• THE Cuban National Ballet is to travel to Spain this September as part of a European tour that finishes in Genoa, Italy in November, according to a statement by the company’s general director Alicia Alonso.

The company’s first performance takes place on September 9 at Madrid’s Compac Gran Vía Theater, where it will stage 11 consecutive performances, including matinees. The Spanish tour also includes performances in Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Salamanca, Burgos, Santander, Granada, Bilbao, La Rioja and Pamplona. The repertoire chosen by the prima ballerina assoluta includes Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quijote and The Magic of Dance.

Alicia Alonso also mentioned a recent invitation by the American Ballet Theater in New York, which is preparing a tribute to her artistic career for 2010. "It would be an honor to attend, but an even greater one if I could take the company. We are always willing to dance for all the peoples of the world. The tree is here but we carry the fruit everywhere."

• THE 2009 Julio Cortazar Ibero-American Short Story Prize has been awarded to Los días del juego by Cuban writer Emerio Medina, according to a statement from the jury, presided over by Argentine Luisa Valenzuela. Sponsored by the Cuban Book Institute (ICL), Casa de las Américas and the Alia Foundation – created by Ugné Karvalis, the partner of the Argentine author – the presentation of the Cortazar Prize took place at the Dulce María Loynaz Cultural Center during a ceremony headed by Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto.

The jury also gave a special mention to Las lecciones del vampiro, by Miguel Terry Valdespino from Havana and mentions to Lo bello y lo sublime, by Argentine Marcela Solás; Mallorca y todos tus fantasmas, by Michel Encinosa; and Los que fueron al bosque de avellanos, by Rufo Caballero.

• THE emblematic Chilean groups Quilapayún and Inti Illimani (original) paid tribute to murdered singer-songwriter Víctor Jara in a joint concert in Santiago de Chile, which also included the participation of his widow, Joan Turner Jara. The musicians performed songs by Víctor Jara, including some that he never had the opportunity to perform himself, as well as tracks by the two groups. Following the military coup by Augusto Pinochet, Víctor Jara was arrested and taken to the National Stadium (which today carries his name), where he was tortured and eventually murdered on September 16, 1973.

• THE Venice Film Festival – from September 2 through 12 – is to pay tribute to the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), 11 years after his death. The tribute takes place on September 6, coinciding with the anniversary of his death, and both critics and directors linked to his name will participate, including Teruyo Nogami from Japan, one of his longtime collaborators; U.S. writer Donald Richie; and French film critic Michel Ciment. Kurosawa will be remembered during a panel discussion on his career which began in 1936 and moved onto to Venice where, in 1951, he won the Golden Lion award with his film Rashomon. In 1982, he won an honorary award. Considered to be one of the most eminent Japanese filmmakers of all time, during his career he directed more than 30 films including The Seven Samurai, Dersu Uzala and Yojimbo.

• FILMS from Spain, France, Germany, Finland, Brazil and Cuba enlivened the 2nd Humberto Solás Low-Budget Thematic Film Festival in Cienfuegos, a city in central Cuba. This city will remain forever linked to the work of that Cuban director (1941-2008) who chose the location for the setting of the second story in his most emblematic film Lucia, filmed at the end of 1968.