Laura Alonso wins 2021 National Dance Prize

Havana, April 29 (RHC) – Laura Alonso, a ballet teacher and the founding director of the Prodanza company has been awarded the 2021 National Dance Prize, granted by the National Council on Performing Arts (CNAE).

A jury chaired by dancer and Choreographer Johannes García – the winner himself of the high distinction in 2020-- awarded the prize to Laura Alonso for her outstanding artistic career as a performer and dance teacher.

Laura is the Grand Maitre of Dance, a teacher at the Higher Institute of the Arts of the island and president of the Association of Dance for the Americas.

The daughter of the legendary dancer Alicia Alonso, she had been principal soloist with the National Ballet of Cuba for 25 years, an experience that served her well in creating the Department of Specialized Teaching in that dance company in the 1980s.

Laura’s experience as a trainer of dancers led her to offer workshops and training in ballet schools in Denmark, Finland, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico and the United States, where she received awards such as the Special Coaching Award, from the USA International Ballet Competition, in 1990.

Laura Alonso and members of jury of National Dance Prize

In awarding her this year’s National Dance Prize, the National Council on Performing Arts valued her “technical virtuosity and character when performing”, as well as the creation of the ProDanza Center, an institution that has brought together groups of various dance styles and genres and has served as a space for the professional development of young talents who later become leading figures of the National Ballet of Cuba.

In addition to her academic work at the University of the Arts (ISA) in Havana, Laura Alonso has given classes to national theater and dance groups, and she is also a key figure of Psicoballet Project, an initiative created in 1973 that uses elementary ballet techniques, combined with psychological methods, to restore psychic-social balance in people with mental, motor and sensory disabilities.