Havana, April 29 (RHC) – Cuban National Ballet Company Director, Viengsay Valdés, sent a message to all dance professionals, in which she asked to dedicate ‘a thought to the universal Cuban Alicia Alonso’.

In her message, Valdés also urged them to recall the figure that placed Cuba on the world dance map. He also sent an invitation to celebrate the extraordinary dancer’s centenary, celebrated this year, and to join celebrations remembering her creative work.

When the world is marking the late dancer’s one hundredth birthday, the Europe Council of the International Theater Institute (ITI), UNESCO’s world organization for the performing arts, decided to pay tribute to the legend who, even until her death last October, the director of the Cuban National Ballet, in recognition of her extraordinary artistic work and as a World Ambassador for UNESCO.

The date, celebrated since 1982, to mark the birth of another great figure of modern ballet, Jean Georges Noverre, is aimed at drawing public attention to the event every year. The festivities, which usually take place around the day, were scheduled for next July 16 at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, in charge of the Spanish Delegation of the ITI / UNESCO and the Alicia Alonso Dance Foundation. But the complex situation that the world is experiencing today in the face of Covid-19, has made the organizations responsible for the celebration foresee the impossibility of continuing with the gala in all its magnitude.

However, ITI / UNESCO Secretariat announced that the international tribute to Alicia Alonso would take place virtually through a website created for the occasion, and where a compilation of the work of the Cuban dancer, choreographer and teacher will be available, as well as a photo gallery that captures some of his most memorable performances. All this thanks to the collaboration between the Spanish Delegation of ITI / UNESCO, the Alicia Alonso Dance Foundation of Madrid and Cuba’s National Dance Museum.