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HAVANA’S 21st INTERNATIONAL BALLET FESTIVAL
an unforgettable dance extravaganza
by Damián Donéstevez

Cuban and international dance lovers are delighting themselves in late October and early November as Havana’s 21st International Ballet Festival got underway on the Caribbean island on October 28, presided over by Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and Director of the Cuban National Ballet company Alicia Alonso. The ensemble’s director was a former principal dancer and star with the American Ballet Theater in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The ballet fiesta considered one of the oldest and most prestigious such event in the world today with more than 40 years of history is running until November 6.

Havana’s International Ballet Festival this year is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Cuban National Ballet set up in 1948 by Alicia, Fernando and Alberto Alonso.

Principal dancers and the famous company corps de ballet, along with international ballet and dance stars and prestigious companies from other countries are staging works specially created for the occasion by outstanding choreographers.

The biennial festival venues include Havana’s Grand Theater, the América Theater and the Mella Theater in the Cuban capital, along with the Sauto and the Cárdenas theaters in the western province of Matanzas and Las Tunas Theater in the eastern province of Las Tunas.

Special moments at the Havana Ballet Festival include the premier of a new production of Sleeping Beauity and the staging of other famous ballets included in the Cuban National Ballet company’s repertoire for many years, such as Swan Lake and Giselle. A performance of Shakespeare and his Masks or Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Cuban prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso and the Cuban version of Swan Lake will have a natural stage at Havana’s Cathedral Square located in the city’s historic section, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Another culminating point within the event is the premier of the ballet which won the Ibero-American Choreography Contest , sponsored by the National Ballet and the General Spanish Authors and Editors Society –SGAE-: En los confines de la tierra (In the remotest regions of the Earth) by Cuban choreographer Tania Vergara.

The ballet festival schedule includes the performance of Cuba’s Carlos Acosta and Russia’s Nina Kapsova, principal dancers with the Royal British Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet respectively, who will dance the pas de deux of Yuri Grigorovich’s Ballet Spartacus and two solos: Acosta will perform Le bourgeois and Kapsova the famous The death of the swan. Other guests include Diana Cuni and Tomas Lund, principal dancers with the Royal Danish Ballet, who are premiering the Third Act of the famous Bournonville Ballet Napoli in Cuba; Edina Plicanic and Ronald Savkovic from Croatia and renowned Spanish flamenco dancer Critina Hoyos with her Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia, among other guests.

Parallel to the cultural gathering will be lectures, book launchings, film and video screenings and other options which will also delight ballet fans in this unforgettable ballet extravaganza.

Brief historical background of the Havana Ballet Festivals
 

This ballet fiesta is considered one of the oldest in the world. Established in 1960 as part of a strategic cooperation among the Cuban National Ballet company, the National Tourist Industry Institute and other cultural agencies, the artistic gathering quickly became one of the most important such events for Cuban culture and the international dance world.

With a non-competitive nature, it has allowed the Cuban audience to enjoy the performance and the creative work by famous world dance figures and enabled visiting experts and dancers to take a look at the development of Cuban ballet.

Throughout its almost 50 year history, the Havana Ballet Festival has staged galas dedicated to the birth of great Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokin; to Romanticism and Classicism; to Cuban, French and Baroque composers; to Frederick Chopin, Igor Stravinski, Manuel de Falla and to great Russian composer Piotr Ilich Chaikovski, a key figure for classic ballet and to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Throughout this time, important companies and ballet celebrities have been invited to these dance gatherings, including the Julio Bocca Ballet Argentino from Argentina; the Ballet de Zaragoza and the Ballet Español de Murcia from Spain; the Soloists Ensemble with Berlin’s Komische Opera and Dessau’s Grand Theater from Germany; the Diastasis Ensemble from Cyprus; Torino Theater Dance Company from Italy; Holland’s Introdans Voor der Jeugd Ensemble, as well as the Kennedy Tap Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble and the Washington Ballet from the United States.

International ballet celebrities have also been guests, such as Italian ballet legend Carla Gracci, renowned dancers Alessadra Ferri, Maximiliano Guerra, Julio Bocca and Cuba's José Manuel Carreño, who dances with the American Ballet Theater, and CArlos Acosta, a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, as well as stars with the Paris Opera Ballet; the Ballet of Milano’s alla Scala Theater; the American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet; Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and China’s Guangzhou Classic Ballet, among others.

A very important moment in the history of such dance gatherings in Havana was the opening of the National Dance Museum in 1998, which treasures an interesting exhibit of objects related to dance, most of which belong to Alicia Alonso’s personal collection, including theater sketches, books, pictures, old documents and programs related to important ballet celebrities such as Fanny Esler, costumes, medals, paintings, a thread of the shawl which killed famous dancer Isadora Duncan, a coat that belonged to Ana Pavlova, and others.

Prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, who is one of the founders of the Cuban National Ballet company, has been closely linked to the history of these festivals as a dancer, choreographer and the main inspirer of such evens which have gathered the best of the best of world dance in Havana for 46 years. During its history, the festivals have gathered in the Cuban capital and other Cuban cities some 60 foreign companies and nearly one thousand guests including dancers, choreographers, pedagogues, designers, soloists and music composers, critics and observers from around 60 countries from all continents.