What’s the classic figure of a dancer? Tall, svelte, well-built and confident. But, what to do when your body doesn’t meet the requirements? And, still, your soul demands to be dressed in tights, doing pliés, semipliés y arabesques.
Thus you could summarize, though hastily and wrongly, what was happening in the heart of young Eduardo Blanco when, in the already distant 1991, while he was studying violin, he witnessed the rehearsal of prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso in his hometown Santiago de Cuba.
But his commitment and his desires of success were strong, and against all odds he managed to enrol to study ballet at the Santiago de Cuba Provincial School and later in the National School of Ballet (ENB) in Havana city, from which he graduated in 2000.
And ever since his talent, which he couldn’t take as a dancer to the stage, was canalized to the creation of choreographies and teaching the new generations of dancers in the Cuban School of Ballet.
His work and efforts are recreated in the documentary “The Enchanted Shrimp” which marks the debut of Olivia Cordovéz as filmmaker.
Friends, relatives and professors, along dancers of the Cuban National Ballet are shown in this 25-minute film to speak their minds on the youngest choreographer in the history of Cuban classic dance.
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In the words of professor Ramona de Sáa, recipient of the Dance National Award and director of the ECB, and of Doctor Miguel Cabrera, BNC Historian: “there are no words to describe what Eduardo has done, a kid who did choreographies and being only 19 staged a ballet like “The Enchanted Shrimp” that combines children from all levels with two experienced dancers, something un-heard of in our dance”.
From the sensuality of Acentos, the complicity of Idilio with big turns and legs astride, to Truenos y relámpagos, spontaneous and perilous and the Legend of the Big Water which has a more complex story; Eduardo’s work borders the limits between classic and neoclassic dance allowing greater freedom to the dancers, as well as outstanding technical performance on the stage.
Doctor Cabrera put it right when he said: “we can expect much more from Eduardo if he keeps growing”.
