About Malpaso Dance Company

Since its establishment in 2012, Malpaso 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 three original founders: resident choreographer and Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, Executive Director Fernando Sáez, and Associate Artistic Director Daileidys Carrazana

An Associate Company of Joyce Theater Productions, Malpaso — together with The Joyce Theater — has commissioned original works from a number of prominent North American choreographers, including Ronald K. Brown (Why You Follow), Trey McIntyre (Under Fire), Aszure Barton (Indomitable Waltz; Stillness in Bloom), Tony and Emmy award winner Sonya Tayeh (Face the Torrent), and Robyn Mineko Williams (Elemental). Elemental was developed as part of a collaborative program with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and had its world premiere in 2019 at the Auditorium Theatre.

The company continues to tour works by Artistic Director Osnel Delgado, including Ocaso, 24 Hours and a Dog, and Dreaming of Lions, which are often accompanied by Grammy

About Joyce Theater Productions

Joyce Theater Productions (JTP) is the in-house producing entity for The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., formed to create original work for The Joyce’s stage and for worldwide touring. The initiative provides dance artists who have little or no formal management or infrastructure the means to create productions of the highest standards of excellence. The program also includes the Associate Company model, offering sustained producing, fiscal and/or administrative management to companies that may require short- or longerterm support.

award winning, Cuban American composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.

As part of its commitment to Cuban choreographers, Malpaso’s repertory includes works by company members Daileidys Carrazana (Lullaby for Insomnia) and Beatriz Garcia (Being (Ser)).

In recent seasons, the company has added works by three legendary choreographers: Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, and Merce Cunningham. Ek’s woman with water was learned alongside dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet and premiered on Malpaso in Havana in 2021. Naharin traveled to Cuba in the spring of 2018 to work one-on-one with Malpaso dancers to restage his seldom performed, 30-year-old masterwork, Tabula Rasa, while Cunningham’s Fielding Sixes was adapted for eight dancers and re-staged by Jamie Scott as part of the choreographer’s centennial celebration.

Malpaso Dance Company has shared its work with audiences around the United States, including such prestigious venues as The Joyce Theater, The Kennedy Center, Music Center, American Dance Festival, and Jacob’s Pillow, and around the world at the International Summer Festival Kampnagel in Hamburg, the Belgrade Dance Festival, and the ChampsElysees Theater in Paris.

For more information, please visit malpasodance.com.

Originally founded in partnership with Sunny Artist Management, Inc. (SAM) in 2014, JTP has since supported projects with Daniil Simkin, Wendy Whelan/Brian Brooks, Arthur Pita/James Whiteside, Maria Kochetkova, Caleb Teicher, Alexei Ratmansky, Molissa Fenley, and L.A. Dance Project, and maintains an ongoing relationship with Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company.

For booking information, please contact Barbara Frum: bfrum@outermostagency.com.

Biographies ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP

FERNANDO SÁEZ, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Fernando Sáez graduated from the School of Performing Arts at the Superior Institute of Arts (ISA) in Havana in 1988. He is also a founder and actor of Estudio Teatral de Santa Clara, was the head of the sociocultural development project in Las Terrazas, Pinar del Rio from 1993 to 1997, and has served on the staff of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba since 1998. He is also a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

OSNEL DELGADO, FOUNDER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & DANCER

Osnel Delgado danced with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba from 2003 to 2011, before founding Malpaso. He has worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Rafael Bonachela, Kenneth Kvarnström, Ja Linkens, Itzik Galili, Samir Akika, Pedro Ruiz, Isidro Rolando and George Cespedes, among others. Delgado has created works for DCC, Rakatan and Ebony Dance of Cuba. Delgado is a 2003 graduate of the National Dance School of Havana, where he is also a professor of dance studies.

DAILEIDYS CARRAZANA, FOUNDER, ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, DANCER & CHOREOGRAPHER, Lullaby for Insomnia

Daileidys Carrazana graduated from the National Ballet School in Havana in 2003. She was a member of Danza

Contemporanea de Cuba from 2003 to 2011, before founding Malpaso with Osnel Delgado Wambrug. Daile has worked with choreographers such as Mats Ek, Jan Linkens, Samir Akika, Pedro Ruiz and Isidro Rolando, among others.

MATS EK, CHOREOGRAPHER, woman with water

Mats Ek was a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Dusseldorf, then made his choreographic debut in 1976 with The Officer’s Servant, for the Cullberg Ballet, the first of many of his works formed on them. Through such early pieces as Soweto (1977) and The House of Bernarda (1978) he began to gain an international profile, one that was strengthened in the many subsequent works for the Cullberg Ballet, most immediately those of The Four Seasons (1978) and Antigone (1979). In 1980–81 he became a member of Nederlands Dans Theater, and his associations with the company have continued in works later created for them: Over There (1990), Journey (1991) and A Sort Of (1997). From 1980 to 1984, Ek shared the artistic directorship of the Cullberg Ballet with Birgit Cullberg. Then, in 1985, he was appointed sole artistic director, a post he held until 1993. Giselle (1982) and The Rite of Spring (1984), both for the Cullberg Ballet, had already shown his interest in reinterpreting the classical repertory, one fostered during his time in the company of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, with whom he performed such works as The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Romeo and Juliet. This important strand of his choreographic exploration has continued with his own particular slants on the familiar presented in Swan Lake (1987), Carmen (1992) and The Sleeping Beauty (for the Hamburg Ballet, 1996). After leaving the Cullberg Ballet in 1993, he continued to be prolific in his choreography, producing such works as She was Black (1995), and the TV ballet Smoke (1995), which he reworked as Solo for Two in the following year. He has also become a guest choreographer for the leading companies of the world, working with, among many others, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Norwegian Opera, Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, La Scala, Milan, Metropolitan Opera, New York, and Paris Opera Ballet. In 2008 he created Place, a pas de deux for Ana Laguna and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Black Radish for the Royal Swedish Ballet. Ek’s style has become distinctive for its imaginative interpretations of storylines, in combination with a lyrical approach which conveys through movement the underlying emotions and feelings rather than just the narrative detail.

ASZURE BARTON, CHOREOGRAPHER, Indomitable Waltz

Artist and choreographer Aszure Barton has collaborated with celebrated dancers and companies including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Misty Copeland, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, English National Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney Dance Company, and Teatro alla Scala, among many others. She is a Bessie Award Honoree and has received numerous honours including the prestigious Arts & Letters Award, joining the ranks of Oscar Peterson, Karen Kain, and Margaret Atwood. She was the first Martha Duffy resident artist at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and is an official ambassador of contemporary dance in Canada. She is the founder of Aszure Barton & Artists, an inter-disciplinary international dance project.

OHAD NAHARIN, CHOREOGRAPHER, Tabula Rasa

Ohad Naharin made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi Studio. From 1980 until 1990, Naharin presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater. At the same time, he worked with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, and a group of dancers in New York. Naharin and Kajiwara continued to work together until she died from cancer in 2001. In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva –the Young Ensemble. He has since created over 30 works for both companies. After almost 30 years of leading Batsheva, Naharin stepped down as Artistic Director in 2018, and continues to serve as the Company’s House Choreographer. In addition to his stage work, Naharin also developed GAGA, an innovative movement language based on research into heightening sensation and imagination, becoming aware of form, finding new movement habits, and going beyond familiar limits. GAGA is the daily training of Batsheva’s dancers and has spread globally among both dancers and non-dancers. Over the course of his years in Batsheva, Naharin has won many awards and honours, among them Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government (1998), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Weizmann

Institute of Science (2004), the Israel Prize for dance (2005), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Hebrew University (2008), the EMET Prize in the category of Arts and Culture (together with Yair Vardi, 2009), the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2009), an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Juilliard School in New York (2013) , the Israel Ministry of Culture Award for Lifetime Achievement (2016), an Honorary Fellowship by Tel-Aviv University (2018) Honorary doctorate by Ben Gurion University of the Negev (2019) and many more. Naharin trained in music throughout his childhood and continues to infuse his work with a unique musicality. He collaborated with the Israeli rock group, The Tractor’s Revenge (Kyr, 1990), Avi Balleli and Dan Makov (Anaphaza, 1993), Ivri Lider (Zina, 1995), and Grischa Lichtenberger (Last Work, 2015). Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed music for many pieces he created for the company. Naharin’s work has also been featured in several films. In his 2007 documentary, Out of Focus, Director Tomer Heymann filmed the process of restaging Decadance with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. In 2015, the Heymann Brothers released their comprehensive documentary about Naharin, Mr. Gaga, to critical and audience acclaim. A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer, Eri Nakamura and their daughter, Noga.

BRIDGET CASTON, COMPANY MANAGER

Bridget Caston is an Associate Producer for Joyce Theater Productions and is joining Malpaso on tour for the first time this season. An alum of The University of Texas at Austin (2021) with a BFA in Dance

Performance and Choreography and BBA in Consulting and Change Management, Caston was born in New Orleans, raised in Fort Worth, and grew up dancing at local studios and summer dance programs across the country. Since graduation, Caston has worked with Gesel Mason Performance Projects, K.DMC (a corporate events agency), and at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Company Management. At Jacob’s Pillow she worked with acclaimed dance companies such as Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, and Miami City Ballet among others. Caston is also the Company Manager for SW!NG OUT, another Joyce Theater Production.

DIANA ROSA HERNANDEZ, STAGE MANAGER

Diana Rosa Hernandez graduated from the National School of Arts with a degree in acting in 2008. She is a member of Teatro Espontáneo de La Habana and Mefisto Teatro. Hernandez worked in the HavanaBama collaboration between the University of Alabama and Cuba. She joined Malpaso in March 2014.

MANUEL DA SILVA, LIGHTING SUPERVISOR

Manuel Da Silva was born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in South Florida where he developed a passion for theatre and the arts at a young age. Manuel attended The University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he received his BFA in Lighting Design and Technology. Now an NYC-based lighting designer,

Manuel has had the chance to work with several OffBroadway theatre companies, including designing the world premiere of La Tía Julia y el Escribidor at El Repertorio Español. Manuel has also had the opportunity to display his work at the Gilbert Hemsley Lighting Portfolio Review and the National Design Showcase East.

DAILYS BACALLAO, BALLET MASTER

Dailys Bacallao graduated from the National Ballet School in 2007, and the Superior Institute of Arts in Havana as a ballet teacher in 2015. She was a dancer of Matanza’s city contemporary dance company Danza Espiral from 2008 to 2014. She was a professor at the National Ballet School and is currently a teacher at the Superior Institute of Arts in Havana.