Alicia Alonso Dies The Cuban Dancer

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The world of classical ballet is mourning the death in Havana of the legendary Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso at the age of 98.

The last ballet diva call, one of the most recognized figures in the world of dance, died on Thursday morning after being admitted to the CIMEQ hospital in the Cuban capital due to a drop in blood pressure.

According to the Cuban official Granma newspaper, Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad Martínez del Hoyo - the real name of the dancer and choreographer, was less than two months and three days away from her 99th birthday.

Alonso was known as the Absolute First Dancer and is considered, among other things, the most iconic dancer in Latin America. Her career was fundamental for classical dance in her country as founder of the National Ballet of Cuba.

Born in the Havana neighborhood of Marianao to a humble family in 1920, she began her career at a very young age in a ballet school in the Cuban capital, according to Granma.

In the late 1930s, he moved to New York to continue his career, joining the School of American Ballet. In the city of skyscrapers, she also met her husband, Fernando Alonso, with whom she had her only daughter, Laura, who followed in her mother's footsteps in dance.

Also at that stage in New York, her problems with her vision were presented to her, which she carried throughout her life and that finally limited her vision extremely until she was completely blind. But despite this ailment, which the doctors initially told her would prevent her from continuing to dance, Alonso managed to adapt her movements on stage and danced until a very old age.

During her long career, she danced with the vast majority of male dance stars and played practically all of the most recognized characters in classical opera in major world theaters, although she is particularly remembered for her Giselle.

In 1948 he returned to his native country, where he founded his own company that, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, became the National Ballet of Cuba, the Spanish newspaper El País noted. From his hand it became one of the main artistic institutions in the world and one of the symbols of the communist regime headed by Fidel Castro, who made sure to finance his activities with ample resources.

"It leaves us with a huge void, but also an insurmountable legacy," Cuban President Migue Díaz-Canel said on Twitter. "He placed Cuba on the best of the altar of world dance."