Expression is a way of life in sun-drenched Cuba. Diane Parkes finds out from one long-serving director some secrets behind the fiesty island.

There must be something in the water in Cuba which gives dance company directors super longevity.

In a country where Alicia Alonso has been at the helm of Ballet Nacional de Cuba for 50 years, Miguel Iglesias may seem like a mere stripling for heading Danza Contemporanea de Cuba for 26 years.

It has been a quarter of a century which has seen the company change and develop until DCC now firmly has its place on the international stage.

Having toured in Australia, the United States of America, Asia and Europe, DCC came to the UK two years ago and is about to return for a spring tour taking in ten venues including Birmingham Hippodrome.

Miguel says it has always been important for the company, which was formed in 1959, to retain its roots firmly in Cuba and yet reach out its branches to the rest of the world.

One of the most important elements of this global network has been the increasing numbers of international choreographers who have worked with DCC. Names such as Jan Linkens from the Netherlands and Rafael Bonachela from Spain have now been joined by Israeli Itzik Galili whose new work for DCC will be premiered in the UK. Miguel says this interchange is good for the company.

“Choreographers come from everywhere and yet the common expression is still very Cuban,” he says. “We are a very different people. We are an island like England too but we are very different.

“You are in the Northern latitude so it is colder. We feel the weather of Cuba. And our history is different. Five hundred years ago we had Indian influence, then Negro, then Spanish. We were a colony of Spain and we were an underdeveloped country. And our philosophy of the last 50 years has made us very different too.

“But we know dance very well. And the combination of foreign choreographers with Cuban dancers is a very strong combination which has helped to take the company forwards.”

But Miguel is determined that the company remain essentially Cuban.

“Foreign choreographers yes, but foreign dancers no,” he says firmly. “For me it is important because we have to have a Cuban feeling, a Cuban school of dancing. If you do an improvisation, inside yourself you have something in common with your partner. This is our strong energy and it is different.

“Our dancers have a very good skill for improvisation. With the choreographer it is similar to a boomerang – you put an idea to the dancer, and the dancer changes your idea and then it is completed with both of those ideas. This is a good comparison as the final movement has come from both.”

And he says Cubans are a very physical people – which expresses itself in their love of dance. The cradle of Salsa and Mambo, Cuba is also home to a number of internationally renowned dance companies. It is as if the island people cannot help but feel rhythm.

“If you walk in the street you see it,” says Miguel. “If you see people walk or talk on the street you see that they use their arms all the time for expression. These people have a character, a Cuban character. I am Cuban and I feel that. I feel the philosophy and expression. I feel my country.

“In Cuba it is summer all the year and that makes us different. Our sun has a strong light. You have to see the colour at the end of the day as the light is very strong. And it is hot.

“And the Cubans are funny people because we follow two different African gods. The men follow the god of the Changó, the symbol of virility in men, and the women follow the Ochún, a symbol of virility in women. So the women are very feminist and the men are very machistic. It is a very strong combination. The woman will say ‘this is my man’ and the man will say ‘this is my woman’ and possession is a very strong feeling.

“It is all very physical so it leads to physical movement and dance. Cuban people feel their physicality in their skin all the time. It is a more primitive feeling. There is a very strong energy. You feel it in the street.”

DCC comes to the Hippodrome as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012. For its first time in Birmingham, the company is bringing a triple bill – a new work by Galili, Carmen?! By Kenneth Kvamstrom and Mambo 3XXI by DCC dancer and choreographer George Céspedes. Miguel is hoping the programme will show the diversity of talent within DCC.

“I like the opposition of having these different dances because my idea is that you see in three different pieces three different companies but at the same time this is one company. I like this opposition. In one programme if I change just one piece for another piece then it changes completely the face of the company.

“Now this is the second time we will have toured in England so the English people know our company. The second time we come we will not be such a surprise. But this time we are bringing a different spectacle and I hope they enjoy our work.”

With next year being his 27th leading DCC, what are Miguel’s plans for the future of the company? “I look at closer horizons, not those too far away because the contemporary dance of today could change tomorrow,” he says. “I think of today and maybe two years ahead but no further because that depends. Maybe something we do now will bore me and we will need to do something different.

“Ten years ago I was Miguel Iglesias and now I am Miguel Iglesias but I don’t think the same as I did ten years ago. You change all the time. In some ways you are similar but in others you are different. I hope DCC is still developing. Two years ago we went to England for the first time and now we will be back again. I hope we will then come back again in another two years, in 2014.

“The relationship is now established. It is like a tree, that you plant and then you water. It starts small and you put a bit of water every day and you don’t think every day what will happen to the tree but it grows.

“It is like having a son or a daughter. They are born and after that you don’t know. That depends, not just on what you are doing but also what the world is doing. The world is changing.”

* Dance Contemporanea de Cuba perform a triple bill at Birmingham Hippodrome on May 8-9, contact 0844 338 5000 or see www.birminghamhippodrome.com for details