Photo: Kevin Manuel Noya

Codanza, thirty-four years of heart and soul in the city of parks

From the heights of the Eddy Suñol Theater, where the creaking of the stage floor blends with the city’s daily pulse. The Codanza Contemporary Dance Company rehearses the daily miracle of creating beauty.

For Holguin, hosting a group of this caliber has been an act of spiritual sovereignty that shattered the old myth of cultural centralism in Cuba. To be born in the midst of the Special Period, with just five dancers. To become an Ibero-American benchmark for dance-theater is the chronicle of a beautiful resistance. Codanza has not only exported Cuban talent to venues in Austria, Spain, and Mexico. It has instilled in the local audience a profound sensitivity that today defines our cultural identity.

Every afternoon, when the sunlight falls obliquely on the city, the rehearsal hall fills with a dense air, heavy with sweat and extreme discipline. It is there that one understands that Codanza’s significance lies not only in its international acclaim. Also in the intimate memory of each choreography that has healed the scars of scarcity and exhaustion through pure movement.

Under the leadership of Vianki González, who took on the challenge following the indelible mark of Maricel Godoy. The company has transformed itself into a school and a refuge. The generational shift and the challenges of migration are confronted on stage. With the vigor of young graduates who find artistic answers to our times in the virtuosity of recent pieces like Kardia. A cry of emotional power with a renewed cast—and in their international collaboration with Austrian Mike Loewenrosen.

This tireless work is now expanding into new languages. Such as the “VD Dance in Motion” project. A bold foray into video dance that translates the poetic intensity of the body to the cinematic plane. While the collective works on choreographies inspired by the work of Holguin-born writer Kenia Leyva. With the support of the Vladimir Malakhov Grand Prix and more than 20 national awards. The group maintains a vital presence at essential events such as the Ibero-American Culture Festival and the Gibara Film Festival.

Codanza is, in essence, the avant-garde heartbeat of the Romerías de Mayo (May Pilgrimages). And the pride of a people who have learned to see their own history sculpted in the air. For over three decades, upholding Cuba’s universal prestige from a provincial base. This collective demonstrates that the true universality of our culture doesn’t need to relocate to the capital to move the world.

By: Daimy Peña Guillén

Radio Angulo
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