CUBA

Ángel Luis Ford Mesa is from Cuba. For nine years, Ángel Luis Ford Mesa has been general director and producer of Companía Danza JAGUEY. This is one of the most acclaimed Cuban dance groups in Cuba and abroad. He also worked for 11 years as a university teacher in different Cuban universities, where he taught general art history, art and musicology. He has also been director of the Cultural Department of the University of Guantánamo. In this period Ángel did scientific research about and published about the origin of the Cuban culture, the folklore, ethnography, traditions and influences of the migrations in the wealth of Cuban music and dance. Between 1995 and 1999 he has been Senior Specialist Foreign Affairs of the Cuban Institute for Music and Tour Manager of Cuban Orchestras around the world.

 

NETHERLANDS
In 2000 the Cuban dance teacher Ángel Luis founded his own dance and music school in Amsterdam: Punto Cubano. He has been guest lecturer at CODARTS (www.codarts.nl) in Rotterdam, an International Conservatory, that offers high-quality art education in the field of music, dance and circus. Here he taught a cycle of theoretical and practical conferences on the history of Cuban music and dance.

Currently he teaches Cuban dance and music styles, from changui (dance originally from Guantánamo, the birthplace of Ángel) to son, rumba and modern dance styles. Ángel is an experienced teacher, dancer and choreographer. His lessons and choreographies are based on the Cuban way of dancing: a physical expression of the vivid Cuban music. It is a harmonious and coherent blend of Cuban tradition, improvisation and creativity.