R=V El criterio del camello

Choreography: George Céspedes

Music: Alexis de la o Joya, Nacional Electrónica

World Premiere: July 13, 2017, Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

35 min for 25 dancers

George Céspedes has always been fascinated by large groups in step. Here, too, he initially sends a uniform matrix across the stage: strictly formal and almost threatening, his dancers move in geometrically exact, military patterns, from rows to rectangles to labyrinths, the formation merging precisely into one another. Groups separate and unite, marching remains the basis of all movement until irritation occurs. The tension dissolves into smaller groups until, at the end, individuals finally turn in unleashed, rapid dance, in detached solos on the floor or in the air - freed from constraint and obviously delighted not to have to do the same as everyone else. "The criterion of the camel", to which the title alludes, is an old saying from the wisdom of the Orient: "A camel was once asked whether it preferred to go uphill or downhill. It replied, "I don't care whether up or down, I only care about the load I carry!"