Malpaso Dance Company: Cubans Make History with Martha Graham

In the heart of Chelsea, Manhattan, a group of Havana-based dancers is writing a new chapter in Cuban dance history. Malpaso Dance Company performs February 10-15, 2026 at the Joyce Theatre, marking an unprecedented milestone: they become the first Cuban company to perform a work by Martha Graham, the mother of American modern dance.

A Collaboration That Crosses Borders

Malpaso was born in 2012 from a shared dream between three Cuban choreographers—Daile Carrazana, Osnel Delgado, and Fernando Sáez—and the Joyce Theatre Foundation of New York. In an era of diplomatic tensions, this cultural alliance proved that art can build bridges where politics erects walls.

Since its founding, the company has balanced two worlds: maintaining its base in Havana while building an international presence that has taken them to stages across the United States, Europe, and Latin America. The Joyce Theatre has become their “second home,” and this eleventh season confirms a relationship that has matured over more than a decade.

Dark Meadow Suite: Graham Through Cuban Eyes

The centerpiece of the program is Dark Meadow Suite, part of the GRAHAM100 project celebrating the centennial of the Martha Graham Dance Company. The original 1946 work explored Jungian archetypes and the journey of the unconscious, with set design by sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

For Cuban dancers trained in the classical technique of the Cuban School of Ballet founded by Alicia Alonso, embracing Graham’s vocabulary represents a fascinating dialogue between traditions. The Graham technique—with its emphasis on contraction and release, on breath as the motor of movement—finds unexpected resonance in the musicality that defines Cuban dancers.

Live Music: The Soul of the Show

What distinguishes this season is the presence of live music. The Alma String Quartet—a string quartet composed entirely of Cuban women—accompanies both Dark Meadow Suite and The Season, a new piece by co-founder Daile Carrazana.

The program is completed with a commission by Keerati Jinakunwiphat, former dancer with Kyle Abraham’s company, accompanied live by trumpeter Adam O’Farrill and his Stranger Days quartet. O’Farrill, descendant of the legendary Cuban musical family that includes Chico O’Farrill, adds another layer of Cuban-American connection to the program.

Cuban Training: A Legacy of Excellence

Despite the economic difficulties Cuba faces, the country’s dance training continues to produce world-class artists. Malpaso is living proof of this tradition: its dancers combine the technical discipline inherited from the Cuban system with an expressiveness and musicality that distinguishes them on international stages.

The New Yorker described it perfectly: “Proof that Cuban dance training, despite many challenges, is still top-notch.” At a moment when Cuba faces its worst energy and economic crisis in decades, Malpaso’s success represents a glimpse of what Cuban talent can achieve when it finds the conditions to flourish.

A Cultural Bridge in Difficult Times

The relationship between Malpaso and the Joyce Theatre is a model of what cultural diplomacy can achieve. While governments argue, artists collaborate. While sanctions restrict, art flows.

This season arrives at a particularly significant moment: tensions between Cuba and the United States have escalated under the new administration, making each cultural exchange more valuable and more difficult to achieve.

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Malpaso Dance Company performs at the Joyce Theatre (175 Eighth Avenue, New York) through February 15, 2026. More information and tickets at joyce.org.

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