The National Ballet of Cuba (BNC by its Spanish acronym), some of its key figures, captured headlines in South Africa from June 28th and for a week. According to reports from various digital media, its presentation caused amazement, preceded by its fame, and the public crowded the Montecasino Theatre in Johannesburg.
Several state figures and even the Vice President of the Republic attended the performances of artists like Viengsay Valdes, Anette Delgado, Sadaise Arencibia, Dani Hernández, José Losada andArian Molina, who offered a tribute to Alicia Alonso to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the prima ballerina assoluta in the role of Giselle.
The BNC presented a repertoire consisting , among others, in memorable pieces as the pas de deux of Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake and shared the stage with representatives of several companies.
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José Kozer, very valuable Cuban poet, won the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Award, granted by the National Council of Culture and Arts of Chile.
According to Roberto Ampuero, Chilean Minister of Culture, Kozer is “an extraordinary poet, with a very prolix and internationally recognized work, solid and innovative”, a man who from 1960 lived in the United States, and has published over fifty titles and is son of Jewish Poles and Czechs emigrants.
Precisely this powerful combination makes his poetry a sui generis corpus and indispensable within the national lyric tradition. Professor of Hispanic Literature for thirty years at New York’s Queens College, he currently resides in Florida. His most famous works are ¨Este judío entre números y letras, ¨ and ¨Y así tomaron posesión en las ciudades.¨
The Pablo Neruda Award is granted annually to prestigious figures of Spanish language as Mexican Jose Emilio Pacheco , Chilean Nicanor Parra and Cuban Fina García Marruz.
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The 33rd Caribe Festival, one of the most prestigious in the region, concluded last Tuesday in Santiago de Cuba, with a massive tour of the city, known as Fire Parade -carried out by the people and the artistic delegations.
Researchers, academics and folklorists converged in the city since July 3 rd, who confirmed the prestige and convening power of the event, which was dedicated this year to the Colombian Caribbean. The Festival recognized regional identity in the diversity of its expressions, and became celebration of all arts and autochthonous manifestations of spirituality.
It is noteworthy that the most cheered and warmly-welcomed actors were the representation of Barranquilla Carnival and ¨Toto la Momposina,¨ who in 1982 accompanied García Márquez during hisacceptance speech of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and who, this time, was granted the Casa del Caribe International Award.
