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Dance premiere in Havana explores power and responsibility
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Culture & Society

Dance premiere in Havana explores power and responsibility

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth From a news agency New plan
  • A new dance piece titled "Servus" premiered in Havana, exploring themes of power and responsibility.
  • The work by Spanish-Cuban company MiCompañía focuses on individuals affected by decisions made by those in power.
  • The performance uses a crown as a symbol to question how power transforms individuals.

Havana's Teatro Martí hosted the premiere of "Servus," a new dance production by the Spanish-Cuban company MiCompañía, which delves into the complex concepts of power, responsibility, and the consequences of decisions made by authorities.

I started questioning how it's possible that there are people who always make decisions, and who have the power to make these decisions and access positions of power, and how all that affects my own life.

— Susana PousThe director and choreographer of MiCompañía explains the inspiration behind the dance piece 'Servus'.

Directed and choreographed by Spain's Susana Pous, the piece emerged from her personal reflections on how external decisions impact daily life. "I started questioning how it's possible that there are people who always make decisions, and who have the power to make these decisions and access positions of power, and how all that affects my own life," Pous explained.

Servus, not The King or The Master. It's putting the focus on the other side, the one whose life is decided. I realized that this has started to hurt me, to generate anxiety.

— Susana PousPous explains the significance of the dance piece's title and its focus on those affected by power.

"Servus" shifts the focus from those who wield power to those who are subjected to it, particularly individuals who feel "adrift." Pous noted that the title itself, "Servus" (Latin for servant), deliberately avoids naming the powerful, instead highlighting the affected. The choreography uses a crown as a central visual element, symbolizing power and prompting questions about whether power corrupts or merely reveals a pre-existing "monster" within.

Does power transform you, or am I the one who had that monster inside and power brings it out?

— Susana PousPous poses a rhetorical question about the corrupting influence of power during a discussion of her work.

MiCompañía's nine dancers engage with this symbolism, exploring the transformation that occurs when individuals assume positions of authority. Pous hopes the performance encourages audiences to consider their own potential for tyranny and the importance of self-awareness. The work, supported by the Spanish and Norwegian embassies, reflects global concerns about power dynamics, not just those specific to Cuba's current economic and social challenges.

The important thing now is to see it, talk about it, analyze it, put it on the table, so that if one day we are given the opportunity to be there and put on the crown, we do not become that monster.

— Susana PousPous discusses the importance of confronting the nature of power and responsibility.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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