vvjl Review: Malpaso Returns, With Boundless Energy but Little Risk

This is the 10th season that Malpaso Dance Company, the Cuban contemporary dance troupe based in Havana and founded in 2012, has come to the Joyce Theater. Malpaso is an associate company of Joyce Theater Productions, and the longevity of this international partnership is impressive.

But with stability has come a certain predictability of style, a palatable sleekness seen across many contemporary dance companies. A program of four works at the Joyce, three of them U.S. premieres, made me wish for more of the mischief or danger — a straying from the beaten path — embodied in the name Malpaso, which means “misstep.”

This is no fault of the company’s 12 dancers, who have the technical acuity and boundless energy to take on pretty much anything, it seems. But they’ve been given a narrow range of material.

The evening’s first half consists of the three premieres: “Ara,” by the resident choreographer and artistic director Osnel Delgado; “Retrato de Familia” (“Family Portrait”), by Esteban Aguilar, a dancer in the company; and “Vertigo,” by the Spanish-born choreographer Susana Pous. The Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton’s “Indomitable Waltz” (2016), perhaps the most distinctive part of this indistinct program, makes up the second half.

“Ara,” to music played live by the brothers Aldo López-Gavilán (piano) and Ilmar Gavilán (violin),peso99 login depicts a push-pull relationship between Delgado and Grettel Morejón. It begins in dim, foggy lighting with the two standing close to each other. He offers her a palm, and she appears to take something from it, an image that will reappear in the final moments, as they pass an invisible token back and forth. In between, they share a fraught affection. She holds the sole of his foot to her cheek; he nestles his head into her abdomen. They partner in ways that show off her lithe extensions, or dance side by side in unison, eventually coming to rest, seated, with a sense of acceptance and a little distance between them.

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Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country’s top historically Black institution.

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