This preview was provided by American Dance Festival.
ADF and The Carolina Theatre co-present Ballet Folklórico Cutumba performing Roots and Cuban Tradition. Based in Santiago de Cuba in the eastern province of Oriente and founded in 1960, Ballet Folklórico Cutumba is undoubtedly one of Cuba’s most vibrant folkloric dance companies. Making their ADF debut, Cutumba performs Afro-Cuban-Franco-Haitian folkloric and popular dance, music, and song, ranging from gagá to son, celebrating the cultural melting pot that is Cuba. With vibrant colors and action-packed theatrics, this is a show that is fully charged, from beginning to end.
About Ballet Folklórico Cutumba
For over thirty years, the internationally renown folkloric group Ballet Folklórico Cutumba has been researching, collecting, conserving, revitalizing, and presenting the folkloric manifestations of Afro-Franco-Haitian-Cuban origin found primarily in Cuba’s eastern (Oriente) provinces. The ensemble includes 48 musicians and dancers. Their vast repertoire includes the Afro-Cuban manifestations brought to the island by Africans of Congo/Bantu and Yoruba traditions, as well as the strong influences of the Afro-Haitian migration to this part of Cuba. The ensemble’s choreographies include gagá, vodún, santería, merengue-haitiano, tumba francesa, rumba, son, merengue haitiano and tumba francesa.
As stellar exponents of these traditions, Cutumba has been invited on several international tours throughout Europe, the Caribbean and South America. Their rigorous artistic quality, authentic representation and dynamic expression have been merited on numerous occasions, including a medal at the Festival Internacional FITEL of Portugal in 1992, El Premio Nacional de la Mariposa, 1994; and the Medalla de la Popularidad in the Festival Internacional de Teatro (FIT) in Cádiz, Spain in 1995.
