London Performance Studios is pleased to present Casino, a dance piece by choreographer Ofelia Jarl Ortega.

Taking its title from one of many names for salsa dancing in Cuba, which is in turn also a name for a place where people go to dance, Casino sees Jarl Ortega alongside caterina daniela mora jara and Jao Moon (Swedish-Chilean, from the Patagonian lands, and Colombian respectively), move on a fictitious dance floor set in a Latin American club for couples dancing.  Each dancer brings with them their own relationship to salsa, letting it reverberate in their body and through a repertoire of historical and personal memories.

Following the international ‘Latin boom’ of the 1990s and 2000s—exemplified in the global success of artists like Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony— there was an explosion in popularity of salsa dancing in Sweden, particularly amongst Chilenos exiled post-Pinochet dictatorship.

Whilst salsa has never been a national dance in Chile as it has in Cuba, Colombia or the Caribbean, salsa gatherings amongst Chilenos in Sweden swelled in popularity as a way to connect to Latin American heritage, becoming a subculture by and for the diaspora. To be Latinx, one needed to know how to dance salsa, a cliché that haunts the performers in this piece.

In Casino, staged without music, the relationships between the dancers and the sounds of their steps evokes a musicality that is present in its absence. In a subtle, restrained, detailed and playful way, the three dancers connect, and fail to connect, simultaneously.

“In my family it was only my uncle Rafael who danced. He even had his own salsa club at the opera restaurant in Malmö in the 90s. But as salseros mostly drink water while dancing, the club had to close down due to low drink sales, despite the well visited evenings. When I first traveled to Chile as a grown up I met the blossoming reggaeton scene, and the feminist subgenre neo-perreo. For some years reggaeton was my connection to Latin America and my own heritage, until I stumbled upon salsa. The salsa music has always been part of what’s been played at home, but the dance had been hidden for me. Now salsa is all on my mind. And my newfound way of connecting to a Latin American diaspora, to be Chilean in Sweden, and to be a second generation immigrant.” - Ofelia Jarl Ortega

Creative Team

Choreography: Ofelia Jarl Ortega, in close collaboration with the performers.
Performers: Jao Moon, caterina daniela mora jara, Nina Sandino, Ofelia Jarl Ortega
Lighting Design: Johan Sundén
Dramaturgy: Andrea Rodrigo, Quim Bigas
Costume: Erik Annerborn
Photo: Milja Rossi
Trailer: Karl-Oskar Gustafsson
Production Terry Johnson, (Johnson & Bergsmark)
Co-production: Dansehallerne, MDT, BIT Teatergarasjen
Residency support: höjden studios, Stockholm and Dansplats Skog, Stråtjära

This iteration in collaboration with and performed by Jao Moon, caterina daniela mora jara, Ofelia Jarl Ortega.

With support from the Embassy of Sweden in London, The Swedish Art Grants Committee, The Swedish Arts Council and Stockholms Stad