EVERY premiere from choreographer Rosario Cárdenas offers an intriguing option, given that it is always about a new perspective on dance.

Her thesis "For a concept of combination in dance," presented to the Advanced Institute of Arts (1992), and which won her a Golden Award, was a convincing outline of what would come thereafter.

Following the route of seeking out the universal she graduated in Art History at the University of Havana, and in 2009 received a Masters in Dance from the Paris 8 University, France.

Combination is key to Cárdenas’ style, method and now, her school, since she decided to found her own company (1990) which could not have been called anything other than Danza Combinatoria, to which her name was added in 2003, currently being identified as the Rosario Cárdenas de Danza Combinatoria Company.

Her choreographic work, without talking about that as a ballerina, has stood out since she worked with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba (1971-1989) and her pieces Dédalo, Imago, Grifo, Germinal, El ángel interior and Canción de cuna remain in its repertoire.

In a speech read by Ramiro Guerra, the founder of modern dance in Cuba, and who had Rosario Cárdenas as one of his most distinguished students, at the ceremony awarding Cárdenas with the National Dance Prize 2013, the maestro affirmed, "…She chose one of the most dangerously daring aspects of the undertaking, which was to promote an intellectual conceptualization in her work, starting with provocation and making the public think, in addition to delighting it with the most vanguard of dance arts."

Her followers, the critics, the public all agree, given that the essential enjoyment of this dedicated artist to dance has been, since the beginning, being one which defies "acceptable" schemes and says something more. She has created more than 90 choreographies, between solos and large format works, from almost six minutes to more than an hour.

Some of her titles: En fragmentos a su imán (1990); María Viván (1997); Zona-Cuerpo (2010); La Stravaganza (2006); Confutati, Homenaje a Mozart (2006); Ouroboros (2003); Combinatoria en Guaguancó (2002), Dador (2001).

Dance, poetry, music, the visual arts come together and combine in her work to relate a story, but never with a lineal description.

Among these works, those based on two names shine out: José Lezama Lima and Virgilio Piñera, but, confirming that she never conforms and that her search for new codes is like perpetual motion, she has now honored ethnologist and researcher Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991) with Tributo a El Monte.

Once again, she is challenging. Everyone has their Mountain and she is proposing a show from another dimension, from her point of view.

With Rosario Cárdenas, conversations, interview, dialogues have taken place since the 1980’s. Fortunately, her choreographies have been and are fully discussed. Her nude figures have long been in the foreground of the stage and gossip.

Nothing less than Cabrera’s book El Monte (1954), identified as the Bible of African-Cuban religions and liturgies…

Beginning this interview, Cárdenas affirms:

Creators confront us with persons who believe they know how things should be done, but art has its own flight. A creator decides to take a theme and it is the spectator who must interpret it. I am not going to put words to it, they are interpretations. It is the perception of how each person feels and begins to frame those feelings. I respect words because they are personal. It is a poetic composition, not lineal. I remind you that it is "inspired" by El Monte, it does not fall into hackneyed descriptions. The book is an inexhaustible source for creativity. There are many angles to study. It is not folklore; we are a contemporary dance company. It is our point of view.

In the work, one isn’t going to find the deities Yemajá – such as she is represented – nor Oshún. The public is going to find a body of symbols. A peacock, a universal symbol, or a shell, a lunar symbol. The peacock is offered up to Oshún and Yemayá, but I don’t have to say it like that, I do it with the costumes, and without feathers. You will see, the duo in which the ballerina wears an intense blue scarf and the male dancer red shoes with heels, is neither gay nor transvestite. If you want to make a relation, they are Yemayá and Shangó. It is an inspiration. With the dancer who is the warrior what we have worked on is anguish. He is in points, but not used as ballet. He is a being who is reaching himself and this image elevates him, while everyone can interpret what they want.

A rigorous daily technical training and, as is our method, they take part in the research and study which precede the work. They dance many characters and the changes of costume are violent. Jakelin Balladares came especially from France for the performance and also the French dancer Vanessa Monlouis-Bonnaire."

I don’t talk of rupture in the sense that one is always oneself. It is an accumulation and then each work requires a difference, another inspiration. You are not going to find Dador, or María Viván, as a totalitarian image; independently of what one might cite at a specific moment to oneself, but it isn’t necessary to repeat yourself. I try to be consistent with myself, but I don’t like definitions which, in themselves, close one to the possibilities of change.

You have always said that your draw nourishment from everything, from universal sources. How has it been with Tributo a El Monte?

Because I am not going to do folklore, the folkloric companies are there for that, mine is contemporary dance. I have the opportunity to go to different angles, to visualize another part. I go toward this universal harmony and how to conjugate our reality and what is in the world, because we are one sole thing, that is why one has to drink from universal sources. Water, fire, the elements of life are universal. The book is a starting point. I don’t stop at what is in front of me. As a choreographer, I express my concept via my technique, which contains my language, my poetry.

You don’t ask for a prize. It opens doors to you, that’s true, levels of support are higher, but I haven’t even thought about it in that way. For me, it is a duty to be renewing the codes within my own work. I go with my personal challenges.