CubaPLUS Magazine

In the midst of a well-known and well-deserved jubilee, the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) celebrates its 75 years of life, after a beautiful season, at the level of any international festival, which has packed the Avellaneda Hall of the National Theater of Cuba, with performances of the best of its historical repertoire, which will culminate in a magnificent festive and tribute Gala.

The prestigious company, included since the second half of the 20th century in the select group of the best in the world, was founded on October 28, 1948 for a triptych that soon became famous: that of the Alonsos. They were the extraordinary dancer Alicia Martínez del Hoyo, her husband Fernando and her brother Alberto, both Alonso by birth, from whom the brilliant dancer and future star took her stage name.

Against all odds and by dint of intense work, a lot of talent and outstanding technical expertise, the group, born under the name of Alicia Alonso, survived between tours and international performances, increasingly recognized, until reaching the years of favorable changes to culture that have occurred since 1959 in the country. Under the name of the National Ballet of Cuba since the 1960s, the company and teaching academy that the Alonsos had also founded, was able to count on the valuable support of the Cuban state, determined to bring culture in a broad and comprehensive way to the people.

This joint effort of generous, patriotic, high-flying artists and political will has had wonderful harvests in its already long history. Let's say that the season conceived for the grandiose celebration, which is part of the entire national culture, is representative in the program presented during almost the entire month of October of the Company's brilliant career. Iconic works have been selected from across the BNC, presented and acclaimed on multiple stages around the world, such as Rara Avis, Leda and the Swan, Cinderella, Dionaea and Majísimo, opening the great party.

A repertoire that has also incorporated the shocking Blood Wedding and Carmen, the latter, together with Giselle, defining the reign of Alonso, as well as the first act of the festive Coppelia, IInd of Swan Lake and IIIrd of Don Quixote. Giselle, Canto vital and the Seventh Symphony cannot be missed in the final Gala. The memory and tribute have gone beyond the essential founding core of the BNC and have involved the historical membership and the new and brand-new values that, with the seal of the highest professionalism, dance throughout Cuba on classic stages.

Shortly before the physical disappearance of the Prima Ballerina Assoluta, the young star Viengsay Valdés assumed the position of general director of the company, entrusted to her by her great Master. It is a consecrating responsibility that she has fulfilled with the extraordinary brilliance of her professional worth and her human dedication, which is why she has been recognized and honored on this 75th anniversary, along with other values, impossible to name in this space. With culture and classical dance in unforgettable days of celebration, October says goodbye in Cuba full of beauty.