COVER |
TRENDS |
SURF ATTITUDE |
EBP |
AFRICAN DIARY |
LEO DAN RORIGUEZ CASAS |
TERRASSA |
SEVILLE |
He claims that he didn't discovered dance, but that some others did it for him and then he fell in love with it and although being just a child, he made of it the aim and the passion of his life.
When and how started this love story? When I was ten years old, at school, a school which made me stay far away from my family and friends, but nether the less made me feel different and lucky to live these moments. Dancing gave me self confidence, a goal and a future. It gave me objectives, means and a great direction to my life. Later, when I was a teenager I mixed up with artists from other realms, street art students, collaborating on various events with them, such as video performances, dancing theatre, settings and movies which improved my stage interpretation and made me learn more about different dancing technics and life. The world of Dance provided me with exceptional encounters and friendships.
What made you move to Spain? In Cuba, I had been collaborating for a while with plastician artists and musicians such as X Alphonso from Habana blues and others maintaining a loose contact with Spain at a professional level, plus the fantasy I already had about this country, all of this triggered my curiosity and my desire to try to do something there. After Dancing in Switzerland and in France, I've decided to settle to Madrid for a while in the year 2003.
How did you feel yourself as an artist, dealing with maybe a different way to see and to perform dancing? Very bad at the beginning. Before coming I had a very professional and serious idea of Dancing probably shaped by my previous european dance experience. I was surprised and a bit upset to see that the general level was not that high. Later I understood this as something much more positive. It was actually an opened door to great opportunities.
What do you retain from dancing in Cuba? What do you retain from dancing in Spain? In Cuba, dancing is in the street and in each moment of everyone's life. It's an art loved by the people. Everybody understands, respects, loves it and accepts what it can provide with. I withdraw this love and understanding from this cuban people art. From spain I retain a world of opportunities for a professional dancer, the respect and the quality in which cuban dancers are welcomed. It would be great to gather these different options just to make one.
Your unforgettable moment as a dancer?Dancing, on stage with my beloved master Ladislao Navarro. The emotion was so strong that I had to keep my tears. How do you see your life in the future? Or how would you see you in your artistic maturity? In a house, at the countryside with my cows and animals, leading a small dance school-academy, transmitting to pupils the same love and respect in dancing, I was granted as a child, working on choreographies with the more talented ones so that to bring my contribution in the transmission of dance culture. We, who admire him not only for his dancing qualities but also for the human ones and his humility, can do nothing more than wishing him a great success with Istmos, being sure that it will be like every project Leo Dan Rodriguez Casas leads, with the very fine essence of his cuban art. Rebecca Ponte.