The 2021 National Dance Prize awarded this morning to master teacher Laura Alonso (New York, 1938) recognizes two strands of her work. First she was the exquisite soloist of the National Ballet of Cuba, and then the maître d' responsible for the training of many performers of that art, always faithful to the essence of the school created by her parents, Alicia and Fernando Alonso, and her uncle Alberto.

Hers has been a life devoted to ballet, to dance, as recognized by a jury made up of personalities of Cuban culture.

Laura has honored her lineage. For a quarter of a century she was the first soloist of the National Ballet of Cuba. It is possible to appreciate films of her art: she was a dancer of exquisite taste, of singular scenic projection and great technical capacity.

She had studied with great teachers of the ballet world, in addition to those she had in her family. And that vocation for teaching marked her. She soon stood out as a teacher. And she had great results: she was the promoter and teacher of young figures of the BNC who, over the years, would become stars: José Manuel Carreño, Xiomara Reyes, Lorna Feijoo, Alihaydeé Carreño....

She was also a professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba; director of the International Courses of the Cuban School of Ballet known as CUBALLET; and director of the Centro de Promoción de la Danza de Cuba, known internationally as Centro Prodanza, which hosts the Laura Alonso Ballet.

This impressive service record has been recognized with the highest award given in Cuba to dance artists. The news has rejoiced hundreds of students of the teacher, in several countries around the world, and the public that remembers and continues to admire her.
Taken from TRABAJADORES

English versin Hector Hdez

More than 20 national companies celebrate the International Dance Day in Cuba today during the event that takes place until tomorrow in the online modality.

The event pays tribute to the 50-year artistic career of teacher and choreographer Rosario Cardenas, winner of the 2013 National Dance Award for her praiseworthy work in the training of generations of dancers, as well as to the 15th anniversary of the Havana Dance Center, which convened the artistic event.

The participation of internationally renowned groups such as Acosta Danza, Havana Queens, Flamenca Ecos and Malpaso, along with Los Hijos del Director and MiCompañia, whose talent is evidence of the plurality of languages in the island's dance scene, stands out.

The event, which has the support of the National Council of Performing Arts, promotes the encounter between dance collectives and invites to conferences, debates, master classes and workshops on the art of movement through the main digital platforms.

Other guests invited to the exchange will be Revolution, Santiago Alfonso, Rakatán, Raíces Profundas, Free Dance, Así Somos, Ban-Rarrá, Compañía de Danzas Tradicionales JJ, Yoldance and The Concept.

This year, Los Días de la Danza takes place virtually due to the restrictions of isolation caused by Covid-19 and, according to the organizers, we build other communicating bridges beyond the contact that the event presumes.

The event transcends the virtual scenarios of the whole country as it completes the program of activities in salute to the international day that summons the Dance.

Taken from 5 de Septiembre digital

English version Hector Hdez.

The exhibition, the first open-air gallery of its kind in this cemetery, is the result of a project conceived by the Office of the Cienfuegos City Conservator (OCCC) to give a cultural use to the space, so that the inhabitants of the city continue appropriating the concept of National Monument that gives prestige to this heritage", said Hilda Mola Trujillo, main specialist of the Cemetery Group of the OCCC.

            The expo has as common standard the use of disposable and recycled materials in each of the pieces.
                                        / Photo: Armando Sáez

The official added that local creators were summoned to work on the three-dimensional works, which resulted in the participation of nine visual artists and ten pieces, whose thematic axis, in tune with the name of the exhibition, is associated with the use of disposable or recycled materials very much in tune with the shortages of the current limitations, and in their perspectives was the recreated conceptualization of the physical and spiritual context, with a very contemporary approach.

"On the other hand, each one of the pieces shows a different interpretation to signify and dialogue with transcendence; however, they all share the attachment to the symbolic-symbolic environment where they are located. Each one appeals to a different chapter of the ritualization inherent to the practice," said researcher and art critic Massiel Delgado Cabrera.

La azul dama contemporánea, by creator Lizzett Perez, is a piece that approaches one of the most famous legends of Cienfuegos from today's point of view / Photo: Armando Sáez

"The genesis of Renacer -available to the public for three months-, arose with the organization of exhibitions in the interior gallery itself in the museum hall of the 'Tomás Acea'. Then other cultural actions were incorporated in the 'Mystic Nights' and now this type of exhibition, with the purpose of holding it biannually, all with the aim of managing the Cienfuegos heritage from the necropolis," said Mola Trujillo.

Those attending the opening had the opportunity to exchange criteria and personal appreciations with the exhibiting artists Arcadio Tomás, Antonio Alemán, Mauro Martínez Cid, Alain Moreira, Adrián Rumbaut, Pável Miguel, Camilo Díaz de Villlalvilla, Fidel Reina, Lizzett Pérez Castro, Osmany Caro and Yunier Hurtado.

In front of the pantheon that keeps the remains of the founder Don Luis Lorenzo De Clouet y Piette, the city conservator, Iran Millán, alluded to the historical and cultural legacy of our French ancestry./ Foto: Armando Sáez


Shortly before the opening ceremony, Iran Millán Cuétara, Cienfuegos City Conservator, in front of the pantheon that houses the remains of Don Luis Lorenzo De Clouet y Piette, recalled the founding act of the Fernandina de Jagua colony, on April 22, 1819, a fundamental antecedent of the historical and cultural development of the current provincial capital, whose French ancestry continues to set guidelines in the permanent development of the so-called Pearl of the South.
(Taken from 5 de Septiembre)

English version Hector Hdez,