Orlando Salgado Bermúdez

Salgado is a native of San Antonio de los Baños, currently in the province of Artemisa. He was a principal dancer and teacher of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. He was the partner of prima ballerina Alicia Alonso for more than two decades.

Since 1997 he has been Associate Professor of the Faculty of Dance at the Universidad de las Artes, in Havana, Cuba.

In 2002 he obtained a Master's Degree in Performing Arts from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, in Madrid, Spain, where he has been teaching since 2013.

He is a member of the International Dance Council, CID-UNESCO.

His extensive repertoire encompasses the principal roles of the romantic-classical tradition in Giselle, Swan Lake, Coppelia, La fille mal gardée, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and creations by choreographers of such diverse styles as Maurice Béjart, Alicia Alonso, Antonio Gades, Azari Plisetsky, Alberto Méndez, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Roland Petit, Alberto Alonso, Gustavo Herrera, Jorge Lefevre, Ivan Tenorio and Vittorio Biaggi, among others.

Among his performances, the roles of Albrecht in Giselle, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Don José in Carmen, Leonardo in Blood Wedding, Oedipus in Oedipus Rex, and Vital Song stand out, roles for which he has received recognition from international critics.

Orlando Salgado began his ballet studies at age 9, together with his brother Francisco Salgado at the newly inaugurated Escuela Nacional de Arte de Cubanacán in Havana, where he combined his classes with artistic practice, performing on stage from age 13 in Ballet Nacional de Cuba productions.

Important teachers such as Alicia Alonso, Fernando Alonso, Laura Alonso, Joaquín Banegas, Loipa Araújo and Azari Plisetsky contributed to his professional training. He graduated in 1968, with the first graduating class of the national art school.

Immediately after graduating, he began his professional career as a member of the corps de ballet of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, where he was promoted to soloist in 1972, and to Principal Dancer in 1976.

From 1969 to 2001 he participated in numerous tours to more than 50 countries in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, first as a member of the corps de ballet and later as a principal figure of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

From 1971 he accompanied as partner the Primerísima Bailarina Alicia Alonso in works from the classical and contemporary repertoire such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Carmen, Oedipus Rex, The Merry Widow, The Diva, Robert the Devil, Poem of Love and the Sea, Cleopatra, Abandoned Dido and Spartacus, among others.

He was also partner to all the principal ballerinas of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and to important figures of international dance, such as Eleonor D'Antuono, Martin Van Hamel and Sandra Rodríguez (from American Ballet Theatre), Liliana Belfiore (Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires), Silvie Reynaud and Laura Urdapieta (Compañía Nacional de Danza de México), Annette Av Paul and Sylvie Kinal (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens), Estela Erman (Argentina), Yasuyo Omoto (Japan), Eva Evdokimova (USA).

During his long career as a dancer in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, he also worked as a teacher and repetiteur.

In 2001, Orlando Salgado moved to Argentina as professor, rehearsal director and repetiteur of the Ballet Estable of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, together with his wife, Cuban prima ballerina Marta García.

In 2002 he created, together with her, his choreographic version in three acts and epilogue of the ballet Swan Lake that premiered with the Ballet Estable of Teatro Colón. He also staged a version of the Don Quixote suite, specially mounted to celebrate the 78th anniversary of that company.

Other important activities were his participation in the opening of the 22nd Joinville Dance Festival (Brazil), with the production of the ballet Coppelia in its three-act version; and as choreographic assistant to Marta García in the production of the ballet Lady Caroline (world premiere, in two acts).

In 2005, Salgado moved to Madrid (Spain). From that date until 2013, he was associate director and teacher of Ballet Carmen Roche, in Madrid. During those same years, he served as teacher at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Scaena.

Since 2013 he has been a professor at the Instituto Superior de la Danza Alicia Alonso, affiliated with Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, in Madrid.

Simultaneously with his long career as a dancer, Orlando Salgado developed important pedagogical work, not only in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, where he was responsible for training several generations of dancers of that company, but also in many other schools and companies around the world, teaching summer courses and as a professor in numerous companies and dance centers.

Similarly, he has served as a judge in numerous international dance competitions such as the Escuela Nacional de Ballet in Cuba, the Concurso Internacional Ballet de Trujillo (Peru), the Ballet Municipal de Rio de Janeiro company (Brazil), the Gran Concurso Latinoamericano de la Danza, in Córdoba (Argentina), the Concurso Nacional de Danza Ciudad de Ribarroja del Turia (Valencia), the Campeonato Nacional de Danzas Ángel Martínez, in Talavera de la Reina (Spain), and others.

Festivals and galas
From 1966 to 2000 he participated in all editions of the Festival Internacional de Ballet de La Habana, and had a special appearance in 2003.

He has been a Guest Artist and has performed with prestigious companies such as the Bolshoi, Moscow, American Ballet Theatre, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Compañía Nacional de Danza de México, the Ballet and Opera theaters of Iasi, Cluj and Bucharest, in Romania, the Ballet of the Opera of Rome, and others.

Among the international festivals and galas in which he participated are:

1978:
International Gala of Stars, organized by Princess Grace Kelly, Monte Carlo (Monaco).
Edinburgh Festival (Scotland).
1980:
Gala of Stars, organized by Unesco in homage to Alicia Alonso, Paris (France).
1986:
International Festival of Spoleto (United States).
1988:
International Dance Gala (benefit performance for AIDS prevention), (Brussels) (Belgium).
International Ballet Festival, Tokyo and Osaka (Japan).
Rome Opera (Italy).
1990:
Gala for the 50th anniversary of the creation of American Ballet Theatre as partner to Alicia Alonso, (New York).
Music and Dance Festival Palma de Mallorca (Spain), together with Alicia Alonso, Rudolf Nureyev and Spanish soprano Victoria de los Ángeles.
1991:
Edinburgh Festival (Scotland).
1992:
Hispano-American Gala, Madrid (Spain).
1995:
International Gala "United We Dance", for the 50th Anniversary of the UN, San Francisco (United States).
1996:
International Festival of Classical Theater of Mérida, (Mexico).

Awards and distinctions
1978:
Medal and Diploma of Laureate at the 2nd International Ballet Competition of Japan.
Special Prize for Best Couple by the Jury of Czechoslovakia at the 2nd International Ballet Competition of Tokyo, together with prima ballerina Marta García.
1979:
Medal of the Lodz Ballet Festival (Poland).
1989:
Distinction for National Culture, Ministry of Culture of Cuba.
1991:
Medal of the Min-On Association of Tokyo (Japan)
Diploma of Honor from the City Hall of La Paz (Bolivia).
1999:
Order "Alejo Carpentier", granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.
Order "La Giraldilla", as an illustrious son of the City of Havana by the government of that city.
2007:
Commemorative Medal "Fernando Alonso", awarded by the direction of the Escuela Nacional de Ballet de La Habana.

Filmography
1970: A Retable for Romeo and Juliet. Choreography: Alberto Alonso. Direction: Antonio Fernández Reboiro (ICAIC).
1971: Oedipus Rex. Choreography: Jorge Lefebre. Direction: Antonio Fernández Reboiro (ICAIC).