Alicia Alonso: the Fiesta de Cuba

Mireya Castañeda

ALICIA Alonso, Cuban and universal prima ballerina assoluta, has received the Pablo Prize, instituted by the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center to honor the most outstanding figures of national and international culture. The prize was awarded to her in Havana’s Museum of Dance.

The distinction for the eminent ballerina comes right at a moment of many anniversaries, for in December she celebrates her 90th birthday and other festivities paying tribute to her career as one of the essential figures in the history of classical ballet.

One of the most recent tributes to her was given by the New York American Ballet Theatre, where Alicia interpreted her first Giselle on November 2, 1943, and this October, she is to receive the Ibero-American Cooperation prize from the Seville Maestranza, as well as the tribute from the Royal Ballet in London’s Covent Garden.

Alicia’s charisma can be transferred to any scenario and being close to her provokes emotion. That was expressed in the words of Víctor Casaus, director of the Pablo Center who, paraphrasing the Cuban national hero, José Martí, affirmed that conferring the prize "honors us in the honoring."

Casaus, a poet and filmmaker, emphasized the artistic sensibility and outstanding contribution of the prima ballerina and choreographer to the development of ballet in the country and to Cuban culture, while highlighting her everlasting interpretation of Giselle.

Giving added significance to the ceremony, Alicia received the prize diploma from the hands of Ruth de la Torriente Brau, sister of the writer that gives the Center its name. Pablo de la Torriente Brau was born on December 12, 1901 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and died fighting in the Spanish Civil War on December 18, 1943 in Majadahonda, a Cuban in his own right.

The Pablo Prize has been awarded since 1998 and those to have merited it are Ricardo Alegría, director of the Higher Studies Center of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean; Cuban internationalist María Luisa Lafita; Eusebio Leal, City of Havana historian; musicians Leo Brouwer, Silvio Rodríguez, Sara González and Teresita Fernández; the poet Roberto Fernández Retamar; Alfredo Guevara, Barbara Dane and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center.

Virgen Gutiérrez, editor of the Palabra Viva Collection, initiated by the Pablo Center in 2000, based on the archives of the journalist Orlando Castellanos, and which includes close to 50 titles on, among others, Miguel Hernández, Pablo Armando Fernández, Dulce María Loynaz and Eliseo Diego, launched a new CD: Alicia Alonso, una Giselle cubana y universal (Alicia Alonso: an Cuban and Universal Giselle).

The 60-minute CD includes excerpts from interviews done with Alicia, and the beautiful poem "Saludo y homenaje a Alicia Alonso," dedicated to her in 1974 by Eliseo Diego (1920-1994), set to music by José María and Sergio Vitier and sung by Miriam Ramos; and "Décimas por Alicia," by Adolfo Martí, set to music and sung by Celina González.

Pedro Simón, director of the Museum of Dance and editor of Cuba en el Ballet magazine, referred to the great importance of the Palabra Viva Collection, which leaves for posterity the voices of great figures, and described as transcendent the CD on Alicia, in which she "leaves a significant testimony on Giselle.

The beautiful ceremony concluded with Pablo Milanés who, before singing "Si ella me faltara una vez," "Yolanda" and "Para vivir" – this last at Alicia’s request – told the diva, "I always like being with you, sharing the joy of these merited tributes, and to sing to you."

After the official ceremony, Alicia told the press that the Pablo Prize "has profoundly moved me, because it makes me feel that I am alive, that I love life and the people around me make me love it more."

In an exclusive for Granma International, the legendary ballerina confirmed that she is preparing a ballet based on the poem "Death of Narcissus," by José Lezama Lima. "I can tell you that it’s beautiful, difficult, a headache, but a great inspiration. I hope that something dignified will come out of the work that I have set myself. That will depend on the artists and the goodwill of the public, in order that they understand it, comprehend it and enjoy it."

The new ballet is to premiere in the Gala for the centenary of Lezama (Havana, December 19, 1910 - August 9, 1976) during the International Ballet Festival, which begins on October 28.

Alicia Alonso was defined in this way by the poet Eliseo Diego: