Havana, July 29 (RHC) – Cuban National Ballet premier dancers, Grettel Morejón and Dani Hernández, represented their country at the Panama Ballet Festival closing gala.

Morejón said on her Facebook account that it was a special night that she will always keep in her heart. The ballet festival’s third edition wound up last night with a stars gala in which, along with the Cuban dancers, other stars were on hand, including London’s Royal Ballet dancer, Marianela Núñez; Brittany Pollack and Daniel Ulbrich from the  New York City Ballet and other guests. Morejón and Hernández danced the pas de deux of Carmen, choreographed by Cuba’s Alberto Alonso, one of the founders of the famous Cuban company, and the Black Swan of Swan Lake’s Act III after Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and ballet legend Alicia Alonso. The Cuban dancers also gave two master classes for ballet students from Panama City.

This year’s gathering paid tribute to the centennial of the birth of late English ballerina and dance legend Margot Fonteyn, a star with the Royal Ballet, who is still remembered for having formed a mythical stage partnership with Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev.

It’s not the first time that Cuban ballet dancers perform at the Panamanian festival since premier dancer and deputy artistic director of the Cuban National Ballet Company, Viengsay Valdés, and former Cuban company dancer, Osiel Gouneo, danced at the previous edition’s closing gala. For their part, Hernández has just wound up a successful tour of Spain with the Cuban company, and Morejón performed as guest dancer with Germany’s Magdeburg Ballet, where she participated in the productions of Dracula and Raymonda after Cuba’s Gonzalo Galguera.