Alicia Alonso

Alicia Alonso

Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso and founder of the National Ballet of Cuba and the Cuban School of Ballet died on October 17, 2019 at the age of 98. Virtuoso female dancer like no one before her. In an art dominated by the delicate and ethereal woman, she challenged the image of the female gender in classical ballet presenting a strong, athletic, passionate woman with great stage presence. 

Back in her prime, she awakened great admiration from the audiences of the Metropolitan Theatre in New York as few dancers did, and never had a Latina before her, a Cuban.

She could have stayed abroad in New York, in the glory of a dancer with such recognition ... but she decided to return to Cuba.

In a world where women are silent muses and men are the directors, choreographers and absolute leaders Alicia Alonso challenged the classical world again: she became the founder, director, choreographer and teacher of her school and company: The School of Cuban Ballet and the National Ballet of Cuba.

My ballet teacher during my years of study in Mexico, one the company's first-generation soloists and Cuban ballet teacher, Raúl Bustamante, told me that Alicia found her first dancers wherever she found talent regardless of their situation or social status.

She took young men out of the reformatory and told them to use that their energy for good. She was hard on them, demanding unwavering discipline. She helped them find themselves, to become fighters, adult men, dancers.  The Cuban School of Ballet has given the world a spectacular collection of first-class technical and artistic ballet dancers.  In Cuba she challenged machismo and aroused the artistic sensibility of an entire people: the male dancer in Cuba is admired as a national emblem.

Carlos Acosta from the Cuban Ballet Legacy

The scope of The Cuban School of Ballet, the legacy of Alicia Alonso has already become immeasurable. Their male dancers, ballerinas and teachers have sown so many seeds worldwide that the world of dance simply recognizes them and claims them as their own.

All ballet dancers of the world owe part of our artistry to the Great Cuban heritage. Especially in Latin American countries, as in Costa Rica.

I met Alicia Alonso in 1992, I was a very young ballet student. I was impressed to see an elderly adult dancing like her. Her visual disability was significant, she was greatly assisted so as to get her bearings. At that time in the nineties there was no talk of physical disabilities openly, especially in the dance world.  Also the stereotype was that elderly adults were considered people who had to retire and rest, age perceived as a disability as well.

In a rehearsal I observed, her daughter Laura Alonso was directing the rehearsal and coaching her. Laura was very hard on her mother during the rehearsal, she scolded her harshly, as she did not scold anyone. I understood then that professional ballet, like life, was hard and challenges of all types including disabilities, age, gender among others could present great obstacles, even for Alicia Alonso.  Dancing for her, as for all dancers, was challenging too.  Yet she danced.  The humanity and vulnerability of Alicia Alonso was what impressed me the most in my youth.

I want to remember her great like that, as an example of a well lived life, of being a dancer, of being a teacher, but above all as great example of being a wonderful, beautiful, strong and vulnerable, human being.

Thank you, Alicia, may you rest in peace.

Homage to Alicia

The Cuban School of Ballet