• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 10 / 29 / 2010

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Guantanamo (Solvision).- With the starting of the 22nd International Ballet Festival of Havana the Cuban capital will host world class dancers and companies for 10 days.

As put by its chairwoman, prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, whose 90th birthday is being feted by this year's festival, the event is a contribution to the peace that the world needs.

At the opening gala, Alonso received the first of several tributes, with the screening of the documentary Alicia Alonso, So That Giselle Will Not Die, part of a Spanish television series on "essential" personalities.

During the gala, Impromptu Lecuona, one of the three choreographies created by Alonso, was premiered, with prima ballerina Barbara Garcia in the lead role and 50 dancers on stage.

Unitil November 7, Havana will be the center of a real ballet fiesta, with guests from 18 countries, such as the American Theatre Ballet -- back in Cuba after half a century; Russians Vladimir Vasiliev and Vladimir Malakhov of the Berlin Opera, and Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo.

Other visitors include artists from the New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet of London, the English National Ballet, the Ballet of the Berlin Opera, the Ballet of Teatro Colon from Argentina, and Sodre National Ballet directed by Julio Bocca.

As usual, the festival will have three main venues: the Gran Teatro of Havana, home of the opening, the Teatro Mella, and
the Karl Marx, which holds up to 5,000 spectators.

Since its creation, the festival has had more than 1,000 guests from 61 countries in five continents, and featured 800 performances, including 219 world premieres.

Source: www.solvision.co.cu/english/