6 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

Octavio Roca defined it as a "beefcake extravaganza".  It is Azari Plisetski's "Canto Vital-("Song of Nature), set to  Gustav Mahler's Rondo finale from his 5th Symphony in C);   This is a contemporary piece for four male dancers and a vehicle for physicality and prowess, as they leap and crawl and climb, up and over and under each other, in bare, bathing-suit types of colorful costumes. This is a work of biceps and bravura, masculinity and muscularity. Mahler's music is perfectly positioned here, with its trumpet flares and swelling strings. The four characters depicted are "Nature", "Beast", "Fish" and "Bird".

1979. ORLANDO SALGADO, LAZARO CARRENO, ANDRES WILLIAMS, RAUL BARROSO



2011. Arian Molina, Jose Carlos Lozada, Serafin Castro, Yanier Gomez

[Natalia]

Thanks, cubanmiamiboy! I saw the very cast from your first clip dance this ballet in San Juan during the memorable August 1978 tour to Pto Rico. This ballet had the audience in a frenzy, especially when the guys jumped on each others' backs at the end, forming a human pyramid of sorts. I just remember the entire audience jumping up from their seats and screaming 'Bravo!' ... not sitting down until the ballet ended a minute or so later.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Natalia, on 19 June 2012 - 04:53 PM, said:

Thanks, cubanmiamiboy! I saw the very cast from your first clip dance this ballet in San Juan during the memorable August 1978 tour to Pto Rico. This ballet had the audience in a frenzy, especially when the guys jumped on each others' backs at the end, forming a human pyramid of sorts. I just remember the entire audience jumping up from their seats and screaming 'Bravo!' ... not sitting down until the ballet ended a minute or so later.

Thanks for your memories, Natasha.  I believe that the first clip actually belongs to that very Puerto Rican tour you remember.  Also interesting to note that Williams, from the first clip, was the first black dancer to climb the ranks in the Cuban company.

[Natalia]

cubanmiamiboy, on 19 June 2012 - 11:26 PM, said:

.... I believe that the first clip actually belongs to that very Puerto Rican tour you remember.  ....

My goodness...there's a film of the tour????  

[Birdsall]

Wow! Canto Vital is a tour de force! Wish I could see it live!

[Paul Parish]

Jesus, what a workout!

[Birdsall]

Who should be in the cast if ABT (if an international company) ever staged Canto Vital???? Gomes and Vasiliev need to be in it! LOL