Flexibility and ferocity mark Cuban troupe’s program at the Strand

“Horizonte’’ proved a lyrical antidote. Created especially for the company by Cuban-American choreographer Pedro Ruiz during his first foray to Cuba in 28 years, “Horizonte’’ is an accessible, rather traditional blend of modern dance, ballet, and jazz. The opening cast the dancers as undulating waves, their clustered bodies rippling sensuously, arms curling. To the sound of waves, a quintet of men sailed across the stage like fish breaching, their bodies horizontal, arms and legs spread wide. Repeatedly they tumbled to the floor, then rose again, coalescing in a circle of barrel turns and flips. Flourishing long, gauzy skirts, the women sashayed with rolling hips and legs that elegantly lifted to the ceiling. But it was the men who dazzled, pairing controlled strength with tensile elasticity and buoyant leaps that seemed to hang in midair.

“Mambo 3XX1,’’ by company dancer George Céspedes, was the whole package. In it, warp-speed mambo meets 21st-century postmodernism in an imaginative, cohesive, rhythmically engaging, and kinetically charged deconstruction of Latin and street dance. One moment, the 21 dancers were in rows shifting in and out of multilayered patterns in a precision drill routine. The next they were guardedly trying out partners, duets evolving into the trusting connections and fluid weight exchanges of contact improvisation. Before long, they were streaking across the stage with total abandon, spinning, flipping, flying into leaps, and diving into tumbles as if catapulted from the wings. The energy was electric.

Karen Campbell can be reached at karencampbell4@rcn.com.