Entries categorized as ‘vida!’
It wasn’t enough for Veronica Tennant to see the production of Vida! A Celebration of Life. It wasn’t even enough for her to become closely familiar with Danza Cuba, the dance troupe that put on the performance, or Lizt Alfonso, the show’s choreographer and composer.
No — she wanted to make a movie.
“I could tell right away that this was a force,” Tennant said in a phone interview. “I could tell right away that I wanted to chronicle this.”
Tennant retired from her career as a prima ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada 11 years ago and has been (among other things) producing televised dance specials since then. It was when she saw Danza Cuba perform in Havana that she knew this film (its working title is Direct from Havana: Vida!) would be her next project.
Participants at Luminato’s opening gala could see Tennant’s filmmakers darting around the VIP area, cameras and sound gear in hand, to cover every moment of the dancers’ time at the concert. They’ve shot in Cuba already; while they’re still months away from a final cut, Tennant suspects Danza Cuba’s Luminato performance may be the climax of the film.
In the fashion of the performance itself, she envisions the film as a wide portrait of Cuba through the eyes of its artists.
“I find it most fascinating to experience all the social interaction from the point of view of the art, and from the heart of the artists,” she said.
You can see Vida! A Celebration of Life at 2 p.m. or 8 p.m. today, or at 5 p.m. tomorrow, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.
Categories: dance · film · veronicatennant · vida!
This week Donald Sutherland — star of Ordinary People and MASH — attended Vida! A Celebration of Life, featuring the Cuban dance troupe Danza Cuba and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club.
He loved it so much he sent an email to Luminato dancer and filmmaker Veronica Tennant, which is available in its entirety right here on the Luminato blog:
Dear Veronica: — It was brilliant. Terrific. Passionate. It confirmed for me what I’ve longed suspected: if a revolution’s going to happen it’ll have to come from women. If this sad world is going to be saved, it’ll have to come from the hearts and souls and sensibilities of women; good women. Passionate women. I loved this evening. It thrilled Francine and me. Congratulate them all please. From our hearts to theirs.
Signed with a mouse but what the hell, it’s signed. Love Donald
Categories: celebrities · dance · vida!
During the run of Vida! A Celebration of Life, there are, in the lobby of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, a collection of posters and stand-ups advertising Cuban tourism. It’s probably a good thing there wasn’t some sort of sign-up sheet; the lobby would have been substantially more crowded than it actually was.
We’ll say this as directly as we know how: Vida is huge. During the most recent performance by Cuban dance troupe Danza Cuba, the line for tickets stretched down King Street and nearly rounded Simcoe Street. And that was for a Wednesday afternoon show.
The show, about one woman’s relationship to Cuba’s troubled and turbulent bout with the Twentieth Century, stars Omara Portuondo, perhaps best known to Northern audiences for her role as a vocalist in the legendary Buena Vista troupe, featured in the Wim Wenders documentary The Buena Vista Social Club.
Vida’s narrative — a chronological picaresque through Cuba’s history from the 1930s to the present — allows for series of set pieces of escalating beauty and complexity, framed by a birthday party and funeral for its main character. Costume and set changes abound; while the opening dance number features the all-female cast in the festive sun dresses viewers might normally associate with Cuban fashion, the style quickly moves to gauzy and ethereal during Vida’s girlhood introduction to Catholicism (where dancers in white dresses stand piously in cruciform) to sharp-footed and militaristic during revolution in the 1960s.
Anything featuring Portuondo will certainly feature music as prominently as anything else, and Vida! is no exception. Her voice is prominent here, though it’d be a failure not to mention the dancers’ feet, which function musically as much as the trumpet or the conga drum. Occasionally the band stands back and lets the stoming steal the show, a move that never gets old.
The chances are good that viewers will be exhausted by the end; Vida! is as visceral and as involving as any trip to the gym. But like the runner’s high that also results from strenuous exercise, it’ll leave you with a considerable grin.
Vida! A Celebration of Life runs throughout the weekend, with shows every night (and during the day Saturday) through Sunday.
Categories: dance · international · music · vida!
