THE ESSENCE OF US: A CUBAN STORY to Open 92NY Harkness Mainstage Season
Visa barriers reshaped a planned Malpaso premiere into a documentary filmed in Havana by Nel Shelby.
The 92nd Street Y, New York will present The Essence of Us: A Cuban Story the opening night program of Home: Departure and Return, the Harkness 2026/27 Mainstage Season. Featuring the world premiere of The Essence of Us, a documentary film directed by Nel Shelby in collaboration with cinematographer and editor Ashli Bickford featuring Malpaso Dance Company and Pedro Ruiz, and performances by Ballet Hispánico New York, the program is on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at 7 pm in Kaufmann Concert Hall. Tickets start at $45 and are available now.
Malpaso Dance Company is one of contemporary dance's great success stories - a Cuban ensemble known for extraordinary technical brilliance, musicality, and expressive power. Since its founding in 2012, Malpaso has become a vital force on the global stage, commissioning and performing works by Ronald K. Brown, Trey McIntyre, Aszure Barton, and more.
For the Harkness Mainstage Series Opening Night, the company was to appear in the world premiere of a new 92NY commission by Bessie Award winner Pedro Ruiz. Ruiz was to travel to Havana to create the work in close collaboration with Malpaso's dancers before bringing it to New York. Current visa barriers made the live performance impossible as originally conceived or scheduled.
Rather than allow those barriers to end the project, 92NY continued to support the work. Filmmaker Nel Shelby, along with cinematographer Ashli Bickford and photographer Christopher Duggan, traveled to Cuba to document Ruiz's creative process with Malpaso. The resulting documentary The Essence of Us (in Spanish: Nuestra Esencia) - in Spanish with English subtitles - offers an intimate portrait of a company whose artistry and resilience remain undiminished.
Joining the opening night in celebration and support of the project is Ballet Hispánico New York, the nation's leading American Latino dance company and the largest cultural institution of its kind in the United States. Bringing their extraordinary artistry to the evening, the company performs a program honoring three Cuban and Cuban American choreographers whose work has made a profound mark on American dance. The performance features excerpts from Eduardo Vilaro's Buscando a Juan (Looking for Juan); Marianela Boán's Reactor Antígona (Antigone Reactor); and concludes with Pedro Ruiz's Guajira.
Ballet Hispánico New York is recognized by the Ford Foundation as one of America's Cultural Treasures, and the organization stands as a major force in contemporary dance in New York City, elevating the voices of Latino artists across the nation and the world. Under the leadership of Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro, Ballet Hispánico serves as a catalyst for imagination, redefining how contemporary dance is seen, heard, and understood through its repertory, training, and community programs.
The Harkness Mainstage Series' Home season explores how dance maps the shifting terrain of home, identity, belonging, and the borders - visible and invisible - that shape us.
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