# Adolfo Rodríguez Valdés

**Date of birth:** September 18, 1929

**Date of death:** July 24, 2021

**Categories:** Arts, Dance, Ballet, dancer, professor, Society

Adolfo Roval is one of the great names of Cuban classical dance, a dancer, maître and Regisseur. He is one of the most important character dancers of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and of the Cuban school of ballet, and a prominent figure in ballet instruction in Latin America.

His characterizations of Dr. Coppélius in Coppélia, and Mamma Simone in La fille mal gardée, serve today as a model and reference for the performers of these characters in the company and are among the most outstanding in the history of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

He was born in Cruces, the former province of Las Villas, on September 18, 1929. In 1951, seduced by the great musicals of the era, he began his studies of Modern Dance and Ballet with teachers Ramiro Guerra and Luis Trápaga, respectively. In 1952 he began studying at the Escuela de Ballet Alicia Alonso.

In 1953, he officially joined the Corps de Ballet of what was then Ballet Alicia Alonso. Around that same time, he joined the casts of Ballet de CMQ Televisión, Teatro Radiocentro, Experimental Dance Theater and important Havana nightclubs, under the artistic direction of Alberto Alonso.

The revolutionary triumph of 1959 found him in Puerto Rico, where he had founded the Teatro de la Danza José Parés, together with the emblematic Puerto Rican artist. Following the reorganization of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, his performance was fundamental: dancer, professor, maître, head of Public Relations and Outreach, and artistic advisor, responsibilities he assumed in different periods throughout more than 65 years of service with Cuba's principal dance company.

As a dancer, he achieved the rank of Soloist in 1962 and assumed outstanding roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and La fille mal gardée.

He has developed important pedagogical work. He was one of the professors who founded the Provincial Ballet School of Havana and the National School of Ballet. His meritorious teaching work has extended to other companies in Cuba and abroad.

Awards and Recognition
In 2005, Rey Juan Carlos University and the Instituto Superior de Danza Alicia Alonso in Madrid awarded him the Prize for Artistic Teaching, in recognition of his national and international pedagogical work.

In April 2019 he received the National Prize for Dance. Adolfo Roval was a person greatly loved and admired, not only by his countless students throughout the world, but also by his colleagues and friends.