Wellington 7 January 2016. – The Cuban community in New Zealand has been promoting the knowledge of Cuban culture through various projects that have matured over a decade, from which the development of initiatives related to music and dance can be highlighted. In this effort, the work of Greydis Montero Liranza, dancer graduated from the National School of Art with over twenty years of experience, and of Rafael Ferrer Noel, percussionist who directs the CubanFusion project which is essentially dedicated to the teaching of the most diverse rhythms such as rumba, mambo, cha-cha, casino and reggaeton, stands out.
CubanFusion, with great popularity in Wellington, systematically gathers more than a hundred followers who show extraordinary skills and confirm the popularity of Cuban music in New Zealand. With this project, Rafael has succeeded in encouraging interest in Cuba and it hasn’t been few people that stimulated by dancing, have decided to enjoy a holiday in the largest of the Antilles. Having a street called Cuba in this capital city, which constitutes an important reference as a recreational and festive area, has been favourably exploited by the coordinators of CubanFusion. Special recognition to Rosina van der Aa, Rafael’s wife, with an interesting Italian-Dutch mix, who has become a strong promoter of Cuban and Latin American culture in Wellington.
Greydis Montero Liranza, who has also ventured as a choreographer and dance teacher, has been instrumental in the development of Cuban culture in New Zealand through the celebration of the "Aotearoa Cuban Festival" in the region of Rotorua, one of the country’s main tourist destinations located in the heart of the North Island. Throughout the years, Greydis has actively entered the New Zealand cultural spectrum through her participation in radio and television programmes, cinema, theatre and music videos, even leading the jury of the New Zealand Salsa Open competition.
Several Cuban artists established both in New Zealand and Australia have passed through the Aotearoa Cuban Festival. The 2016 edition announces the participation of Airagdin Pavón Moré (El Moro), who since 2004 is based in the neighbouring country of kangaroos and koalas, but with experience in Cuban rhythms teaching and contests in numerous destinations; Israel Ortiz Castellanos, dancer and choreographer born in Santiago de Cuba, founder and director of the Cuban Dance Company in Australia for over 10 years; and Ernesto Zúñiga, who created the cultural project Cuban Accent School in Auckland.
Greydis Montero’s recent initiative of mixing Cuban dancing with Maori rhythms, a project that has generated great sympathy, confirms culture’s enormous potential to bring peoples together, that combined with the favourable atmosphere created by the local public’s open and cheerful personality, has been duly used by the Cuban community to disseminate our traditions in this distant land of the South Pacific.