MALPASO

CHOREOGRAPHY Osnel Delgado

MUSIC Composed by Arturo O'Farrill, performed by the

Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble

COSTUME DESIGN Reid & Harriet Design

LIGHTING DESIGN Al Crawford

11 dancers — 60 minutes / Live music possible

Dreaming of Lions is a new dance work by Osnel Delgado, the resident choreographer and Artistic Director of one of the newest and most sought-after Cuban contemporary groups, Malpaso Dance Company. Taking inspiration from Ernest Hemingway’s beloved novella The Old Man and the Sea, Delgado offers an abstract rendering of the classic tale of an old man’s quest to catch an elusive fish. Featuring a unique movement vocabulary performed by exceptionally trained dancers versed in both ballet and Cuban techniques, the work wrestles with themes of honor, determination and loss, in one fisherman’s crusade for victory in the unrelenting sea.

An evening-length work for 11 dancers, Dreaming of Lions engages a creative team of frequent collaborators including Grammy award-winner Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, who, when possible, play live; lighting design by the resident lighting designer of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Al Crawford; and costumes by Reid & Harriet, who have worked with American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet and many more. Fernando Saez, the company’s Executive Director and co-founder, provides dramaturgy.

This project was made possible by Joyce Theater Productions, a producing partnership of The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. (New York) and Sunny Artist Management, Inc. (Toronto).  It was formed to create and tour works by some of today’s most exciting dancers and choreographers.  The piece made its world premiere in Havana, Cuba in September 2016, and will make its US premiere at Duke Performances in Durham, NC on February 24 and 25 2017, followed by an engagement in NYC at Brooklyn Academy of Music from March 1-5 2017.