The Dominican National Ballet presents “Habitantes”

The Dominican National Ballet presents “Habitantes”
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 03/27/2014

With the presence of three famous personalities of the dance world, the Dominican National Ballet will open its spring season, which will take place on April 4 – 6 at the Palace of Fine Arts. They are French dancer Hervé Palito, Albanian Gentian Doda, and Dominican Awilda Polanco, who, along with a large group of outstanding local dancers, will present the show titled “Habitantes” (Inhabitants).

Renowned choreographer and dancer Mercedes Morales, current Director of the Dominican National Ballet, showed her enthusiasm about this new dance proposal when providing details on this event, calling it an unprecedented show in our country that will have an exceptional group of professionals.

“Habitantes” shall consist of the choreographies “Imagen de un sueño” (Image of a dream), “Exclamaciones” (Exclamations), and “Sonn”.

“The first piece of the evening, titled “Imagen de un sueño”, was part of the repertoire of the Roto Ballet and is a piece without conceptual complications. Speech is conducted through the body and it is the product of the interest to unfold and step out of the arena of the classics. The piece features characters from a dream”, said Morales.
“Exclamations”, the second part of the show, shall be the responsibility of dance expert Awilda Polanco, who provided details of her choreography. “It is the piece that we presented and won the First Caribbean Dance Biennial in Cuba in 2008. ‘Exclamations’ is a piece about women standing with energy to defend their space and go against the ways of thinking that exclude us and keep us away from the space that is rightfully ours at any given time”, Polanco said.
For his part, Albanian dancer Gentian Doda is the creator of the dance piece titled “Sonn”, which he described as a contribution from his own world. “When we speak about this piece, I actually came with a solid structure and specific music for the piece, and then the team and I started researching, because if I came with my own piece and they had to adapt to me, that would have taken months. This not about my stuff being great, this is about finding a common ground, together. This way the team feels identified with the piece. Because I do not want people to do a piece as if they were machines and then, the end of the story; when the team contributes, they feel that the piece is also theirs”, said the young artist.

The final details were given by French dancer Hervé Palito who was excited to praise Dominican dancers for their efforts and passion for the art. “We have encountered situations that we did not expect, for example: we start our day at 8:30 am; no one in the world wants to dance at that time, but we are already dancing at that time. That is really impressive to me. I want to say that these dancers are my super heroes”.

“Habitantes” is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate General for Fine Arts, and the Dominican Board of Trustees for Dance. The presentations will take place on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th, at 8:30 pm, and on Sunday, at 7:00 pm. There will be a presentation for students on Friday, April 4th, at 10:30 am. The cost of regular admissions is RD$500.

In order to contribute to the cultural wealth of the students, the National Ballet will hold a demonstrative reading on Friday, April 4th, at 10:30 am.

About the production
For the Spring season, the National Ballet will include the participation of Maestro Hervé Palito, who studied dance at the Conservatory of La Rochelle (France) after having trained as a pianist, and began dancing in 1985 at the Maurice Bejart Ballet du XXe Siecle in Brussels (Belgium) and the Bejart Ballet Lausanne, between 1987 and 1993, where he was head of the rehearsal accompanists from 1993 to 1995.

Hervé Palito also served as co-director and rehearsal accompanist to the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen (Germany), choreographic assistant to the Madrid Community Ballet, and rehearsal accompanist and Ballet teacher to the Salt production of the LaLaLa Human Step company, directed by Edouard Lock in Montreal (Canada).
Hervé Palito will offer master classes for the company, the National School of Dance, and private academies. He will also serve as rehearsal accompanist to the choreography of Gentian Doda.

The world premiere of “HABITANTES”, by famous Albanian choreographer Gentian Doda, will take place in collaboration with musician Joaquin Segade.

He taught choreography workshops at Compañía Nacional de Danza en España (CND), which at the time was directed by Nacho Duato, who commissioned him choreographies for the company such as “Axis”, “Sin lo cual no”, “De paso”, and “Akrak”. Since 2011 he has worked as a freelance choreographer and dancer. He created “1/2waltz” with which he won first prize at the Copenhagen and Hannover Choreography Contests, in addition to the Scapino Production Prize.

CREDITS
General and Artistic Direction: Mercedes Morales.
Executive Producer: Ministry of Culture and the Dominican Board of Trustees for Dance
Guest artists:
Guest Professor: Hervé Palito
International Choreographer: Gentian Doda
Dominicans Choreographers: Awilda Polanco, Mercedes Morales, and Víctor Ramírez.
Stage Design: Liliana Soto
Lighting Design: Hjalmar Gómez
Production coordinator: Fabiola Espínola
Assistant Director: Aida Mota
Production Assistant: Rosangela Alevante
Theatre Staging: Javier Suero
Stage Director: Starling Díaz
Costume Design: Magdalena Gutiérrez and Renata Cruz Carretero
Photography: Roger Zayas and Hjalmar Gómez
Public Relations: Severo Rivera and Patricia Leonor.
TV Spot: Tony Brito. Department of Audiovisuals, Ministry of Culture
Voice-over: Eduardo Villanueva.
Graphic Line Design: Amín Toribio. Graphics Unit. Ministry of Culture.
Attached pictures.