Daya Aceituno: "Being a Concert Band and That People Like It"

The Banda de Boyeros has been breaking stereotypes and limits for ten years. Its Director, Daya Aceituno, remembers that when she came to this group she had the objective of putting the band on Boyeros municipality map (Havana), and later on Cuba. That has been achieved based on work and renewal.

This is a municipal concert band that does not solemnly sit down to offer a retreat in the park, they dance, sing, put on a show. Finding them immersed in the recently ended arts fair "Theatrical in the Nave", organized by Nave Oficio de Isla creative community, is no longer a surprise, because the Banda de Boyeros has also been doing theater for a few years. This is how Daya told us:

"The Boyeros Band reaches this event because since 2019 we’ve been working on the play Oficio de isla, which gives its name to Nave Oficio de Isla, the Creative Community. We are part of this community, which brings together musicians, actors, painters, filmmakers, creators of all forms of art, so music plays its role, in fact we have two plays with them, "Oficio" and "Luz", in this way we are always working together".

I suppose that from all that experience some acting streak has emerged...

"A bit, yes, we’ve learned a lot in the two productions under the wing of Osvaldo Doimeadios, because he teaches you new ways of facing music, to face the public, and this has also rendered benefits, since all this confluence of experiences has led us to reach the stage proposal we have today. We started playing and dancing in 2013, but already having a more casual, more overwhelming proposal, I’d say that it was after having this experience on theater that makes you lose your inhibitions, you see the stage differently, so this has been a great opportunity for the Band and, of course, we couldn't miss this wonder of doing theater and making music within the theatre".

How have the musicians of the Band inserted themselves into the theater group, what has that relationship been like?

"The relationship between the musicians and the actors has been very good, of mutual learning, because, for example, in Luz, which was the second play we staged, there’s an idea of mine that started from doing like a bolero festival, but I wanted actors to sing, they were the ones who performed the songs, later, of course, Doime with the entire cast of actors and the entire team began to generate other ideas. Laydis Fernández arrived with the proposal to include the texts of Sigfredo Ariel and this is how a brainstorm was generated and "Luz" was born, that's why I tell you that the actors have learned from us to sing, to feel, to live music and we have learned from them to have a better stage projection to be more carefree, riskier...

"It has been a great blessing for us to work with them. Really, at first we were more short-tempered, more embarrassed, but then we started to let go and, in addition, it’s important to act, I can no longer see it in any other way, it’s impossible for the Band to be there as mere spectators or just to play, no, in "Oficio" and in "Luz" the band is just another character and they have to react, they have to laugh, cry, they have to pay attention to everything that happens…"

What has been the greatest challenge you have faced as director of the Band?

"The greatest challenge I take on day after day with the Band, is to keep, for 10 years we’ve been working, a fresh, renewed proposal that is constantly changing, that never remains still, putting on new music and that music is consistent with what’s said and with the scenic projection we have, every day to improve that scenic projection, so it’s not just playing and dancing, which can include acting, moving around, so that people like it, so that it’s more accepted every day.

"The main challenge I have every day and that all the members of the Band have is that our music and our way of making art gets delivered and that all the public like it, even children, that it stays in their mind, that attracts people, that they want to listen to it, that they know what a Band is, that our Band format is not lost. That is the main challenge we face and that I want to assume with all the responsibility that comes with being a Concert Band and that people like it".

Dreams, projects...

"Of course, among other things, I’d like to take my Band, my way of doing things, to all of Cuba, I’m getting there, we’ve been invited to important festivals in the country like the Piña Colada festival, the Camagüey Theater Festival, we have been in Villa Clara, in Matanzas, but I’d like to reach all corners of Cuba, I would like all of Cuba, or at least a large part of the population, to see the work the Band of Boyeros is doing.

"In addition, I’d like to do more theater, work more with the dancers, put on a whole show, of course that’s for the future, but the biggest challenge is the one we take on every day when we rehearse and when we work so that the public has a different, fun proposal to see of the Band of Boyeros".

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff