Viengsay Valdés Receives Special Giraldilla Award at gala offered by the National Ballet of Cuba for the 503rd anniversary of Havana

November 19, 2022

"The National Ballet of Cuba is a great school. I believe that Viengsay possesses the exceptional conditions required to continue Alicia's work"

Ada Oramas

Unrepeatable could be the descriptor for each staging that overflowed the stage of the Martí theater, at the artistic gala offered by the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) on the night of this November 16th as one of the gifts from the people of Havana to the capital of all Cubans.

In an outpouring of pronounced lyricism, the BNC, under the direction of Viengsay Valdés, exceeded the expectations of those present who responded with ovations full of joy at the fragments of renowned works such as Carmen and Swan Lake.

Standing, they applauded the young director who received the Special Giraldilla Award which is granted by resolution issued by the Governor of Havana, Reinaldo García Zapata.

"It was moving, I really didn't expect that surprise. It's something I won't be able to forget from tonight," she said visibly moved by the moment when García Zapata and the first secretary of the Party in the city, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, took the stage to present the recognition.

Present at the evening were the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa; the President of the National Assembly of People's Power, Esteban Lazo Hernández; and Alpidio Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, among other leaders of the Party and the Government of the capital.

Minutes after the gala concluded, the distinguished ballerina and director of the National Ballet of Cuba agreed to offer statements exclusively for Tribuna de La Habana in which she expressed:

"Tonight has been very special with this recognition of the Giraldilla of Havana. I really didn't expect it, they organized it very well for me because I found out on stage, in that moment, already reading my entire biography and I really got emotional because I was even surrounded by my own company on stage and well I got emotional…

"I believe that this function for the 503rd anniversary of Havana that was organized in very little time, but very quickly, turned out to be effective, with an artistic level and a variety of styles from our company and what better way to offer them this gift.

"There are very young talents that stand out, but also in the figures with more time in the company. All of them have contributed, during all these years, and have accompanied me in the difficult task that is also very beautiful because we are doing what we love most which is dance".

The swan that did not die at the Martí

The violin chords in the hands of the virtuoso Lissy Abreu, and the accordion chords at the piano of maestro Marcos Madrigal, with the music of Camille Saint Saens, seemed to suspend over the stage of the Martí theater, the intense fragment of the drama of the work The Dying Swan, performed by the director of the National Ballet of Cuba herself, Viengsay Valdés, who awakened a host of feelings preserved in the work that was created especially for Russian dancer Anna Pávlova and premiered in 1905.

It was moving to observe the movements zealously cultivated in a refined technique of the BNC, under the direction of the prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso and Alberto Alonso that took –more than a century later- to Viengsay to perform, in the opening of this special gala for the celebrations of Havana, one of the most difficult classical ballet works of all time.

The applause had not ceased when the chords of Kirill Richter's music burst forth for the choreography of Peter Quanz in his Triptych created especially for the BNC and premiered at the recent 27th International Ballet Festival of Havana Alicia Alonso, featuring young dancers Estefanía Hernández (with an incredible debut to carry upon herself a tremendous load of the work on stage, along with Marcel Gutiérrez, Luis Fernández, Yandi Álvarez and Roberto González.

Carmen and the magic of reunion

Not for being one of the most well-known works in the BNC's repertory, Carmen ceases to create that spell that intoxicates with the complicity that is created between the public and the dancers, where the former observes with keen readiness each movement and falls seduced once more, this time by the conjunction that intertwines the bodies of Sadaise Arencibia and Anyelo Montero, to tell us that story of love and temperaments in the choreography and libretto of Alberto Alonso, who recreated Prosper Mérinée's novel and the libretto by Henry Meilbac and Ludovic Halevy for the homonymous opera by Georges Bizet. And so it happened. The music of Georges Bizet, reorchestrated by Rodion Schedrin, made the magic possible.

Just as we concluded in that moment of climax sustained by the respectable audience in the Martí hall, we enjoyed the essential pas de deux of Romeo and Juliet performed by Grettel Morejón and Narciso Medina, who made possible, once again, to materialize the spell of the choreography of Jimmy Gamonet and the cosmic intensity (it cannot be described any other way) that this ballet work demands with the music of Sergei Prokofiev.

Cheerful, the turn of Don Quixote and the closed applause for the virtuosity of the dance couple that makes up María Luisa Márquez (interpreter of Don Quixote) and in the character of Basilio (Yankiel Vázquez). This choreographic version by Alexander Gorski, of the original conceived by Marius Petipa, was realized with the music of Ludwig Minkus.

At the end (second act) of the already historic gala, the BNC gave a fragment of Giselle, a work choreographed by Alicia Alonso based on the original by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli, with the music of Adolphe Adam and the scenography and costumes by Salvador Fernández.

An evening in which the distinguished dancer Anette Delgado, accompanied by Dani Hernández, Ernesto Díaz, Ailadi Travieso, Laura Blanco and Gabriela Druyet, made all the dancers on stage shine on this night of celebration of Havana.

Thanks also and well-deserved to that constellation that was made up of: Karla Iglesias, Karen Farrel, Alianed Moreno, Greta Yero, Paloma Blanco, Melanie Leyva, Milaydi Muro, Avril Llevara, Loiret Ortega, Laura Kamila, Camila Corrales, Lianet Sotolongo, Anette Sánchez, Yelenia Riverón, Lizmarian Lorenzo, Sofía Pico, Samantha Morales and Carolina Estrada.