Visa Restrictions Derailed Their Tour. They Made a Dance

Visa Restrictions Derailed Their Tour. They Made a Dance—and a Documentary—Anyway This month, Cuban contemporary dance group Malpaso Dance Company was slated to perform in New York City to open the 92NY Harkness Dance Center’s fall season. Visa issues derailed that plan. The company was not able to travel to the U.S. Instead, on September 19, the Harkness Dance Center will present the world premiere of The Essence of Us, a film by Nel Shelby documenting the rehearsal process for Pedro Ruiz’s new commission with the same name. (Following the premiere, the documentary will be available to stream for 72 hours beginning at noon on September 20.) Rather than seeing the dance itself, audiences will see how it was made—and witness the resilience of the artists of Malpaso amidst an increasingly precarious situation in Cuba. The Essence of Us was intended to be the opening event of the Harkness Dance Center’s fall lineup. The season, entitled “Home,” features works that explore “home and identity and the crossing of borders and bringing international artists into the conversation,” says Alison Manning, Harkness Dance Center’s artistic director. “This project was at the heart of that.” But conditions began to deteriorate in Cuba earlier this year, due to an ongoing recession exacerbated by U.S. sanctions and an oil blockade by the Trump administration. Simultaneously, the Trump administration froze visa processing for a long list of countries, including Cuba. With their visas stuck in limbo, in mid-May, the company was forced to cancel their U.S. tour. The idea to pivot to a documentary came from 92NY, and it “was a brilliant one,” says Fernando Sáez, Malpaso’s co-founder and executive director. “It was the best that could be done under the circumstances—not to postpone the project, but to add a layer to it.” Making a dance in Havana was still going to present challenges, with the country experiencing blackouts and water shortages amid a growing humanitarian crisis. But Ruiz, who was born and raised in Cuba and is now based in New York City, didn’t hesitate when presented with the alternate option—nor did Shelby, cinematographer Ashli Bickford, or photographer Christopher Duggan, who all traveled to Cuba to collaborate with a Cuban crew on The Essence of Us (Nuestra Esencia in Spanish). Ruiz had been in Cuba last year. But he says he could immediately tell that things were “completely different” when he arrived to work with Malpaso for the commission. He told the dancers, “I want this piece to be about you. I want each of you to tell your story—that’s going to be the heart of what this piece is about.” The resulting work, set to live music by Cuban composer Aldo López-Gavilán, was created in collaboration with the dancers. “These dancers gave their full commitment, their discipline, their honesty, even when we were working in the heat with no air conditioning and no fans,” says Ruiz. “I gave them space to bring me their stories.” In the documentary, we see the dancers rehearse through dayslong blackouts, and cheer when the power returns. One dancer speaks about how he doesn’t sleep at night because of the heat. A heaping mound of garbage piles up on the street in front of the Malpaso studios. But the film is not “a National Geographic project showing the miseries of Cuba,” as Sáez puts it. Like the dance work, it emphasizes the resilience and humanity of the artists. That The Essence of Us documents the making of the dance rather than the dance itself is an act of optimism. “My ultimate hope is that the company comes and does the world premiere in person,” says Manning. And Harkness Dance Center audiences will still experience a live show this month along with the documentary: Ballet Hispánico New York will perform Ruiz’s Guajira, as well as the work of two other Cuban and Cuban American choreographers, Marianela Boán and Ballet Hispánico artistic director and CEO Eduardo Vilaro. Sáez hopes that the 30-minute documentary leaves audiences wanting to engage further with the Malpaso artists and the realities of life in Cuba right now. “In any great short story, you will feel that something is missing, but that’s not a defect,” he says. “You are thirsty to learn more about what’s going on in Cuba, and what’s going to happen with this piece.”