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ACHÉ: This word derives from the Yoruba dialect, that comes to Cuba with the African deported slaves. It means mercy, godsend, fate, vital force. It reveals authority, control and ability of a person to realize his projects, relying on his own creativity to change his life. It is a powerful and unique force.
Aché is the spiritual trasmission of human kind, knowledge and faith in human life.
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TARGETS
- Aché’s aim is to promote, diffuse and develop Cuban Culture in Italy, encouraging cultural exchanges.
- Aché studies and illustrates Cuban music and dances’ origins, their features and evolution, focusing on the richness of Cuban popular creativity. As time goes on Cuba has worked out a particular way of dancing and feeling its traditional music.
FOUNDATION
This project was presented in Cuba in 1989 and approved by the Departamento de las Artes Escènicas of the Ministerio de Cultura.
From then on the Proyecto Folklor Contemporaneo concurred to the spreading of Cuban folk traditions by means of many cultural initiatives based on the talent of new generations with all their experience, contradictions, dreams and objectives.
Ulises Mora stresses the importance of a preliminary technical basis for his students, in order to create a different and original artistic expression, where drama and choreographic elements are unified, and to achieve a complete choreographic ability. This technique is composed of a series of exercises that mix rhythm and motion with an original, creative background, in order to increase dancers’ performance.
Another basic aspect of this project is the theoretical and research study on Danzón de Nuevo Ritmo by Irma Castillo (realised together with Antonio Arcaño). This study has presented new teaching methods of Cuban folk dances in schools of art at both national and international levels. It shows the necessity to combine theory with rhythm, motion with interpretation in order to achieve the right knowledge about different dances, without losing contact with history and contemporary reality of Cuban culture.
The preliminary technical basis and the new teaching methods contributed to preserve the tradition of Cuban dances and at the same time allowed the foreign public to approach Cuban culture. Foreigners can learn to move nimbly and naturally, trying to interiorize the feelings expressed in dancing by Cubans themselves.
Irma and Ulises’ artistic experience is based on the Proyecto Folklor Contemporaneo awarded at the Bayamo Festival Nacional de Coreografia (1989), supported by the Consejo de las Artes Escénicas of Cuba. From then on their work has been intense and involved in different cultural activities in Cuba, Latin America and Europe.
In 1996 Irma Castillo and Ulises Mora created an AHS branch in Rome, that represents the first Cuban folk dances school in Italy: Aché.
Aché was inaugurated on November 8th, 1999 by Fernando Rojas, in that time President of the Asociación Nacional Hermanos Saíz, Mario Rodriguez, Ambassador of the Cuban Republic in Italy, Alfonso Gonzáles, Political and Cultural Counsellor, Daniele Lorenzi, member of the National Committee of the Associazione Arci Nova, and, among -- other personalities Marco Papacci, President of the Associazione di Amicizia Italia-Cuba (Rome branch).
ACTIVITIES
Traditional folk and culture create strong bonds of friendship among people and an interest in mastering new cultural expressions through exchanges of ideas, cooperation and study of a wide historical artistic panorama that includes dance, music, cinema, theatre, literature, painting, etc... This new perspective gives the public an overview of Cuban identity.
Considering the Italian involvement in Cuban dances and music, it is fundamental to understand how Cuba was able to create, preserve and develop its artistic values, which are appreciated throughout all around the world.
By comparing the Italian and Cuban cultures, valuable cultural similarities and differences emerge. The scope is to achieve a real knowledge through a fruitful dialogue and a detailed study of their historical and artistic background.
Thanks to this project people can understand Cuban culture, through its typical dances, and can understand rhythm and coordination, that are the basic elements for a correct interpretation.
Headquarter:
Vicolo Scavolino, 61
00186 Roma
Tel/fax 06/6790914
E-mail: info@clavedeson.it
President: Ulises Mora, Artistic Direction: Irma Castillo and Ulises Mora.
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