To Alicia, 60 years from her debut in Giselle
I had a physics teacher during school –definitely mannered, extremely nice an capable; one of the best teachers I have had– who loved ballet, concert music and theatre with all his heart. This might sound sentimental but he used to say it so convincingly that I –an innocent, restless and curious boy, eager to see the world– felt touched. His name was Humberto Calvo, I hope he is still alive (it has been almost 20 years since I last saw him and he wasn’t young by then). He lived in Moron and he used to complain about not being able to listen to his favorite radio station CMBF National Musical Radio because of an antenna near his house. It was actually shocking the fact that, with all that humanistic culture, he taught such an exact science. He used to laugh: “Physics is everything; it is in every principle, even in arts. Music is somehow physics; dance is very physical, even something so impalpable like poetry can be born out of a merely physical impulse”. I didn’t understand it at first, but then I thought it was because I hated it, I was always below the rate for exact sciences. One Saturday afternoon (I was particularly bored) Calvo sat by my side. “I´m going to tell you a story because you are a sensitive boy. You will probably experience exiting things like this, but to me this is one of my greatest memories. I saw Alicia Alonso dance Giselle for the last time in Cuba. It was at Havana´s Grand Theatre. I got a ticket for the gods and from up there I saw it all, without knowing that would be Alicia´s last interpretation of Giselle. I am telling you about it and I get goose bumps”.
I also got goose bumps when I heard the story. I guess Calvo enriched it, obviously a few things didn’t match with the official version (I found out later). It wasn’t the last time Alicia danced Giselle in Havana. During the early 90´s she performed some scenes from the second act. She was a venerable old lady, but taking a look at video recordings I was surprised to see the agility in her movements (of different moments of her long dancing career. (My dear Juan Orlando Perez –one of the best Cuban journalists– published in the Alma Mater magazine a wonderful chronicle of that event, which I treasure). It was said by important figures at that time, so it ok for me to repeat it: Alicia Alonso was Giselle. She –like just a few, like almost anyone– filled the character with spirituality (“a galactic impulse” –I think Calvo used to say) beyond artistic and stylistic excellence. There are video recordings of different moments of her long artistic career and in all of them there is more than just performances: it is something mystic, resurgence. Lucky those who enjoyed her immortal performance of Giselle (she made it immortal); they witnessed one of the greatest artistic events of the 20th century. “I can die in peace because I had the chance to be there that day at the Grand Theatre”, Calvo said after telling me that story. I look at him in astonishment. By that time I used to watch ballet in TV, I wasn’t even aware of the fact that Alicia didn’t dance the classics any more. Humberto Calvo opened the doors of a world I decidedly walked into a few years later when I came to Havana to study. I have seen dozens of dancers interpreting Giselle; I would dare say more than a hundred. I never saw Alicia out of video recordings. Calvo summed it up by saying: “you missed it, you were too late”.
