Born On December 21, 1920, in Redención, a working class neighborhood in the municipality of Marianao – into a modest family established by Army veterinarian Antonio Martínez Arredondo and Ernestina del Hoyo y Lugo, a fine seamstress – this illustrious Cuban, in her early years, found in dance the calling that would guide her throughout her life.

Her stellar trajectory, which began in the Pro-Arte Musical Society of Havana’s Ballet School in 1931, was forced to take a new direction when she was obliged to travel abroad due to the low level, prejudices and elitism faced by ballet at the time in Cuba. Tracing her professional career is a mammoth task; including musical comedies in Broadway, the Ballet Caravan, the Ballet Theatre of New York, the Washington Ballet, and the Russian Ballet of Montecarlo, triumphing as a guest star in the most important companies, festivals and galas of this artistic genre worldwide. Her exceptional status as prima ballerina assoluta did not come from a capricious, unjustified reputation, but from her mastery of a vast repertoire of 134 works that ranged from the great ballets of the romantic and classical tradition, to creations of contemporary choreographers.

On November 28, 1995, in the Masini Theater in the Italian city of Faenza, she ended her career as a performer, having already established a record that would be hard to match, not only for the length of time she danced, but also for the excellence of her performances.

The greatness of Alonso, for her people, lies not only in her representing us successfully in 65 countries, receiving standing ovations, too many to count, from Helsinki to Buenos Aires, from New York to Tokyo and Melbourne, but in placing all her honors at the service of her homeland, among them 266 international awards and prizes, 225 national awards, and the 69 chorographical creations – romantic, classical and contemporary – she created, seeing the fruits of her work as her modest contribution not only to Cuban culture, but to world dance.

Over 50 years ago, upon her return to Cuba bearing foreign honors, she said without hesitation, “All my hopes and dreams consist not of going abroad to represent any other country, but my own national flag and my own art. My desire is that there is no one left who does not shout: Bravo for Cuba! when I dance. If I can’t do that, sadness would be the reward to my efforts.”

This patriotic position led to the foundation, together with Fernando and Alberto Alonso, on October 28, 1948 of the now Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC), and in 1950, of the Ballet Academy, with her name, where she had the historical task of training the first generation of dancers under the technical, aesthetic, and ethical values of the now worldwide renowned Cuban School of Ballet. For 71 years, particularly after the triumph of the Revolution, with great determination she was able to place the BNC among the most prestigious companies in the world, set guidelines for a training system that has now spread throughout the country and is a guarantee for Cuban ballet, while promoting a movement of international cooperation that Cuba has taken to almost fifty countries in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She is Alicia, the guide and mentor, whose unifying gift made possible in 26 International Ballet Festivals, to bring together the most celebrated personalities of the dance in a celebration of art and friendship. And it is also the Alicia we have seen give her best as a teacher, either on the most prestigious stages or the most rustic platforms, in public squares, factories, military units, knowing that reaching the people, wherever they are, was always a way upward and never downward.

Those who had the privilege to be by her side, know the extraordinary human being she was, whose courage and firm discipline was never defeated by physical ailments, ups and downs, or misunderstandings.

She was our Alicia, the one who despite her cosmopolitanism, always longed to hear the roosters crow, enjoy the salty air of Havana’s Malecón, contemplate the mariposa and coralillo as the most exquisite flowers, or be fascinated with scientific advances and the mysteries of the universe. “A tenacious, frantic, heroic impulse – shot against illness and time – made perfection relentless,” as Juan Marinello once described her.

(Granma)

The agenda, addressed by writer and artist members of the UNEAC leadership and the Ministry of Culture’s board of directors to follow up on accords adopted at the UNEAC Congress, took up several problems identified during the event regarding the implementation of cultural policy.

Among the issues were some inadequacies in the institutional system’s work to direct, guide, control, and execute the application of cultural policy in the sector’s entities, as well as tasks related to its role in the fields of education, tourism and the media, as well as local bodies subordinate to the Ministry.

More than a dozen individuals made remarks during the discussion, highlighting the need to update policy concepts to current circumstances, including the implementation of improvements in the Ministry of Culture’s structure as well as its functions, with an emphasis on institutional efficiency.

It was acknowledged that the inadequate selection, suitability, training, and preparation of part of the sector’s cadres flows from the functioning of the institutional system, due to ignorance of the particularities of cultural promotion and management, and insensitivity and lack of understanding of the social role of culture, which is accentuated at the territorial and local levels.

In addition, the need to strengthen and systematize the dialogue between cultural cadres, workers, and promoters with creators was reaffirmed, as well as the importance of the artistic and literary vanguard being part of advisory councils and consulted when decisions are made regarding program design and social projection of institutions.

The Ministry of Culture provided details on the improvement and updating of cultural development programs in institutions and territories at all levels, and unveiled a set of necessary actions to solve the deficiencies that were discussed with the writers and artists.

Among the Ministry’s specific priorities are raising the quality of programming in accordance with artistic standards and guaranteeing creators’ participation in its design and execution.

In their comments, writers and artists agreed on the inadequate role of criticism in the establishment of cultural standards and the orientation of different segments of the population. Moreover, they advocated input in the training of those practicing these professions, which requires a qualitatively different partnership with higher education institutions.

Díaz-Canel said that through the state’s political will, the commitment of the intellectual and artistic vanguard in UNEAC, and the consolidation of the institutional system in a consistent and integrated manner, it is possible to resolve problems and move toward having a greater impact on the nation’s cultural life.

Others participants in the discussion were Víctor Gaute, member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee and head of its Ideological Department; Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture; and Luis Morlote, UNEAC President.

(Granma)

“It’s a big challenge, but I like challenges,” Mr. Acosta, 45, said in a telephone interview. “I think I can bring innovation to the company, bring it in tune with our time. I want to send a message that Birmingham has a world-class classical ballet company.”

His hiring is a coup for the company — and for Birmingham, which already boasts a bold-face name in the conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and several important visual arts centers, including the Ikon Gallery and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

The appointment isn’t a huge surprise. Mr. Acosta has always been a charismatic, dynamic figure, staging his own seasons in Britain and abroad, choreographing and writing a memoir and a well-reviewed novel, even while he was a principal guest artist from 2003 to 2016 at the Royal Ballet in London, the sister company of the Birmingham troupe. Shortly before his retirement from the Royal Ballet, he founded the company Acosta Danza in Cuba and he has more recently opened a dance academy in Havana.

Alistair Spalding, the director of Sadler’s Wells, where Acosta Danza is an associate company, said in a telephone interview that everyone knows what a wonderful dancer Mr. Acosta is. “But I also know,” Mr. Spalding said, “how good he is at the other side of things: thinking of exciting ways of working with and presenting dance, creative in his thinking and a great teacher.” Mr. Spalding added that he believed Mr. Acosta’s personal background made him sensitive to the need to draw dancers and audiences from all walks of life.

Mr. Acosta started dancing because his father wanted him off the streets and out of trouble. The youngest of 11 children living in a poor part of Havana, he was accepted at the National Ballet School of Cuba, and won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne at 16, going on to dance with the Houston Ballet and then the Royal Ballet, where he became one of the company’s biggest draws and a major star.

(Source: The New York Time)

The artist settled in Cuba in the 1950s and won the 2008 National Dance Award and the National Artistic Teaching Award.

Burdsall took classes with three important U.S. dancers: Martha Graham, Anthony Tudor and Merce Cunningham, and studied at the George Washington University and the prestigious Julliard School in New York.

The dancer, teacher and choreographer did a remarkable work in promoting and creating works for the development of dance in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In recognition of her contributions to Cuban dance, the participants in the 24th International Meeting of Dance Academies will hold a gala to pay tribute to the teacher.

Today’s show is the fifth and last of a cycle. A children and choreographic contest is scheduled from April 3 to 6.

(Prensa Latina)

The exhibit, on display at the museum in front of Cespedes Park in the heart of the city, pays homage to the group, which in recent days reached its 156th anniversary.

Items shown includes members’ cards, costumes and necklaces of dancers, conga players and singers, musical instruments, certificates, furniture and written notes of the yubá singing.

According to sources from the Provincial Center of Heritage, during 2018 a program will be carried out to celebrate the 15 years as World Heritage and the 156th anniversary of the group, marked by tradition and patriotism since Cuban war for independence.

(Prensa Latina)

Born on December 21, 1920, to veterinarian and Lieutenant Antonio Martínez Arredondo and dressmaker Ernestina del Hoyo, in Pogolotti’s modest Marianao neighborhood, she made her stage debut as a dancer in the ballet school of the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical of Havana, on December 29, 1931. Hence began a career on her toes that set a record, coming to an end 64 years later, on November 28, 1995, at the Masini Theater in Faenza, Italy, dancing the role of the volatile Farfalla in Le papillon.

Her rise to stardom knew no parallel, as she represented Cuba in 61 countries across the five continents, proving to be a dazzling figure from the early days of the Broadway musical comedies, to later groups with which she performed regularly, such as the American Ballet Caravan, the Ballet Theatre of New York, the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, and the Washington Ballet, and many others around the world where she appeared as a guest star.

Her technical strength, “which was 20 years ahead of the standards of the time,” as well as her stylistic adaptability, led her to perform an amazing repertoire of 134 titles, 82 of them worldwide, the result of the work of the most important choreographers of the romantic-classical tradition of the 19th century, such as Jean Dauberval, Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and of 62 of the most important figures of the 20th century, among them Mikhail Fokine, Eugene Loríng, Anton Dolin, George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Alberto Alonso, and Alberto Méndez, to mention just a few of the most relevant.

“Everything I’ve danced I’ve enjoyed a lot, it’s been very important to me, but Giselle has a special place in my life as a dancer and as a human being. It was a big challenge after a long and tough break. But I overcame it. A dancer, if a real artist, must be willing to give their all or to die on stage,” she once said.

As UNESCO Goodwill and World Dance Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, her artistic and cultural work has been recognized with the highest distinctions both in her homeland and the rest of the world, as demonstrated by the 222 national awards and 264 international awards received from 37 nations.

Tireless in her long career, she continues to be, as Juan Marinello well defined: “A tenacious, frantic, heroic force, discharged against disease and against time, toward tireless perfection.”

Ballet dancer, choreographer, director, representative and defender of the culture of her homeland, today she defies the challenges of time, with a clear mind, determined not to be overcome. A few days ago, as a Board of Directors meeting in the National Ballet of Cuba concluded, an institution that she has led with a firm hand for 69 years, she lifted her glass for a toast to some close collaborators and asked us: “What is it to be old?”

With that sentence she summarized the vital key to her life and offered her most faithful definition.

(Granma)

This year, from October 28-November 6, various functions will once again be led by some of the National Ballet of Cuba’s top dancers, performing alongside numerous guests in the concert programs or classic works chosen for the occasion: Swan Lake and Don Quixote.

Sixteen countries will be represented among dancers and companies invited to participate, including: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, France, Britain, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Mongolia, Puerto Rico, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Russia and Uruguay.

Three of the capital’s theaters, the Mella, Alicia Alonso Grand Theatre and its García Lorca Hall, and the National in its Covarrubias and Avellaneda halls, will host the 24 functions where ballet lovers will have an exceptional opportunity to enjoy this glorious art.

INVITEES

Seven U.S. companies will be participating in this year’s festival, some with their entire troupe, others represented by a few of their stars.
Returning to Havana will be the Martha Graham Dance Company, which debuted in the Cuban capital in December of 1941, in the Auditorium Theater (today the Amadeo Roldán). Considered to be one of the most prestigious modern dance companies in the world, the organization was founded in 1929 by renowned U.S. ballerina and choreographer Martha Graham. During the festival the company will present a program featuring pieces such asDark Meadow, Errand into the Maze, Woodland, Lamentation Variations, and Diversion of Angels.

Meanwhile, Dance Americana, created by the prestigious U.S. dancer and choreographer Justin Peck, and composed of figures from the New York City Balletand Miami City Ballet, will present works by the director himself, among them, In creases,Furiant, Lord duet,and Rodeo: four dance episodes.

Furiant, for example will be performed by Ashley Bouder and Joaquín de Luz, lead dancer at the New York City Ballet, who previously performed in Havana during the 2014 edition of the Festival.

Also returning is Brooklyn Mack, lead dancer at the Washington Ballet; dubbed one of the top 25 dancers in the world by U.S. publication Dance Magazine in 2012. In 2014, he performed Don Quixote alongside the BNC’s lead dancer Viengsay Valdés, coming together again this year for the pas de deux from Le Corsaire.

Stellar Russian dancer, Maria Kochetkova, returns to Havana, this time representing the American Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet. Kochetkova participated in the Ballet Royalty Gala held this past August in the Cuban capital. During the festival she is set to dance Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, together with Joaquín de Luz.

The Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, under the direction of Russian maestro Vladimir Issaev, will be performing for the first time on the island. Traveling with the company will be lead dancer Mary Carmen Catoya of Venezuela. Considered to be one of the most important figures on the Latin American dance scene, Catoya will perform Eros Game, a new version of Suite generic, by its creator, Cuban choreographer Alberto Méndez.

During a press conference regarding the festival program held at the Hotel Cohiba, Pedro Simón, director of the Museum of Dance, announced that Issaev has created a solo for Catoya, as a tribute to Alicia Alonso, which will be premiered during the event.

Also returning this year is the highly respected New York based Ballet Hispánico, directed by Eduardo Vilaro, bringing with it, among other works, Línea recta, by Anabelle López-Ochoa, while the Ballet West Company is set to debut with pieces such as Presto.

Also arriving from the North will be Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, founded in Montreal in 1957, with a program featuring the Cuban premiere of Black Milk.

From the southern tip of the Americas the Buenos Aires Ballet, featuring outstanding figures from the ColónTheater’s in-house Ballet, and the National Ballet of Uruguay (SODRE), with its director, the stellar dancer Julio Bocca, will perform under the direction of the company’s prestigious dancer Federico Fernández.

Traveling to Cuba from the Caribbean will be the National Theater Ballet of Puerto Rico’s Laura Valentín, bringing with her Piazzola en concierto, set to debut on the island alongside Cuba’s Patricio Revé.

Companies participating for the first time include South Korea’s Universal Ballet Company, based in Seúl and composed of dancers from over a dozen countries. As reported, its artistic leitmotiv is a mix of Korean traditions with the best styles of western ballet. For the 25th edition of the festival they have selected a program featuring the pas de deux Claro de Luna,“a legend from the far east” from the ballet Shin Chung and the pas de deux from Don Quixote.

Asia is set to surprise once again with Dugaraa Altankhuyag, lead dancer from the National Ballet of Mongolia and based in the U.S., who will perform from Le Corsaire(pas de deux), alongside the BNC’s Ginett Moncho.

Much anticipated is the arrival of Aurelie Dupont, one of the finest exponents of the French school of ballet. In 1998, following the success of her role as Kitri in Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Don Quixote for the Paris Opera Ballet, Dupont was promoted to Star Dancer, the highest position in the company, and a title which she maintains to date. This same year she was also named director of the dance group.

Her presence in the festival, as director and star dancer, accompanied by Hervé Moreau, also one of the Paris Opera Ballet’s top figures, is indicative of their respect for the sublime Alonso and recognition of the importance of the event.

Everything suggests that the participation of Michaela de Prince, born in Sierra Leone but residing in the United States, will be a landmark event.
She is currently lead soloist at the Dutch National Ballet, where in 2015 she offered a highly successful performance as the protagonist of The Nut Cracker. De Prince will dance The Flames of Paris with BNC soloist Francois Llorente.

The public will also be reunited with stars from the BNC, currently members of European companies, such as Joel Carreño, with the Norwegian National Ballet, who will perform Don Quixote alongside Russia’s María Kochetkova; as well as Javier Torres, at the UK’s Northern Ballet. Torres will dance the solo The Dying Swan and the Cuban premiere of Wuthering Heights,together with Uruguay’s Lucia Solari.

This year’s program could not fail to include Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, represented on this occasion by lead dancer Semyon Chudin, who performed in Havana this past August during the Ballet Royalty Gala. During the festival he will accompany the BNC’s Sadaise Arencibia in a performance of Sleeping Beauty.
Meanwhile, the Irene Rodríguez Spanish Dance Company has once again been invited to this international event. In 2012, Irene arrived with impeccable credentials: the staging of her work El crimen fue en Granada, first prize winner of the 8th Alicia Alonso Ibero-American Choreography Contest; and in 2014 Aldabal, a seguiriya – one of the oldest flamenco styles. This year she has prepared a program featuring pieces such as El último gaitero de La Habana, Soleraand Secreto (Zapateado).

Organizers announced four premieres created especially for the Festival: Cygne, by Daniel Proietto; Oscurio (which this publication reported on last May), by Annabelle López-Ochoa, Ely Regina’s Invierno, and a fragment of El salto de Nijinski, by María Rovira.

The festival will also be full of works by choreographer Alicia Alonso, including En las sombras de un vals, and her versions of great classics such as Giselle, one of the purest gems of romantic ballet; Coppélia; “suite” from Sleeping Beauty; La fille mal gardée; Swan Lake; Les Sylphides; Don Quixote;and Dido Abandoned.

The function dedicated to Giselle is scheduled for November 2, in the García Lorca Hall, in honor of Alonso’s 1943 debut in this role which forms part of her legendary career, the 175th anniversary of the work’s premiere in Paris, and 205 years since the birth of its French librettist, Théophile Gautier.

During the press conference, the eminent Alicia Alonso, in subtle reference to the number of festivals, stated that she felt “odd, because time passes, but I feel like I’m just starting to live.”

Every festival organized by the prima ballerina assoluta is a celebration for the dance world and for thousands of ballet lovers in Cuba; always offering something new.

(Granma)

Thus far, dancers from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, France, Britain, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Mongolia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Russia, and Uruguay are set to participate in the event.

According to the Festival organizing committee, a large number of performances will be led by stars of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) and the company’s famed dance troupe.

Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quijote and La fille mal gardée feature among classic works to be presented during the event taking place in the National and Mella theatres; as well as the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater of Havana.

Since its first edition in 1960, the Havana International Ballet Festival has become a social event in Cuba and continues to preserve its character of camaraderie character, with an emphasis on healthy cultural exchange.

With different styles, choreographies, schools of dance, old and new trends, people from around the world descend on Cuba to attend the festival which also includes visual arts; music; film; literature; folklore; and theatre presentations; the printing of commemorative stamps and posters; as well as photography exhibitions.

(Granma)

With winged guardians topping its four corners, and located between the streets San Rafael, San José, Consulado and Prado, the theatre re-opened its doors this January 1, 2016 after undergoing three years of intense restoration works.

The National Ballet of Cuba’s traditional New Year’s gala commemorating the triumph of the Revolution, organized by its director, prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, was the ideal moment for such an occasion.

Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers presided the re-opening of the grand building, accompanied by the eminent Alonso.

Before the function began, Minister of Culture, Julián González, recalled Alicia’s illustrious career as a ballerina and choreographer, describing her as “one of the most important women in Cuban history,” and noting that after finding success in the United States she returned to the island and helped to found the Cuban School of Ballet, today a global reference of classical dance.

After the show, on the very same stage she had performed for decades, the 95 year old Alicia received a heartfelt ovation from the audience and her own company. She is “a celebration of Cuba” the poet Eliseo Diego once wrote.

One of the most important changes to the theater has been the expansion of García Lorca Hall’s entrance space, where a statue by sculptor José Villa Soberón of Alicia Alonso will be unveiled at a later date.

A HISTORIC THEATER

The fact that the Grand Theater of Havana bears the nameAlicia Alonso is a thing of careful consideration – their glorious pasts intertwined; the impressive auditorium offering its spaces to renowned artists, the assoluta gifting audiences with her unforgettable dance.

The history of the theater on Prado Street begins in 1836 when Miguel Tacón was appointed captain general of Cuba and made a royal request to build the play house, which was approved two years later.

Miguel Tacón then received financial support from businessman Francisco Marty, who hired architect Gerónimo de León to design the building, officially inaugurated on April 15, 1838 with a performance of Don Juan de Austria by Gregorio Ducló’s Spanish Theatrical Company.

In her book Viaje a La Habana, María de las Mercedes Beltrán Santa Cruz y Montalvo, better known as the Countess of Merlin, one of Cuba’s earliest female authors, described the Tacón theater as “rich and elegant at the same time[…] The main curtain and decorative adornments offer a stunning view […] the patio is occupied by magnificent chairs, as in the boxes, where a slim rail runs along the front part, and doesn’t obscure the audience’s view […] only the finest theaters of the large European capitals can equal that of Havana in their decorative beauty, exquisite lighting and the elegance of spectators…”

Such was the grandeur of the theater at the time that it was referenced in several popular sayings: “The three things people most admire in Havana: the Morro, the Cabaña and the chandelier of the Tacón theater,” regarding the enormous and striking light fixture made of fine glass, imported from Paris, which hung above the auditorium (the current chandelier is new and made of Bohemian crystal).

From its opening until 1899, when it was sold to the Tacón Realty Company based in New York, the theater saw Italian and French opera companies and global stars, such as ballerina Fanny Elssler, pianist Leopoldo Meyer, sopranos Teresa Parodi and Adelina Patti, pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Cuban violinists José White and Brindis de Salas, Cuban pianist Ignacio Cervantes and actress Sarah Bernhardt, tread its boards.

In 1906 the Galician Heritage Foundation bought both the original theater – which would later be demolished – and the entire block on which it stood. Between 1907 and 1915 the current structure was built to house the Galician Center of Havana. Belgian architect Paul Belau was chosen to design the new theater and U.S. construction company Purdy & Henderson to build it.

Thus began a new era for today’s Grand Theater. The inaugural performance took place April 22, 1915, with the opera Aída, by the Adolfo Bracale’s company, which was then followed by Antonia Mercé from Argentina, pianist Ignacio Paderewski, ballerina Anna Pavlova, Sarah Bernhardt again, Arturo Rubinstein, Serguei Rachmáninov, violinist Misha Elman, tenor Enrico Caruso, Esperanza Iris, Cubans Ernesto Lecuona, Jorge Bolet, Amadeo Roldán and Rita Montaner, Eleonora Duse, Margarita Xirgú, José Mojica, Jorge Negrete, cellist Pablo Casals, violinist Jascha Heifetz, guitarist Andrés Segovia, Carmen Amaya and many others.

Another historic detail worth mentioning is that of a further name change. In 1961, on the initiative of the Galician Center, the theater was re-named after Federico García Lorca, in homage to the poet from Granada on the 25th anniversary of his murder, but since 1985 the entire establishment has been called the Grand Theater of Havana, with García Lorca reserved for its main hall.

Alicia Alonso arrived to the theater’s stage in 1950, performing the works Las Sílfides and Las bodas de Aurora while from 1960 to date the building has served as the headquarters of the International Ballet Festival of Havana, a prestigious dance encounter which has seen the participation of ballerinas from all continents, including Maia Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev, Carla Fracci, Antonio Gades, Maurice Béjart and Julio Bocca as well as great companies and figures such as the Royal Ballet of London, Milan’s La Scala TheaterBallet, the New York City Ballet, Argentina’s Teatro Colón Ballet, the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballets.

The grand auditorium’s main stage has seen Alonso debut her personal version of Swan Lake, give magical performances in Giselle, Carmen, Un retablo para Romeo y Julieta, Edipo Rey and so many others…

(Mireya Castañeda,Granma)

The show will include the First Act of Giselle – choreography by Alicia Alonso based on Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot’s original; Act Two of Swan Lake – choreography by Alicia Alonso based on Marius Petipa and Lev Ivánov’s original; and Coppelia (Act Three) choreographed by Alicia Alonso based on the original by Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa’s version.

The January 1 performance is dedicated to all of those who participated in the Grand Theater’s restoration, with the first public performance set to take place Sunday the 3rd. Tickets are on sale at the theater box office, 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Since September of 2015, the historic venue bears the name “Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso” as a result of an exceptional decision made by the Republic of Cuba’s Council of State to honor the eminent dancer’s contributions to Cuban and world culture, her love for the country and loyalty to the Revolution.

A sculpture of Alonso, who celebrated her 95th birthday on December 21, will be placed in the theater’s vestibule.

The Grand Theater is one of the oldest of its kind in Latin America, inaugurated April 15, 1838 as the Tacón, to house Havana’s Centro Gallego.

(Granma)