The Cuban National Ballet Company will perform the Nutcracker at Havana’s Grand Theater on January 1st to celebrate the Cuban Revolution’s 58th anniversary.

Directed by company director, prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, the gala is the beginning of a season of the famous Christmass ballet classic that will bring dancers to the stage of the important Havana Theater on January 7 and 8, 14 and 15, 21 and 22.  During the gala Havana’s Grand Theater Alicia Alonso’s Grand Prix and mentions will be revealed and presented. The leading roles will be performed by Viengsay Valdés, Grettel Morejón, Sadaise Arencibia, Anette Delgado, Dani Hernández, Patricio Revé, Raúl Abreu, Rafael Quenedit, Chanel Cabrera and Claudia García, among others dancers.

A well-known 19th century fantastic short story –The Nutcracker and the King of the Mice- was the basis of the creation of the famous ballet, dealing with girl’s fascination about a nutcracker she receives as a Christmass gift. The classic is marking its 125th anniversary in 2017 as its world premiere took place at Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater on December 17th, 1892.

The Nutcracker’s pas deux was, for decades, one of the pieces in the repertoire of world and Cuban ballet legend, Alicia Alonso, who performed it for the first time in 1945, when she was part of New York’s Ballet Theater, today known as American Ballet Theater or ABT.