Defending our culture

Alicia Martínez del Hoyo

Born in Havana, in December 21st, 1920. She began studying dance in 1931, in the Ballet School of the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical. Later she moved to the United Staates and kept on her formation with Enrico Zanfretta, Alexandra Fedórova and some other eminent professors from the School of American Ballet. Her professional activity began in 1938, in Broadway, making her debut in the musical comedies “Great Lady” and “Stars in your eyes”. A year later she joined the American Ballet Caravan, forerunner of present-day New York City Ballet. She joined the Ballet Theatre of New York, in 1940, its settling year. From there on she began a brilliant stage of her career, as leading performer of the greatest classical and romantic ballets. She has worked with XX Century choreographic outstanding personalities; she performed the leading roles in the world premieres of important plays like: “Undertow”, “Fall River Legend” and “Theme and Variations”. Her interest for developing ballet art in Cuba, made her to settle the a Ballet Alicia Alonso in Havana, nowadays Ballet Nacional de Cuba. From that moment her activities were shared between the American Ballet Theatre and her own ensemble, which she kept with very scarce, or non, official support until 1959, when the Revolutionary Government supported her labour. Her choreographic versions from great classical ballets are worldwide acknowledged: “Giselle”, “Grand Pas de Quatre”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “La fille mal gardeé” are danced in important companies such as: the Opera Ballets from París, Wien, Prague, the San Carlo of Naples and the Theatre of the Scala de Milan. Prima Ballerina Assoluta and directress of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Alicia is one of the most relevant personalities of dance history and top figure of classical dance within Ibero American cuture. In 1993 she sttled a Chair of Dance named after her in tne Universidad Complutense, of Madrid. Nowadays she presides Fundación Alicia Alonso, in Madrid. She has been acknowled as: Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Havana, the Instituto Superior de Arte (Higher Studies Arts Institute) of Cuba and the Politechnical University of Valencia, Spain, Member of Honour of the Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, Encomienda de la Orden Isabel la Católica, conferred by H.M the King of Spain Juan Carlos I, Gold Medal from the Fine Arts Circle , Madrid; Order of Arts and Letters on the Degree of Commander, France; Pablo Picasso Medal from UNESCO; National Heroine of Labour of the Republic of Cuba.

posted by Lilith @ 8:14 AM