As the title of a book on the dance by Cuban journalist and art critic José Luis Estrada Betancourt reads, the world will dance in Havana at the end of October and beginning of November when the curtains of the 23rd International Ballet Festival of Havana will be drawn.
The topmost meeting of the dance in the country proposes an approach for several days of the best and most brilliant representatives of the art of movement and interpretation, both worldwide and from our country. The greatest figures of the dance and the most prestigious companies in the world have danced on Cuban stages.
There is still some time to go before the arrival of that moment expected by all Cuban ballet fans and those who will visit us in those days; however, some pre-festival details are already known that OnCuba will now share with you.
Official Webpage on the 23rd Ballet Festival of Havana, ready for use…
The Organizing Committee, under the general direction of Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, launched the official website of the event with wide information on the organization and what will happen during the festival days.
The site will be available from the URL address www.festivalballethabana.cult.cu with the purpose of reflecting and promoting even more in the Internet the impact that this cultural event bears on world dance. The site has a simple and elegant structure that allows the users to find the necessary information through several ways and in different formats.
It will be possible to find up-dating on the schedule of the event, images, reviews and biographies of dancers and companies, both national and foreign, invited to the Festival, as well as a wide gallery of images and audiovisuals, with choreographies and history of the dancers of Ballet Nacional de Cuba, the company, its director and the Cuban Ballet School.
Premieres of works by Alicia Alonso will enhance the Havana Ballet Festival
To continue a life full of success, Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso has announced the creation of three new choreographies that will be premiered during the 23rd International Ballet Festival of Havana, to take place from October 28 through November 7, 2012.
The pastoral opera Acis and Galatea, by Georg Friedrich Handel, is one of the novelties to be presented during this event, with art direction and choreography of the also director of Ballet Nacional de Cuba. This staging will include dancers from Ballet Nacional de Cuba, soloists from the Ópera de Cuba and the Agrupación Nacional de Concierto, in addition to the Sine Nomine vocal camerata.
A gala evening to take place in honor of Cuban playwright Virgilio Piñera on his centennial will include another piece of the legendary ballerina. La destrucción del danzante, a dramatic solo inspired in the homonymous poem of that outstanding dramatist, with music by Heitor Villa-Lobos and designs by Frank Álvarez.
The rhird choreography is Nosotros (Us), with music by Friedrich Chopin, in a piano and violin version by Nathan Milstein. In this ballet, a ballerina is practicing by herself in the rehearsal hall while she is observed by another artist. When he decides to help her with a difficult step, both understand that a link deeper than friendship is uniting them.
Iván Tenorio dances “Virgileando”
It is no secret that this year we are celebrating several centennials of great intellectuals and artists of our country. Various events have been organized particularly to recall one of the most renowned writers and dramatists of the past century and of Cuban literature: Virgilio Piñera.
The dance, in a Festival year, could not fail to pay tribute to him, and a special gala evening in his honor will be celebrated on October 4, where choreographer.
Based on three poems by the dramatist – El banco que murió de amor (The Bench that Died of Love), Si quieres (If You Want To) and Testamento (Testament), Tenorio again inserts himself in the universe of Piñera transferring his symbols to the story and choreographic structure of the piece.
It will not be a biography of the author, but a reference to his creation, where the Cuban-ness will be the main element in the movements, demanding great skill from the dancers.
One of the novelties will be the possibility of listening to the recorded reading of a poem by Virgilio during the choreography, in his voice, sole legacy of this kind conserved from the writer.
Alicia Alonso Receives Prestigious Prize in Italy
Last September 8, the Cuban glory of the dance Alicia Alonso, choreographer, maître and general director of Ballet Nacional de Cuba, received in Italy the Positano Dance Prize 2012 to her entire art career.
At the age of 91, the Prima Ballerina Assoluta attended the awarding ceremony at the Teatro della G. Piaggia Grande, during a gala evening of the 40th edition of the Dance Festival of Positano, in the south of Italy, where as part of the award she received an original drawing by Italian filmmaker and designer Franco Zeffirelli.
Alicia Alonso likewise had a meeting with the public and the critics, and a biographical documentary on her was premiered, produced by the National Museum of the Dance of Cuba, whose director is Pedro Simón.
The prize was granted unanimously by a group of critics of the dance at world level, some of whose members were the Briton Clement Crisp (Financial Times), Anna Kisselgoff, from the U.S. (New York Times), Frenchman René Sirvin (Le Figaro) and Italian Alfio Agostini (Ballet 2000).
Gala of Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Preamble of the Festival
The Ballet Nacional de Cuba will present a special gala on September 27, 29 and 30, as preamble of its presentations during the upcoming 23rd International Ballet Festival of Havana.
With a concert program bordering the dancing styles of classicism and contemporary, the stage of García Lorca Hall of Gran Teatro de La Habana will receive the first figures and the young generation of a company that has set standards in the world of the dance worldwide.
Five choreograñphies will be presented in those days:
En las sombras de un vals (In the Shadows of a Waltz), created by Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, will open the evenings to enchant with a story of subtle choreography and interpretation.
Didenoi, with choreography by Maruxa Salas, will be presented on the 27th and 30th,while Concuerda, a creation by young Eduardo Blanco, will be on the stage on the 29th.
The evenings will be completed with Acentos (Accents), also by Blanco, with spectacular music by the group Luna Negra in Havana Calipso and designs by maestro Salvador Fernández, and the Grand Pas of Don Quixote, with all the joy, color, dancing and acting technique required by this piece, for the brilliance of the dancers.
Author
José Ernesto González Mosquera
