Malpaso Dance Company
to
Duke Campus: Page Auditorium 402 Chapel Dr, Durham, North Carolina
Judy Ondrey
Malpaso Dance Company
As it turns out, it wasn’t a misstep—the translation of the Spanish word “malpaso”—for a small band of Cuban dancemakers to break away from the traditional, state-supported mix of Spanish and African folk dance and ballet to pursue something more innovative. Local audiences caught their first glimpse of this innovative island dance troupe when Duke Performances hosted them as artists-in-residence while they worked on Dreaming of Lions, their evening-length 2017 dance adaptation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Their American Dance Festival debut also features the debut of noted Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton, whose clever Indomitable Waltz veers between the romantic musings of Alexander Balanescu and the stringent strings of minimalist composer Michael Nyman. After founding choreographer Osnel Delgado explores an interpersonal crisis in Ocaso, the evening closes with a real workout: the roiling group psychodrama of Gaga dance meister Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa.—Byron Woods
