A year after the passing of Maestro Fernando Alonso, this July 28, relatives, teachers and dance students walked to his unmarked grave to lay flowers. No cultural institution in Havana promoted a tribute nor sent flowers to the cemetery. Those present at the necropolis of Colon did not exceed twenty, most workers of the Prodanza center, a modest company formed and led by Laura Alonso, daughter of the Maestro.
Life has cruel ironies and silences. In Cuban culture, one of those illogical silences relegates Fernando Alonso, the great teacher and one of the essential creators of the Cuban school of ballet and the national company of our country. It has been a year since he died in his native Havana, the city where he chose to die. Some would have preferred a foreign land, to accuse the Cuban of abandonment or waiver, and thus justify the silence. However, despite failing to achieve that, they won. The veil over Fernando continues and the danger of oblivion, after death, is increased.
In a way, Alonso still lives much of his students, who were many and from several generations. Immortality can be silent until one day, but the ballet is such an ephemeral art that it is doubtful if people will ever recognize the king’s crown.
Without the legacy of Alonso a part of the culture of the nation would be different and 2014 would not be any lapse for him, it is nothing less than the year of the centenary of his birth. Interestingly, the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) will dedicate the upcoming International Ballet Festival of Havana, to be held from October 28 to November 7, to the English playwright William Shakespeare (UK, 1564-1616), who had never directly had anything to do with dance.
Even from the repertoire it would have been more comfortable to dedicate this event to the father of the Cuban school, without whom even Festivals had existed. But the press does not have to respond for what institutions do. Fernando Alonso deserves a great tribute in 2014. Now I will give you at least 10 reasons for this debt:
1 – He founded the BNC and the Cuban school of ballet, within which he created the methodology that still applies.
2 – He was director of BNC from the foundation in 1948 to 1975 and also directed initially the Alicia Alonso Academy, the predecessor of the National Ballet School which he also directed till he appointed (himself) for this position one of his disciples, Ramona de Saa.
3 – The Master trained generations of artists who participated in the first contest and the first generations of dancers from the company. He was also the teacher for decades of Alicia Alonso, Cuban artist of greater global recognition.
4 – He organized, resized and internationalized the Ballet of Camagüey and in addition to that, he turned that province into the other great pole of teaching ballet in the country.
5 –He remained bound to the National School and of Camagüey till the end of his days. In those premises he rehearsed many local students and professional dancer whenever they approached him. He also received them at home to share ideas and stories between cafes and videos.
6 – He was not only a demanding teacher, but being over 90 years old he was still looking for a dramatic sense for every step, trying to provide a logical action, he was passionate about researching the stories about the works to help dancers to become the characters, to feel according to times and required circumstances.
7 -He was a great connoisseur of human anatomy and he taught classes and corrections taking into account that knowledge acquired by personal study and during his youth by necessity, because when he lived in New York (1930) he enrolled in a course of X-ray and worked as a radiologist for a time as a second job to raise the money needed to buy the passage of his then-girlfriend, Alicia Martinez, who, when she reached the United States became his first wife, Alicia Alonso. Subsequently, Fernando had relations with medical professionals and never lost the bond with scholars of the human body, or with books.
8 – In Cuba, he free handed all his knowledge. His warmth led him to stop and say hello every time he recognized someone regardless of rank or other distinction. Fernando said that his students had taught him to teach and always demanded respect when in his presence spoke of Alicia Alonso, who gave classes and rehearsals for decades, and whom he recognized as a model dancer for the Cuban school.
9 – On December 27, 2012, his last birthday, the BNC dedicated a gala to conductor Enrique González Mantici, who was a personal friend of the Master, and without making a single reference to the anniversary of Alonso. Even the dancers of the company were forced to improvise a military march at the end of the show to honor Mantici.
10 – In April 2014, during the sessions of Congress of UNEAC (National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), one of the four jewels of Cuban ballet, Aurora Bosch, proposed that the National School adopted the name of his principal teacher Fernando Alonso. The teacher received a standing ovation and unanimous approval. Despite the fact, so far, there has been no designation.
For all that true dedication to the art, for all that Cuban culture owes Fernando, a tribute was assumed in 2014, at least after death. This centenary of life of the colossal educator had to celebrate not with a function or a festival but by all means possible.
Again I stress the same I explained Alonso when he was alive: the trace of a dance teacher usually live in scenic genius and spirit of the dancers, his finest works. But when the nature of a master creates dancers, company and school, forgetfulness becomes unforgivable.
Unlike genius writers, painters and musicians, future generations will not have texts, pictures or sheet music to hold on. They contemplate dancers never knowing on whom formed them. And we all know that time indeed is relentless.
