Cuba's Malpaso Dance Company to Perform with Grammy Winner Arturo O'Farrill at Meany Hall, 3/3-5

The UW World Series presents the Seattle debut of one of Cuba's leading contemporary dance troupes, Malpaso Dance Company, performing at Meany Hall on the University of Washington campus from March 3-5. The program features live music by Grammy Award-winning Cuban-American composer Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.

Based in Havana, Cuba, Malpaso Dance Company is committed to bringing Cuban contemporary dance into the 21st century by collaborating with top international choreographers and nurturing new voices in Cuban choreography. The company's core artistic vision is led by resident repertory choreographer Osnel Delgado Wambrug, and the company develops its work in a collective creative process. Malpaso was founded in 2012 by Delgado, Daileidys Carrazana and Fernando Saéz Carvajal, and consists of 10 dancers.

The program includes 24 horas y un perro (24 hours and a dog), a contemporary dance piece by Delgado set to music composed by Arturo O'Farrill and performed by O'Farrill with the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble. Also on the program is a new work by Osnel Delgado, Ocaso (Twilight), and New York choreographer Ronald K. Brown's Porque Sigues (Why You Follow) featuring Brown's signature blend of African, Cuban and Western dance.

Osnel Delgado Wambrug danced with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba from 2003 to 2011, before founding Malpaso. He has worked with choreographers Mats Ek, Rafael Bonachela, Kenneth Kvarnström, Ja Linkens, Itzik Galili, Samir Akika, Pedro Ruiz, Isidro Rolando and George Cespedes, among others. Delgado has created works for DCC, Rakatan and Ebony Dance of Cuba. Wambrug is a 2003 graduate of the National Dance School of Havana, where he is also a professor of dance studies.

Grammy Award-winning pianist, composer and educator Arturo O'Farrill - leader of the "first family of Afro-Cuban Jazz" (The New York Times) - was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Son of the late, great composer Chico O'Farrill, Arturo was educated at Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He played piano in Carla Bley's Big Band from 1979 through 1983 and earned a reputation as a soloist in groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Freddy Cole, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Belafonte. A celebrated composer O'Farrill has received commissions from the Apollo Theater, Meet the Composer, the Big Apple Circus, the Philadelphia Music Project, Symphony Space and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. He is a recipient of a 2015 Commissioning Grant from New Music USA.

In 2002, he established the Grammy-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) and in 2007, he established the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance (ALJA) as a new institutional support for the Orchestra with a mission to promote Afro Latin Jazz through performance, education and recordings. O'Farrill and the ALJO received a 2008 Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album for Song for Chico, (Zoho). His fourth album with ALJO, The Offense of the Drum, (MOTEMA) received a 2015 Grammy award for best Latin Jazz album. In 1995, O'Farrill agreed to direct his father's band, the Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra at the Birdland nightclub. The Orchestra's last album, Final Night at Birdland (Zoho) was awarded a 2015 Latin Grammy for best Latin Jazz album. The official release of Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's historic new album, Cuba: The Conversation Continues (Motéma Music; August 21, 2015) coincided with embassies opening in both Washington DC and Havana. The Conversation Continues was recorded at Abdala Studios in Havana, Cuba in December 2014. As President Obama announced the news of political normalization between the two countries. Arturo O'Farrill and his cast of acclaimed Cuban and American composers have recorded an album of a lifetime. Cuba: The Conversation Continues has been nominated for a 2016 Grammy award for best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

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