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24th INTERNATIONAL BALLET FESTIVAL OF
HAVANA
Under the spell of Alicia Alonso
Mireya Castañeda
The excitement was indescribable. Alicia Alonso, a
great figure of the ballet world, returned to the
stage smiling and satisfied. Both a myth and a
genius of universal dance, she closed the the
inaugural Gala’s traditional procession, this time
at the Karl Marx Theater, a true Coliseum of Havana.
Alicia Alonso, director of the
National Ballet of Cuba, participated in the opening
procession with students and dancers (Photo: Nancy
Reyes)
Since the beginning
of these encounters,
in 1960, the
opening
Gala on October 28,
recalls, in a kind of
apotheosis,
the creation
in 1948
of the
Ballet
Alicia
Alonso, now the National
Ballet of
Cuba.
Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Vice President of the
Councils of Ministers and State, poet Miguel Barnet,
president of the Union of Writers and Artists of
Cuba (UNEAC), Ramona de Saa, director of the
National Ballet School, and emblematic figures of
the Cuban dance company such as the lead dancers
Aurora Bosch, Marta García, María Elena Llorente,
Orlando Salgado and Lázaro Carreño, all attended the
first function.
The
International Ballet Festival of
Havana has its
pedigree,
and this time, the
president
has brought together the
world of dance to
demonstrate its present and
envision
the future, without
forgetting the past.
With
its legendary power, the festival
has brought stars and companies from a score of
countries to the island, who will demonstrate the
best of their work through
November 7.
A bow
from
the prima ballerina
assoluta concluded a
touching
parade, which saw even the littlest ones from
the National
Ballet’s Dance Class,
followed by students from
the National School of
Ballet, take to the stage,
together with the complete line-up of
the
company, including
its
leading figures.
The 24th International Ballet Festival of Havana is
dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the birth of
William Shakespeare and for that reason, the
curtains opened to a choreography by Alonso herself
inspired by Romeo and Julieta and entitled
Shakespeare and his masks.
Prima
ballerina Viengsay Valdés
will
again embody
the dual role of
Odette-Odile
in
Swan Lake
(Photo:
Nancy Reyes)
The piece, with orchestral adaptations Juan Piñera
and libretto by José Ramón Neyra, saw Dani Hernández
and Anette Delgado, two of the top figures from the
company in the roles of Romeo and Juliet.
As the general director of the Cuban National
Ballet, Alicia Alonso has also demonstrated a
special interest in cultivating the art of
choreography. The
sublime
ballerina has given the
world of dance her
version
of several classics
(Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quijote,
Coppelia), with her adherence
to tradition, but stripped
of the superfluous,
and understandable to the
public of today.
Giselle,
the
quintessential romantic
ballet, Swan
Lake
and Sleeping Beauty
are included, as could
not be otherwise,
in the
Festival program.
The
assoluta
has also completed several new
works, among which those included
in the Festival are The Magic
of Dance, and
Tula,
dedicated this year
to celebrating the
poet
Gertrudis Gómez de
Avellaneda
on the bicentennial
of her birth.
The
librettist
of this piece, José Ramón
Neyra, in comments for this
article, noted that those who
saw the
premiere in 1998, "will
see a difference at the
end of the piece which
is what
Alicia has added as a
variation for
Tula
before the final scene,
which if you remember,
is set in the Tacon
Theatre
when Avellaneda
is crowned
with
laurels by Luisa
Pérez de Zambrana, another great
Cuban poet."
Neyra added, "Fortunately for the artists who will
represent the piece this time, Alicia has
commissioned Svetlana Ballestar, to premier the
piece, as responsible for the replacement. The
primer ballerina Amaya Rodriguez will reincarnate
the role of Tula."
At the premiere,
Alonso
said, "As you know,
my eyes are weak, but
I see everything
in my
mind." Neyra
explained how
she had
asked for the librettos of
Tula and also
Shakespeare
and his masks.
"Alicia
does not make someone responsible and then leave it
at that.
Alicia takes charge
and checks,
reviews, discusses
a lot as
a director, not only with
the librettist,
but with the
costume designer,
the person responsible for scenery
and the
discussions continue right
up to the moment of staging
with the figures
that are going to perform
the ballet."
The
legendary
dancer is an extraordinary
person. A
brilliant artist
devoted to
dance in
the broadest sense. A
notable choreographer
capable of recreating
the best of the
classics, renewing them,
enriching them and combining them
with new elements, and
as an exceptional
dancer with her
unique
arabesques, her
balance, her intrepid
fouetes, her
port de bras, her
lightness, she
was
Giselle, Odette-Odile
,
Taglioni, Carmen,
Dido, Princess
Aurora,
and over a
hundred other
roles in
her vast repertoire.
And there’s more. There is her
status as a great teacher,
generating a style
known as
the Cuban School of
Ballet which
rests on a
supreme
technique and a virtuosity
difficult
to surpass, which has
bequeathed to the
world
valuable exponents
from the
first Cuatro Joyas, (Four Gems)
to world
figures such as José
Manuel Carreño and Carlos Acosta.
Alicia
Alonso is
an indisputable etoile
in the galaxy
of world
ballet. In one of
her many
interviews she said,
"When I started dancing
I didn’t think I was going
to be a star.
What I
wanted was to dance and
dance well.
All my life I have
danced
because I like it, not to
be a big star."
The grandeur of a
prima ballerina assoluta
who, at the age of 93, inspires
five thousand spectators
to break out into a standing ovation, at the
close of
an opening Gala
procession.
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