While we were in Matanzas, we had the privilege of visiting a company named Vigía that creates personalized and original versions of various books. In an effort to promote and support the arts of the city, their building is also used as a performance space for dance, theatre, and music, and was even the concert space for one of the students on the trip.
The performance seen to the right was one which discussed and challenged the norms of society. Among many things, it critiqued the ideas of masculinity and the expectations of men to work in mundane office spaces, no matter the loss of individuality. Another of the pieces was a dance through the life of a couple, beginning at their first encounter and ending with their deaths. It portrayed, if not challenged, the societal expectations of what should be a personal and intimate romantic relationship.
DANCE
In Cuba, there is significant censorship in what artists can and cannot produce. What comes from that oppression is the use of found spaces and working to make things happen where funding and support may be limited or tricky.
While in Havana, we went to a "happening" which took place in a few abandoned warehouse spaces. It began with a walkthrough of an art gallery that questioned the future of Cuban culture. It was followed by a theatricalized dance show which criticized the place of women in society as almost completely objectified and sexualized entities. To the right is a clip of that performance.
EL ENANAO EN LA BOTELLA
Given the extensive amounts of suppression and censorship, artists, especially in theatre, have to find ways to get their beliefs and ideas out to the public while avoiding imprisonement or other terrible fates.
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As a result, there are stories created which are heavily shrouded in metaphor. So if you know, you know, and most people know. But, nothing has been explicitly said and nothing has been said against any people in power. This includes plays such as El Hombre Nuevo, El Sistema and El Enano en la Botella.
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In addition to reading El Enano en la Botella, while in Havana, we were granted a private performance from the original performer. It highlighted the fact that the show works powerfully and beautifully not only on a literary level with evocative metaphors, like comparing sadness to a blue stain, but it also worked extremely well on a performative level.
GALLERY
