The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Exhibitions

Dance in Cuba

From September 13, 2006 through October 28, 2006
Plaza Lobby and Steinberg Room Gallery
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498 (directions)

In 2001 Gil Garcetti traveled to Cuba for the first of what would be several visits. Captivated by the essential role of dance in everyday life, he photographed dancers ranging from professional ballerinas to street performers. This, the first museum exhibition of Garcetti’s Cuban images, features fifty-nine photographs, most of which are drawn from his acclaimed new book, Dance in Cuba (2005).

Because the arts are supported by the Cuban government, free or very affordable schools specializing in virtually every style of dance can be found throughout the country’s fourteen provinces. Thirty-eight professional dance companies employ roughly seven hundred dancers.

Garcetti’s photographs demonstrate the extent to which dance is embedded in the culture and spirit of Cuba. Styles as varied as Afro-Cuban dance, classical ballet, contemporary, flamenco, and street performance coexist and manage to include everyone. As the images clearly reveal, dancing takes place on the street, in private homes, at clubs, in restaurants and pavilions, in school, on television, and on the stage. Collaborating with Alicia Alonso (director), Miguel Cabrera (official historian), and Viengsay Valdés (prima ballerina), all of the famed Ballet Nacional de Cuba—as well as with Miguel Ferrer, director of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, and others—Garcetti has had unprecedented access to professional dance studios. He has masterfully used his camera to capture highly dramatic moments and to chronicle the flourishing dance traditions of Cuba.

Press Release