Students and dancers from Mexico, South Africa and Cuba were laureates this Sunday in the contest of the 28th International Meeting of Academies for the Teaching of Ballet which takes place in Havana.
According to report of efethe winners stood out for the interpretation of works from the classical repertoire of the 19th century and contemporary among 136 contestants who represented 34 ballet schools, 25 foreign and 9 Cuban.
The program included three contests called in the categories for children, youth, for students from 9 to 19 years of age, in various modalities.
The jury was chaired by the general director of the Cuban National Ballet (BNC), Viengsay Valdés, and was made up of Cuban dancers Anette Delgado and Dani Hernández, and the National Dance Award winner, Rosario Cárdenas.
Also part of the jury were the directors of the Mexican company Siglo XXI, Eglé López; Dominican Contémpora, Alfa Rodríguez, and the president of the South African international ballet competition, Dirk Badenhors.
They valued the technical and artistic execution, the musicality and also the physical proportions to distinguish them with the Grand Prix, the “Revelation” and Best Couple awards, special mentions and collateral awards to recognize personal excellence.
This meeting – organized by the National Center of Art Schools and the National Ballet School “Fernando Alonso” and dedicated to the new generations of dance artists- will extend its class sessions and workshops until next Wednesday the 12th, the report points out.
At the event, the first face-to-face activity of Cuban ballet schools after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers, students and dancers from 14 countries participate, 400 Cubans and 200 from countries such as Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Martinique, the Netherlands, Peru and Ecuador.
Workshops on modern and Spanish dance techniques and makeup have been developed, among other specific topics. A series of specialized conferences were added, and ballet classes, repertoire, choreographic composition, physical preparation, as well as auditions of the works by countries and academies,
For the closing, an artistic gala is scheduled in which pieces worked during the event will be performed. Also, the conference that will be given by the Historian of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), Miguel Cabrera, in homage to the 75th anniversary of the company.
Cabrera, in statements to Cuban television, stressed that ballet is taught in the world, but there are very few countries that have achieved a peculiar style and way of dancing. That is why he considered Cuba very important, which has created its own ballet school, where these international academy meetings have been held since 1994.
On this, he advanced that steps are already beginning to be taken through the institutions in charge of preparing the file so that the Cuban ballet school, as a national expression of interpreting dance techniques, be declared cultural heritage.
The Cuban ballet school, founded by the legendary dancer Alicia Alonso together with the brothers Fernando (teacher) and Alberto Alonso (choreographer), has established a chair of style and teaching in ballet, internationally recognized for their defined personality and particular characteristics, specifies efe.
