Throughout its history, Hedwig has had a strong presence of dancers from other countries in its ranks. In the past 18 years many of our dancers have hailed from Cuba. Maray Gutierrez Ramis (who is currently artistic associate) and her husband Victor Alexander (who choreographs for the company), both former principal dancers with Danza Contemporanea, the national contemporary dance company of Cuba, have been associated with Hedwig since 2002, when they moved to Chicago. Other Cuban dancers followed them, including Maray’s sister Jessie Gutierrez, Olivia Gonzalez, Rigoberto Saura, among many others.
In 2011, I became aware that it was possible to travel to Cuba on specialized “person-to-person” trips. I wanted to learn about Cuban dance, meet the Havana dance community, meet my company dancers’ families, and see if I could develop a dance partnership or exchange. That year, I began designing a tour with Maray and Victor which focused on dance as a means to learn about Cuban culture. We call our program Touch Tours. For four years running from 2012-2015, Hedwig Dances traveled to Cuba through a partnership with Copperbridge and Evanston-based Art Encounter. More recently in 2019, Hedwig returned to Cuba with Copperbridge. Altogether, we have taken over 100 people to Cuba on our Touch Tours. Our Touch Tour guests have been exposed to the finest Cuban contemporary dance companies including Malpaso, MiCompania, Retazos and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba.
I had been curious for some time about the distinctive quality of professional Cuban dancers. The Cuban dance program immerses students in rigorous training at the young age of 10. This training includes daily classes in ballet, modern and Afro-Cuban dance and incorporates improvisation, composition and many performance opportunities, so that at the age of 18, students are ready to begin their professional careers.
As a result of our Touch Tour program, Hedwig Dances set up an international collaboration with DanzAbierta, predecessor to MiCompania. Hedwig Dances was well-matched with DanzAbierta because we were similar in size and both very theatrical in our approach to dance creation. In June 2013, with support from Copperbridge and Art Encounter, Hedwig presented DanzAbierta to Chicago for the first time. For two magical evenings, we shared the stage of the Athenaeum Theatre where each company performed its own work. DanzAbierta performed Showroom and Hedwig premiered ASCENDance. It was very special for both companies.
The 2013 performance was a prelude to the new collaboration that Hedwig was developing with DanzAbierta. Our shared collaborative work would be an evening length dance choreographed together around a common theme. Because communications were challenging, we needed to set up guidelines so that our companies could work somewhat independent of one another.
We decided to explore cyclical time—the seasons of life—in two different climates and cultures. We structured the project as two interlocking dances (Trade Winds, choreographed by me, and Aires de Cambio by Susana). The dance would unfold in a series of episodes following the course of the seasons starting with fall and ending with summer, and would be a call and response between the two companies. Hedwig Dances would perform primarily on one side of the stage while DanzAbierta would dance on the other. Chicago and Havana would be woven into the structure of the dance through projected video segments by Daniel Kullman, Nadia Oussenko, and Claudio Pairot, with original music by Eme Alfonso and sound design by Ericka Ricketts.
To work all of this out, we used every possible opportunity for in person meetings. Maray and I traveled to Havana and Quebec to plan ideas with Susana and her associate Guido Gali. Each year, Hedwig brought company dancers to Havana on our Touch Tours to rehearse live with Susana’s company. In the meantime, Hedwig Dances applied for and received an International Connections Fund grant from the MacArthur Foundation and National Performance Network funding to underwrite our collaborative project, and the requisite license and visas to perform in Cuba.
It all came together on October 9-11, 2014, when Hedwig Dances and DanzAbierta premiered Trade Winds/Aires de Cambio in a co-presentation with Links Hall and the Dance Center of Columbia College. We performed it again in Havana at the National Theater Sala Avenallada on January 31, 2015 before 2,000 audience members. Geo tirelessly promoted the event in his signature style supporting both companies in our endeavor. Trade Winds/Aires de Cambio was the culmination of a more than two-year international collaboration between Hedwig Dances and DanzAbierta, the first of its kind.
The culmination of Trade Winds/Aires de Cambio is the moment in the dance where the two companies break the literal and metaphoric barrier and dance together. It was also one of the most difficult moments to work out choreographically, but when we performed it, audiences responded enthusiastically and emotionally.
Importance of collaboration is to