Bolshoi’s top dancers perform in Cuba after 30 years

Havana, Feb 16 (IANS/EFE) Outstanding figures from Russian ballet with the Bolshoi Theatre performed in Havana after a 30-year absence at a gala event where they shared the stage with dancers from the National Ballet of Cuba, or BNC.

The performance Saturday at the Teatro Karl Marx was one of the most anticipated events on the cultural programme of Havana’s 19th International Book Fair, which this year is dedicated to Russia.

“We’re all very happy about the union of the artists. There’s nothing more beautiful than that for a country. That’s the beginning of a good friendship,” BNC director Alicia Alonso, who directed the show, told reporters.

Although the Russian and Cuban ballet dancers were not onstage at the same time, the programme presented several fragments of classic works from the repertoire of both companies, including “Swan Lake”, “Giselle”, “Carmen”, “Don Quijote” and “La belle au bois dormant” (The Sleeping Beauty).

Dancing for the Bolshoi Ballet were Galina Stepanenko, Elena Andrienko, Ruslan Skvorsto, Ana Antonicheva, Dimitri Belogolovstsev and Vladimir Neporozhni.

The BNC performers included Anette Delgado, Sadaise Arencibia, Viengsay Valdes, Barbara Garcia, Javier Torres and Elier Bourzac, among others.

The Bolshoi Ballet, which had not presented a performance in Cuba since 1980, is the second world-renowned ballet company to visit the island in the past one year, after the successful run by London’s Royal Ballet in Havana last July.

–IANS/EFE