ByThe Joyce Theater
(New York, New York—January 7, 2025) — The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) welcomes the return of Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company in its landmark tenth engagement at The Joyce. Presenting a program of premiere commissions from Cuban artists, the esteemed company will play The Joyce Theater from January 21-26. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$72 (including fees), can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street.
For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.
Since its founding in 2012 by Daile Carrazana, Osnel Delgado, and Fernando Sáez, Malpaso Dance Company has remained committed to nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. With its dancers unparalleled technical strength and limitless passion, the company is now poised to present an evening of new commissions from choreographers of its homeland and abroad during its tenth Joyce engagement—nearly once for every year of the company’s existence.
Resident choreographer and Artistic Director Osnel Delgado pulls double duty in the world premiere of his latest work, Ara, serving as both choreographer and dancer. Delgado is set to dance the duet with guest artist Grettel Morejón, Principal Dancer with Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Brothers Aldo and Ilmar López-Gavilán, subjects of the poignant documentary Los Hermanos, provide virtuosic live music on piano and violin, respectively. The three remaining works in the evening’s repertory all feature live music as well, this time by the Havana-based, all-female Alma Quartet. Company member Esteban Aguilar will premiere his latest work, Retrato de Familia, or Family Portrait, alongside Spanish choreographer and longtime Cuba resident Susana Pous’ Vertigo. Rounding out the bill is a Malpaso Dance Company hallmark work, Indomitable Waltz by Aszure Barton. The company’s first collaboration with Barton, the piece has toured extensively since its premiere in 2016, yet will be given new life at The Joyce as it is performed for the first time with live music in the United States. In its latest season at The Joyce, Malpaso demonstrates fully the two prongs of its mission—giving Cuban voices in dance the platform they so rightfully deserve and challenging its dancers by working with the world’s most in-demand choreographers.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Malpaso Dance Company, in the twelve years since its establishment in 2012, has become one of the most sought after Cuban dance companies with a growing international profile. Emphasizing a collaborative creative process, Malpaso is committed to working with top international choreographers while also nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. The company tours with 11 dancers and is led by its original three founders: resident choreographer and Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, Executive Director Fernando Sáez, and dancer and co-founder Daile Carrazana. An Associate Company of Joyce Theater Productions, Malpaso—together with The Joyce—has commissioned original works from a number of prominent international choreographers, including Ronald K. Brown (Why You Follow), Trey McIntyre (Under Fire), Aszure Barton (Indomitable Waltz and Stillness in Bloom), Emmy and Tony Award winner Sonya Tayeh (Face the Torrent), and Robyn Mineko Williams (Elemental). As a means of foregrounding Cuban choreographers, Malpaso recently has also world-premiered a work by company member Daile Carrazana (Nana para un Insomnio (Lullaby for Insomnia)), bolstering the list of long-toured pieces by Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, notably, Ocaso as well as 24 Hours and a Dog and Dreaming of Lions, which are often accompanied live by Grammy Award-winning, Cuban-American composer/pianist Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble. The company’s repertory includes Tabula Rasa by world-renowned Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, who traveled to Cuba in spring of 2018 specifically to work one on one with Malpaso dancers to crystalize the re-staging of this seldom performed piece; and woman with water by the distinguished Swedish choreographer Mars Ek, who also travel to Havana to premier the work at Martí Theatre in December 2021.
ABOUT THE JOYCE THEATER
The Joyce Theater Foundation (“The Joyce,” Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for more than four decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther’s clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 475 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog Art Center, and outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (1st–12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce’s annual season of about 48 weeks of dance includes over 300 performances for audiences of over 100,000.
The Joyce Theater welcomes the triumphant tenth return engagement of Malpaso Dance Company from January 21-26. The performance schedule is as follows: Tue-Fri 7:30pm; Sat 2pm & 7:30pm; Sun 2pm. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$72 (including fees), can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.
