The Spanish choreographer Susana Pous has taken on “a challenge”: opening this Friday with the Cuban National Ballet (BNC) her work «Otra bella cubana», an artistic proposal in which classical and contemporary dance share the stage to narrate a feminine story.
Pous, who has lived in Havana for 25 years, understood in an interview with EFE as a “creative woman” in the current Cuban reality, where the ideal of the beautiful Cuban, in the imaginary of men, is that of a “sensitive, very pretty and very sensual woman”.
The Catalan artist believes that the situation of Cuban women “has changed a lot and luckily” over time. She now “occupies another place at a social, professional, family level”, something that in her opinion “has also to happen in the world of dance”.
«For me it has always been an inspiration to talk about the feminine world from my own perspective as a woman. I am very interested in talking about conflicts, emotions, my present, what surrounds me. So my idea was that, to talk about another Cuban woman, another way of seeing that femininity,” she says about her new proposal.
That is the essence of this new work, a short piece composed for soloists and corps de ballet, with original music by the Cuban artist M Alfonso and designs by Guido Galli.
The classic and the contemporary
Pous sees this as a “significant” moment, marked by the invitation extended to her by the director of the BNC, Viengsay Valdés, “a woman who comes from the classical world”, to her, “one who comes from a completely contemporary context”, to «create and generate spaces for dialogue and for joint creations».
They are “two worlds that, above all in the past, remained very separate,” points out Pous, who made her debut in Havana in 1998 at the Ballet Festival —as prima ballerina and assistant— in the dance ensemble of the Spanish choreographer María Rovira.
This project, he adds, “has been enriching”: “I have also learned. Now I am working with dancers who are not from my own company and who use a different language and movement », she reflects.
His conclusion is that classical ballet and contemporary dance can “perfectly dialogue.” «We are destined to understand each other and to share. It has been a challenge but at the same time something very beautiful for me as an experience », she affirms.
The director of My Company says that, after the stoppage of the pandemic —that “it has been a time to think, focus your eyes on other things”— she is “in a new creation process that will be seen in the new jobs.”
In April he will premiere “Infinite”, where he talks about his experiences and the search for identities, and before the summer he hopes to add another piece, still without a name. “I don’t stop,” she says.
Responsibility as a woman
«I am a woman, I have two female daughters – 23 and 17 years old – and I have a responsibility in the current context of women, in which there have been many changes but where there are still many things to transform in the minds of men. and of the women themselves, “he reflects.
Pous considers that “in Cuba there is much to do, talk about and raise awareness not only among men, but also in institutions, workplaces and among women themselves.”
Machismo is palpable in Havana, he maintains: “It is something that is seen on the bus (bus), when you walk down the street, in how they speak, in how they approach you and in human relationships.”
Here art can help change mentalities. For this reason, she has collaborated in projects such as “Evoluciona”, a campaign against violence against women, and which led her company to share her works that deal with motherhood and women’s conflicts in art schools and universities. .
She maintains that in her creations “this feminine imaginary with a very special voice has always been present” and that her daughters have inspired her, whom she has allowed to be “free to decide what they want to do in life, above all, very ethical and respectful themselves.”
So Pous is said to be lucky. “(I am) a very lucky woman because I am doing what I want and that right now is a luxury in the world, and a very happy and proud mother,” she says.
Raquel Martori / EFE
