• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 10 / 30 / 2010

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By Sid Smith, special to the Tribune. 12:33 p.m. CDT, October 29, 2010.  Folk dance is typically florid, effusive, more awash with bright colors than layered with choreographic design.

All that indeed came to mind while watching Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba Thursday at the Auditorium Theatre, along with a word not so often associated with ethnic dance: restraint.

Alfonso fuses many styles and traditions that have come together in Cuba over the centuries — Spanish flamenco, Afro-Cuban rhythmic heat and island frolic all included. Especially at the beginning, her brief works suggest less interest in depth of ensemble arrangement and more fondness in celebrating the many influences that make up Cuban dance.

But one thing that makes the 30 or so dancers and musicians with the Alfonso troupe so appealing is her careful, intelligent stage control. Many presentations that showcase Latino traditions whoop it up with energetic overkill or, at the very least, offer romantic couples exploring seduction and sex.

But Alfonso's dancers, whose brief engagement was due to end Friday, are all-female. She uses that to mount dignified dances that accentuate movement and form. While a row of terrific Cuban musicians and singers play on stage behind the dance, though the mix of flamenco's relentlessness combined with contemporary echoes are joyful, Dance Cuba is more reminiscent of a ballet program than a nightclub.

Though the concert's packed with 11 separate works, Alfonso, thank goodness, eschews those mini-plots and hokey set-ups that plague some presentations. Smooth production helps — the dancers for each succeeding number ease on stage as their predecessors finish.

And the works by various choreographers build in energy and drive with remarkable subtlety, a subtlety evident for starters in the brightly hued costumes that never remotely suggest the gaudy or lurid. Similarly, the dancers gaily entice the audience without over-soliciting them. They let their amazing feet, smoothly swiveling hips and versatile wrists sell their product. (The wrist work here is exquisite.)

The large ensemble numbers, employed in most of the dances, are enjoyable, down to and especially including the scarlet-clad finale. But a lot is revealed by one telling duet, fueled not only by terrific footwork, but by the ingenuity that the enchanting Carmen Rosa Lopez and Ana Lopez manage in turning the long trains of their satiny blue gowns into scenic special [email protected]

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.

Tickets: $30-$69 at 800-982-2787 and ticketmaster.com
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Source: /www.chicagotribune.com/