International Ballet Festival of Havana kicks off today

With artists from some 15 countries, belonging to prestigious national and foreign companies, the 28th International Ballet Festival of Havana "Alicia Alonso" (FIBHAA by its Spanish acronym) will open today until November 10.

Just when the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), its main host and Cultural Heritage of the Nation, reaches its 76th anniversary, the National Theater of Cuba will host the opening gala.

Viengsay Valdes, prima ballerina and president of the FIBHAA, said recently that the event will bring together dancers, choreographers and teachers of generations that have been a special part of the history of the BNC.

Valdes pointed out that a season of the classic “Swan Lake”-which has not been performed in Havana since 2018-will go on stage, where Alicia Alonso's choreography, prima ballerina assoluta, will be interpreted on the original by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

The public will enjoy the joining of BNC's prima ballerinas with guests from Queensland Ballet (Australia), Bavarian State Ballet (Germany), Bolshoi Ballet (Russia), Birmingham Royal Ballet (United Kingdom), Ballet de Bordeaux (France) and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (Canada).

Outstanding artists will come to show their art on the Cuban stage, such as Elena Vostrotina, from the Zurich Ballet, Switzerland; Margarita Fernandes and Antonio Casalinho, from the Bavarian State Ballet, Germany; Mexico's Elisa Carrillo, Russians Azari Plisetsky and Mikhail Kaniskin, Spaniards Patricia Donn and Joaquin de Luz, Brazil's Marcelo Gomes, Austria's Rainer Krenstetter and Semyon Chudin, principal dancer of the Bolshoi, among others.

For several days Havana will be the showcase of world dance with established and new talents from around the world defending the beauty of an art whose language is universal.
 

n Cuba and the countries of that region, and summons specialists, intellectuals and national and foreign artists interested in fraternizing through cultural exchange.