pieces choreographed by Alfonso, Claudia Valdivia, Diana Fernández, Indira Álvarez, Risel Mayor, Daira María Jay and Yohara García.
For more than two decades, Lizt Alfonso and her team have been training and educating thousands of children, teenagers and girls and boys at the company’s school, a work received top international recognitions, such as the International Spotlight Award of the Arts and Humanities in 2016, granted by the White House in the United States, and personally presented by then First Lady Michelle Obama. Lizt Alfonzo is a UNICEF good will ambassador.
