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24th HAVANA INTERNATIONAL BALLET
FESTIVAL
A final look
Mireya Castañeda
The Havana International Ballet Festival,
by its very nature,
is among the most illustrious of festivals.
It is a
must for lovers
of ballet
and, since 1960, has
acted as a powerful magnet,
attracting all those who
love dance.
BNC prima ballerina, Anette
Delgado, in the first act of Giselle
It is a huge
forum
where dozens of
groups and
dancers
from every continent converge.
An event
where, every two years,
traditional classics and the very latest in
XXI
century dance come together.
Over the 10 days
(October 28
– November 7) of the event
presided by the
prima ballerina
assoluta
Alicia
Alonso,
28 countries were
represented in an edition
commemorating the 450th
anniversary of the birth of
the renowned English
playwright, William
Shakespeare.
In
a daring
attempt to encapsulate the
event, nothing could be better than a Closing
Gala that would become
a triumphant
climax.
The current director of the San Jose Ballet, in the
United States, the famous Cuban dancer José Manuel
Carreño, surprised the audience by returning to the
stage with the pas de deux from another Carmen,
choreographed by Roland Petit with music by Bizet.
Carreño accompanied the ballerina, Alesandra Meijer,
from the company he now directs, with his unmatched
style.
The assoluta Alicia Alonso, as
always, appeared on stage in the
Closing Gala, this time escorted by Dani Hernández
(left)
and José Manuel Carreño.
Much loved
and respected
on the island,
José
Manuel Carreño
received
the Lorna
Burdsall Special Award,
the highest recognition awarded by the
performing arts section
of the
National Union of Writers and
Artists of Cuba (UNEAC)
at the headquarters
of the National
Ballet of
Cuba (BNC).
The
leading figures of
American Ballet
Theatre (ABT),
Paloma
Herrera and
Xiomara
Reyes, soon due to retire from the stage,
filled the sala
Avellaneda
with
precise technique and
style.
Reyes, as well as giving a master class in
Jornadas Fernando Alonso in Memoriam,
danced the Great
Galloping
Gottschalk, accompanied by the
Spanish premier danseur,
Carlos López, and received
the ovation she
deserved.
The famous
Argentinean ballerina,
Paloma
Herrera, dedicated herself to
Verano porteño,
together with Juan
Pablo
Ledo, from the Teatro
Colón Ballet Company,
choreographed with music by
Astor Piazzolla and
Vivaldi.
Earlier, in
the
Teatro Mella, she
had shone in the
Tchaikovsky
pas de
deux,
together with Gonzalo
García of the
New York
City
Ballet (NYCB). Both once
again demonstrated the
Balanchine method, a
demanding pointe technique.
Pontus Lidberg Dance, from the
United States, premiered four
choreographies in Cuba. Faune is a homage to the
mythical Russian
ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950)
The NYCB
premier danseur, Joaquín de
Luz,
considered by critics one
of the most
brilliant current
exponents
of male dance, premiered
Five Variations on a
Theme, by Mexican
choreographer,
David
Fernández, with
music by Bach
and… the packed Avellaneda
exploded. He also brought
Other Dances to
Havana,
alongside
the ballerina
Ashley
Bouder, also from the NYCB.
Choreographed by the renowned Jerome
Robbins, with
music by
Chopin, the performance featured
award-winning
Cuban pianist,
Marcos
Madrigal, who played on stage.
The
Gala
included Qiu
Yunting
and Wu
Sicong, from the National
Ballet of
China, who skillfully
performed Motley, a
modern
dance, while
Nadia
Muzyca and
Federico
Fernández, from the
Teatro
Colón Ballet Company,
returned with Esmeralda
by Petipa.
Another
Carmen,
choreographed by
the great
Marcia Haydee,
also with music by
Bizet,
was well received
with performances from
Natalia
Berrios and José
Manuel
Ghiso, from the Santiago de
Chile Ballet, while Claudia
D'Antonio
and Salvatore
Mazo, from
Naples’
San Carlo Ballet, danced
a delicacy, Mia eterna
primavera, with music by
Verdi.
The
BNC demonstrated the
strength of its
schooling in
the Gala, just
as it did
throughout the Festival.
A
splendid Spartacus
by Yanela
Piñera
and Camilo
Ramos,
choreographed by Azary
Plisetsky;
The Dying Swan, by
Michel
Descombey, virtuously
performed by
Javier
Torres (now
with the
Northern Ballet);
Anette
Delgado and
Dani Hernández,
lyrical
and perfect in
Aguas primaverales, by Asaf
Messerer;
and a premiere
in Cuba
of Romeo and
Juliet, choreographed by
Michel
Corder, with Yolanda
Correa
and Joel Carreño
(currently
with the
Norwegian National
Ballet).
The prima ballerina Viengsay
Valdés
and the premier danseur
Victor Estévez
closed the Gala with the premiere
of Valsette,
a reduced version of
Nuestros Valses, by the
universal Venezuelan
choreographer,
Vicente Nebrada, directed
by Yanis
Pikieris.
I was lucky to
witness Pikeris
win the
gold medal in 1981
at the International
Ballet Competition in
Moscow
thanks to his unbeatable
style and
technique faced with the
powerful group of Russian
dancers
from the Bolshoi
and the
then Kirov, now Mariinsky.
Now back
in
Havana,
he gifted the BNC with this
Valsette,
three pas
de deux
to music
by Teresa
Carreño
and Ramón
Delgado, with
Marcos
Madrigal playing the piano
on stage, making
for a fabulous
dialogue between Viengsay
and Estevéz.
Viengsay,
without doubt currently the
most internationally known prima
ballerina of the BNC, stood
out in the Festival.
She brought us a
Swan
Lake,
the obligatory classic in
the repertoire of
every major company
in the world, with a
perfect combination of
art and technique,
alongside the Ukrainian
Iván
Putrov, who was almost a
soloist
with the Royal Ballet, but
at the time
did not meet
expectations.
Viengsay
was flawless
in the difficult
dual role of
Odette/Odile.
In addition, in The Magic
of Dance,
the
scene
from Don Quixote,
she was partnered with
the premier danseur
of the Washington Ballet,
Brooklyn
Mack, and
it could be said
that they made history.
Yet this was not enough
and they also
offered up a
memorable
pas de deux from
Diana
and Actaeon, by
Agrippina
Vaganova.
The prima ballerina also defended herself with the
solo in El desequilibrio, choreographed by
Laura
Domingo, to cement her
versatility in dance.
No
night of
November
2
in
Havana
is complete without a performance of
Giselle,
this
masterpiece of Romanticism
which, 173
years after its premiere
in
Paris, continues to
move audiences.
On this date in 1943,
Alicia Alonso substituted
another
Alicia – Markova - at the
Metropolitan Opera House in
New
York and
a legend was born...
This time the
peasant turned Wilis
was played by
Anette
Delgado, who was great in
the difficult role,
especially in the Cuban company,
and
Albrecht was
interpreted by Dani
Hernández,
a just partner.
Both offered up a special
performance.
As part of this
bold summarizing exercise,
Julio Bocca,
renowned Argentinean
dancer
and choreographer and one of the
major figures of
international dance,
had to be present. Since 2010
he has directed the
National Ballet
of Uruguay, which will celebrate
80 years since its founding
in 2015.
Bocca
gave a master class
which opened
the sessions in honor
of
Fernando Alonso
(1914-2013),
and held
a brief dialogue
with
GI at the
headquarters of the
BNC on his
memories
of visits to the island and
his thoughts on technique and art
in the ballet.
"It's the
part that we teachers must work on
most, the
artistic part, on
concentration and above all,
it’s not that they do not have
love for it, but
they don’t know how to
express it, we teachers
must
remind them why they are
doing this, because
this is
a career that one chooses."
He referred to
his meetings
in
Havana with
the prima ballerina
Ofelia
González, with whom
he danced
Don Quixote
and a very memorable
Swan Lake,
as Bocca bid his
farewell to
the stage.
"I remember her
dedication, her
sincerity
on stage, not all dancers
have that.
The times
we danced she came
out calmly, she knew
we were going to
seek more,
to go beyond, with
her heart
open to her character and
her companion."
This wonderful dance
encounter is not exhausted in
these examples,
but space
in the newspaper is. The
Havana International Ballet
Festival is not a
competition, but with all
the stars who come
mainly thanks to
the convening power
of the
diva Alicia
Alonso, it is
an encounter that
goes beyond the
star system,
for all
it is a case of delivering
the magic of
dance
on stage.
In two years time, without fail, Havana will once
again become that powerful magnet
that attracts the
lovers of
dance.
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