As part of the Storytelling Project, which has been possible thanks to the support of Signatur Stiftelsen, Dream Orchestra students attended the “danzón cubano”workshop offered by the professional Cuban dance teacher and fashion designer Yassell Lopez Rodríguez.
Regarding the project "Danzón Nº2", an orchestral work by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, which is in the process of being prepared for an open rehearsal that will take place on April 18, in Betlehemskyrkan, the objective of this workshop was for the Students to experience Latin American music, in this case the danzón, through dance and body expression, and transfer this feeling to their interpretation when playing.
Maestro Yassell began the workshop by explaining that the danzón is a typical Cuban dance that derives from the European contradanza. It is traditionally a ballroom dance, where you can court, and use short movements that can span a small square on the dance floor. For the workshop he used Simpson's Las Alturas, the first known danzón to be heard in 1879.
When they all learned the dance, Yassell taught them how to dance Danzón Nº2 by maestro Márquez, which premiered in 1994 and has become a classic in the contemporary symphonic orchestral repertoire. As he told them, when dancing the piece, it is more inspired by the Cuban habanera, a dance genre that was born in the middle of the 19th century and is slower.
Yassell Lopez Rodríguez is a Cuban professional dancer, dance teacher, and fashion designer. From 2012 to 2021, he directed the Yassballet Cuban Dance School in Gothenburg, Sweden with great success. He is now the director of "Yassballet" in Oslo, Norway.
For more information you can write to info@dreamorchestra.se or follow the orchestra through @dreamorchestra.se on Instagram and Facebook.