This is so pictured by the weekend edition of the English-language weekly Vietnam News, which, under the title “Pact of Pirouettes,” dedicates its front page and two inside pages to the recent performances of the renowned Cuban company, in the context of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and Vietnam.
The article remembers that in 1964, in the midst of the War of Resistance, the BNC traveled to Hanoi, led by its founder and prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso, in what constituted a key moment for cultural relations between the two nations.
After reviewing the masterful dancer’s biography and highlighting the strong support of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, for her re-founding, along with Fernando and Alberto Alonso, the BNC, the report emphasizes that “Today, Cuba produces some of the best ballet dancers in the world thanks to Alicia’s mission.”
Vietnam News extolled that Alicia Alonso enabled ballet to cease being an art form restricted to the elite and become an artistic expression that the people could study, enjoy, and ponder. Ballet classes are free for children, and tickets are affordable for the majority of the population, it notes.
It also quotes Viengsay Valdes, the current director of the company, declared a National Cultural Heritage Site in 2018, who emphasized that Alicia took ballet out of its restricted stage environment and brought it into a more practical setting.
“She took her company on tour across the island, dancing in factories, stadiums, farms, and small Cuban towns, bringing the art of ballet to the entire island. Ballet, typically elitist in the rest of the world, has become incredibly popular in Cuba. No one in Cuba is unaware of who Alicia Alonso is,” valdes noted.
The article also remembers that during her meeting with President Ho Chi Minh in 1964, the latter told Cuban artists that they would soon be able to perform in a liberated and united Vietnam. This prediction came true in 1978, when Alonso and her company performed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
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