CUBA: CUBANS PAY TRIBUTE TO ALICIA ALONSO, THE COUNTRY'S LEGENDARY PRIMA BALLERINA, FOR HER 70 YEARS ON THE STAGE

Record ID: 860143

  • Title: CUBA: CUBANS PAY TRIBUTE TO ALICIA ALONSO, THE COUNTRY'S LEGENDARY PRIMA BALLERINA, FOR HER 70 YEARS ON THE STAGE
  • Date: 10th January 2002
  • Summary: (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) MCU (Spanish) ALICIA ALONSO SAYING: "I've had the honour to dedicate my life to myself, to my dance, to my history. This is what I set out to do."
  • Embargoed: 25th January 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • City:
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Arts,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA3EY8APA5BE335SLAZQQPO9AM4
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  • Story Text: Cubans have paid tribute at Havana's Garcia Lorca Theatre to Alicia Alonso, the country's legendary prima ballerina, for her 70 years on the stage.
    Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso is one of ballet's legends.
    She starred with the Bolshoi and the Kirov and danced with some of ballet's great masters such as Balanchine, Robbins and Nijinsky.
    In Havana on Saturday, (January 5) Alonso was warmly received by fans, colleagues and Cuba's Comandante, Fidel Castro during a tribute that celebrated her life as prima ballerina and director of one of the world's leading dance companies.
    "It was a lovely reception from the audience, I realised that the performance had touched them deeply, and I also saw that this was not only a homage to me, but to everyone," said Alonso.
    "We were all sharing it all, the memories, because - along with my career - the ballet in Cuba developed, we grew together. I think the public saw this, these memories, some were seeing this for the first time, some were reliving them.
    When our president arrived, El Comandante, it was a really happy moment. It was as if this was the last element to make this a perfect celebration. It was really wonderful, really wonderful."
    The 81-year-old nearly blind ballerina also performed a solo during the tribute, a piece that reflected her life and career as a dancer.
    "It was something that came from within, it came from my heart, from my life, as an artist, a memory of my career, as a human, as a girl, as an older person. I think the audience realises that she is a survivor that is ready to live, to live and to fight and to win."
    Alonso first started dancing when her father, an army officer, was sent to Spain to buy horses for Cuba. She studied Spanish dancing there for one year, including the castanets.
    When she returned to Cuba, she began ballet lessons.
    She returned to Cuba in 1948 to create Cuba's first professional ballet company, Ballet Alicia Alonso. In 1959, it was transformed into Cuba's government-funded Ballet Nacional de Cuba.
    This company works in the same tradition as the Russian ballet, finding talented young children in the provinces and then funding and managing their training.
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