# Viengsay Valdés dances Giselle as Cuba's National Ballet wraps 'historic' Russia tour in Samara

**Date:** 10/05/2026

Viengsay Valdés, prima ballerina and director of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC), danced the title role in Giselle on Saturday, October 3, 2026, as the company closed its Russian tour at the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Dmitri Shostakovich.

Principal dancer Dani Hernández partnered her as Albrecht, with Nadila Estrada as Queen of the Wilis and Ernesto Díaz as Hilarion. Prensa Latina reported a standing ovation at the final curtain that swelled again when Valdés came forward for her bow. Cuban conductor Idalgel Marquetti led the Samara theater's orchestra, and local outlet Volga News noted it was the BNC's first-ever visit to the city on the Volga River.

The tour, built around Alicia Alonso's version of the 19th-century classic, opened September 24 at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre and included stops at Moscow's Bolshoi and the Pushkin Theatre in Nizhny Novgorod. Valdés called it historic, saying it offered a new chance to show "the strength, technique and temperament of the Cuban ballet school."

Yuri Burlaka, artistic director of the Samara theater, told the dancers that Alonso's staging was the most interesting version he had seen in recent years.