María Marta García Peñate

Known by the artistic name Marta García, she was a prima ballerina of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. She was a renowned Cuban dancer whose long career made her one of the pillars of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC). She belonged to the second generation of great and admired figures of the prestigious Cuban school of ballet.

She was born in Guanabacoa, a humble neighborhood of Ciudad de La Habana.

Her entry into the world of entertainment began in childhood, when she made her debut on Cuban television in 1954, at the age of 5, and at the Teatro Infante de Holguín, after which she was proclaimed by the press as the best child artist of her time on the island.

In 1956 she trained in a presentation at the Alicia Alonso Ballet Academy at the then Teatro Radiocentro (now Yara), and a year later she successfully repeated this experience at the Teatro América and participated in the Spanish Dance Festival at the Teatro Fausto.

At seven years old she made her stage debut at the Alicia Alonso Ballet Academy. After having begun her studies of Spanish dance during her childhood, she decided to study classical ballet.
She began her ballet studies at the "Alicia Alonso" Academy, and continued them at the Provincial Ballet School of La Habana from 1962-65. Among her teachers were Alicia Alonso, Fernando Alonso, Eugenia Klemétskaya, José Parés, Menia Martínez and Laura Alonso.

That year she made her debut in the ranks of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in the corps de ballet of Coppélia. In 1966 she performed her first soloist roles as one of Giselle's friends; and the Spanish Dance and Mazurka from Swan Lake.

In 1968, Marta García won the youth award at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition (Bulgaria), a competition to which she returned in 1970 and won the silver medal.

In 1971 she premiered what would later be one of her milestones: the ballet Masquerade (with music by Aram Khachaturian), with choreography by Anna Leontieva.

As a leading figure of Cuban ballet, she traveled the world presenting almost all the leading roles of the great classical repertoire, from La fille mal gardée and Giselle to Swan Lake and Don Quixote.

By 1975, two years after being promoted to prima ballerina, she premiered La casa de Bernarda Alba in Tenorio's version, and in 1978 Blood Wedding, by Antonio Gades, playing the role of the Bride in its Havana debut.

From 2001 to 2004, she was director of the Ballet of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, together with her partner in life and art, principal dancer Orlando Salgado.

In 2005 she settled in Madrid (Spain), where she deployed extensive pedagogical and choreographic work. There she worked at the Alicia Alonso University Institute (affiliated with Rey Juan Carlos University). She also taught and choreographed at the Scaena Center, directed by Carmen Roche, and taught courses at the Madrid Superior Conservatory of Dance María de Ávila.

In 2014, she published her memoirs, titled Danzar mi vida (Ediciones Cumbres, Madrid).

Her career as a classical dancer extended from 1965 to 2001, although she continued teaching and creating choreographies until her death.

She died at the age of 68 from lung cancer in a hospital in Madrid, on January 29, 2017.

Legacy
The critic Roberto Méndez defined her legacy in an article where he said that "Marta has not only passed into the history of Cuban ballet, but into its unwritten legend, for exceptional physical gifts that she had the wisdom to master and channel to become a great artist and not a circus phenomenon."

In 1978, during a tour of the United States, The New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff praised not only her technique, but her fluid interpretation.

Of her brilliant interpretive technique, English critic Arnold Haskell said that she was "a mezzo-soprano of dance, a ballet actress expressive from head to toe."

Awards and Recognition

1968 - First Prize, Youth Category, at the Varna International Ballet Competition.
1970 - Silver Medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition.
1970 - Golden Star Prize, at the VIII International Dance Festival held in Paris.
1974 - Promoted to the artistic category of prima ballerina.
1978 - Award for "Most Excellent Individual Participation" at the Japan International Ballet Competition.
1999 - "Alejo Carpentier" Medal awarded by the State Council of the Republic of Cuba.

In Madrid, Marta García, where she settled with Salgado from 2005 onwards, deployed an intense and fruitful pedagogical and choreographic career in the final years of her life. In addition to work at the Alicia Alonso university institute, she was a teacher and choreographer at the Scaena Center directed by Carmen Roche and taught courses at the Madrid Superior Conservatory of Dance María de Ávila, both in Madrid.