Alicia Alonso. The life story of the outstanding Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso Alyssa Milano Alyssa Milano

"Cuba is lucky to have you, belonging to the world and already immortal in the history of our great art," said Alicia Alonso back in 1966 by the English critic Arnold Haskell. Next year, the incomparable Alonso, the brilliant ballerina and creator of the Cuban National Ballet, will celebrate her 90th birthday. Her whole life is an example of the victory of will power over circumstances, the victory of the spirit over the frailty of the body. After all, for many years this woman had to deal with a serious illness, which, it would seem, made her dancing career impossible. However, Alonso managed to prove otherwise.

Alicia Martinez del Hoyo was born in Havana, in 1921. She was the fifth child in the family of a military officer. From early childhood, the girl loved to dance. “I have always been a ballerina,” Alonso herself said. “As a child, to make me calm down, there was only one way - to lock me in a room where music is playing. And everyone knew that I would not do anything there, because I was dancing. At that time I did not yet know what ballet was. Making different movements, I reproduced in the dance what I felt. "

The family had the opportunity to give the children a decent education, and therefore at the age of 9 the girl was sent to a private ballet school of the Russian choreographer Nikolai Yavorsky. From the very first lesson, she realized that it was ballet that would become the meaning of her life. And at the age of 12, Alicia first appeared on stage. Soon the whole family moved to the United States. There, the girl continued her education at the Wiltzack-Shollar school and at the American ballet school.

Alicia made her Broadway debut in 1938, and in 1940 the Cuban ballerina joined the American Ballet Theater in New York.

But the ballerina had other dreams - she wanted to create a national ballet in her native Cuba, to which her heart still belonged.

In the homeland of Alonso, there was neither their own ballet traditions, nor a suitable stage. Not a single Cuban ballerina was known in the world, and the people were not too familiar with this art form. However, Alicia was eager to fight.

By that time, she already bore the surname Alonso. Even at the beginning of her stage career, Alicia married her dance partner, Cuban dancer and ballet teacher Fernando Alonso. In 1948, the couple returned to the flourishing island and organized their own dance school. Then the National Ballet of Cuba will grow out of this enterprise. But while they were waiting for difficulties and obstacles.

The country was ruled by the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who treated Alicia Alonso without much sympathy. Firstly, the ballerina spoke with open criticism of the dictator and his policies. According to rumors, at one time she was even offered a deal - $ 500 a month for silence. Secondly, the dictator believed that artists and intellectuals who sympathized with the left wing were generally an unreliable audience. It all ended with the fact that the government stopped financial support for the National Ballet, which had not been generous before. Alonso had to leave Cuba for the second time. Her stage career at the American Ballet Theater went uphill ... Brilliant parts of Giselle, Odette-Odile, Swanilda, Terpsichore. She has toured the US, Europe...

The realization of the dream of his life Alonso managed to start in 1959, when the revolution won in Cuba and Fidel Castro came to power, who was just very interested in creating the National Ballet. He immediately asked Alicia to come home. Moreover, the Cuban leader allocated 200 thousand dollars - a considerable amount for those times - for the development of the national ballet.

Alicia Alonso embodied her dream with great energy and enthusiasm. She looked for dancers all over the country, not embarrassed that many of them did not have a choreographic education. Firstly, Cubans are generally very plastic, and secondly, Alonso decided that the National Ballet should combine classical and folk dance. Alonso also began to introduce the ideas of psychoballet.

The fact is that she herself worked very deeply on her roles - to the point that during preparation for Giselle, in order to better embody the scene of madness, the ballerina visited a psychiatric hospital, where she talked a lot with doctors and watched patients. Then she thought that ballet could be used as a therapeutic tool for the treatment of epileptics, asthmatics, people with physical disabilities.

It seems that the ballet had a truly healing effect on Alonso herself. After all, at the age of 19 she began to have serious vision problems. Then she had her first eye surgery.

Over the years, vision will deteriorate, and Alonso faced more and more operations.

Subsequently, she will often have to trudge slowly, trying not to stumble upon the scenery. For her, the strongest spotlight was lit so that Alonso could see the center of the stage. Particular problems were with unfamiliar scenes. So, during the first tour in the Soviet Union in 1957, she wounded her face three times. One of these cases occurred in Kyiv. During the performance of "Swan Lake", running from one stage to another between acts, the ballerina stumbled upon the scenery and as a result injured her forehead. They wanted to stop the performance, but Alonso resolutely replied: "Only on stage!" And she continued to speak. Tours did not stop... Moscow and Leningrad, Europe and Asia, Latin America and the USA, Canada and Australia.

She always said that the secret of her success is "work without self-pity". And she was convinced that the length of a dancer's creative life depends on his discipline and will. “I think that in any profession it is necessary to strive for excellence. To feel responsible for this not only to yourself, but also to your people,” said the ballerina.

In 1972, Alicia Alonso was threatened with total blindness. I had to do a new operation. She was already over 50, and few believed that after this, already the fourth operation, she would return to the stage. But Alonso is back! And she continued her triumphant performances.

And during the 13 days of the X Havana International Ballet Festival in 1986, the 65-year-old Alonso performed many productions, embodying the tragic images of Medea, Joan of Arc, Juliet, Jocasta and the comic image of the Merry Widow on stage. Moreover, she also demonstrated an interesting series of clear and swift diagonal fouettes, which caused a long standing ovation in the hall.

Alonso's last performance in her own ballet "Butterfly" took place in 1995, when the ballerina turned 75 years old. Just two years before, she was still dancing in Giselle.

And now... Life goes on!

Alonso, 89, almost blind, continues to direct the National Ballet of Cuba (which, by the way, is one of the most respected schools of classical dance in the world), puts on new performances, and takes the troupe on tour.

Of course, some grumble about the political puppet in the hands of Fidel, sitting in her chair, but this grumbling is drowned out by the exclamation of general admiration for her talent. The ballerina has become a real symbol of Cuba.

And Alonso sometimes performs plastic sketches with his hands and feet without getting up from his wheelchair. “Now I dance with my hands,” she says. “Or rather, I dance with my heart. The dance lives in my body, and I can’t do anything about it.”

The story of Alicia Alonso (real name - Alicia Martinez del Hoyo) is the story of the titanic work of a fragile woman who created the National Ballet of Cuba with her own hands.

On December 21, 1921, in Havana, the fourth child was born in the family of an officer of the Cuban army, Antonio Martinez. The girl was named Alicia.

Even as a child, Alicia loved and subtly felt the music, moving to the beat, childishly a little awkwardly making pas. Everything came from the heart, from the heart, and in the moments when the girl danced, time stopped for her, and there was nothing more beautiful and necessary than dancing.

Perhaps wise parents noticed their daughter's inclinations and, at the age of nine, they assigned an immigrant from Russia, choreographer Nikolai Yavorsky, to the ballet school. So the first step was taken. The debut of the young ballerina, who was barely eleven, took place in the winter of 1931 in Sleeping Beauty.

Alicia continued to study, honing her technique. And at the age of fifteen, she married a dancer and choreography teacher Fernando Alonso. Shortly after this significant event, the couple decided to move to America. One of the possible reasons was the lack of significant prospects in the field of ballet in his native country. Moreover, Cuba has never had a ballet tradition, a suitable stage, or famous dancers; the bulk of the people had no idea about this art form at all. The national culture was not supported by the pro-American authorities, but it was! And a rich history, and folklore, and choreography. There were just no people who could tie it all together on the ballet stage. With an idea not yet fully formed in their heads, Alicia and her husband left Cuba.

In America, the couple had a daughter, Laura. Alicia could not afford to relax and recovered in the shortest possible time, continuing her studies at the School of American Ballet under the guidance of, studied with the luminaries of the stage Enrico Zanfretta, Anatoly Viltzak, Alexandra Fedorova.

In 1938, the dancer made her Broadway debut in the musical comedies The Stars in Your Eyes and The Great Lady. A couple of years later, she became a member of the Balle Theater troupe, where she met her partner Igor Yushkevich, with whom she would later dance in.

Suddenly, a terrible illness struck Alicia - retinal detachment in both eyes at once. It sounded like a sentence, but Alicia wasn't the type to give up easily. She underwent surgery three times, spending about a year on rehabilitation, and, against all odds, she began to exercise and regain her shape again.

In 1943 there was a turning point in the career of a dancer. They put it, but the British prima suddenly fell ill, and Alicia was supposed to replace her. The performance was a triumph!

But not conquering foreign scenes was Alicia's priority. She accumulated strength, calculated, combined ... In 1948, Alonso returned to their homeland, where they announced the creation of the first professional ballet troupe in Cuba. However, there were few professionals as such. It was decided to bet on amateur enthusiasts. In the same year, the Alicia Alonso Ballet delighted the audience for the first time at the Auditorium Theatre, and two months later the troupe had already set off on a tour of Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Among other dancers, Alicia herself, her husband Fernando, his brother Alberto, also a choreographer, and Igor Yushkevich, conquered by the energy and convictions of his partner, performed on stage. In 1950, the ballet school of Alicia Alonso began its work.

The dancer herself at this time did not stop working on new roles. She shone in the productions of Agnes de Mille, Anthony Tudor, George Balanchine, again performed the role of Giselle, who once glorified her, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Swanilda in Coppélia.

In 1955-1959, Alicia, having fled with her husband from Cuba under the yoke of the Batista regime, danced in theaters in Europe and Asia, performed in the Russian Ballet Monte Carlo, at the Bolshoi and Kirov theaters. After the end of the Cuban Revolution, Alonso returned to their homeland again. Now their activities received much more support from the state, becoming part of the national program within the framework of cultural policy. The troupe was renamed the National Ballet of Cuba, they arranged a tour for it, the recordings were broadcast on television.

Alicia Alonso, thanks to her hard work and self-demanding, refuted the popular belief that the life of a dancer is short-lived. In 1955, at the age of 75, she danced in the ballet The Butterfly, staged by her. Until now, she is the permanent director of the National Ballet of Cuba, and in 2002 she became a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

It would take a long time to list all the state and international awards that Alicia Alonso has received. Among them are the Pablo Picasso medal for outstanding contribution to the art of dance (1999), the Order of the Legion of Honor (2003), the award of the State Council of Cuba - the Aide Santamaria medal (2010), the Galina Ulanova Foundation Prize (2010).

Music Seasons

Alicia Alonso (Alicia Alonso), real name Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martinez Oya (Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad dei Cobre Martinez Hoya), was born December 21, 1920 in Havana, Cuba.

Her parents were from Spain. Father Antonio Martinez served as an officer in the Cuban army.

The girl received her first ballet lesson at the Sociedad Pro-Arte music school in Havana. The understanding that ballet was her vocation came to Alicia in 1930, during classes at a private ballet school led by the Russian choreographer Nikolai Yavorsky, in which her parents enrolled the girl.

On December 29, 1931, the young ballerina made her debut on the stage of the Havana theater in the production of Sleeping Beauty.

In 1937, she married a classmate at the ballet school, Fernando Alonso.

The couple decided to move to New York to start their professional careers. Despite the fact that Alicia soon had a daughter, Laura, the ballerina continued her studies at the School of American Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, took private classes from famous soloists Mikhail Fokin, Alexandra Fedorova, Enrico Zanfretta, Anatoly Wiltzack.

In 1938, Alicia Alonso made her Broadway debut in the musical comedies The Great Lady and The Stars in Your Eyes.

In 1940, Alicia joined the newly created American Ballet Theater.

In 1941, the ballerina suffered a retinal detachment in both eyes, and she was temporarily blind. Alicia underwent three surgeries to restore her vision, which left her bedridden for about a year. She managed to regain her form and return to ballet.

A breakthrough in Alonso's career was in 1943, when the ballerina replaced the ill British soloist in the ballet Giselle by Adolphe Adam. Alicia's successful performance created a sensation, and her name became identified with the part of Giselle for a long time.

In 1948, Alicia returned to Cuba, where, together with Fernando and Alberto Alonso, she organized the national troupe "Alicia Alonso Ballet". It was an unusual team - they relied not on professional choreographers, but on enthusiasts. The dancers themselves staged one-act ballets, each could contribute to the "dance fund" of the troupe.

In 1950, the ballet school of Alicia Alonso was also organized. She herself has been constantly working on new roles all this time. Among her best roles are Odette-Odile in the ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Terpsichore in the ballet Apollo and Musagete by Igor Stravinsky, Swanilda in Leo Delibes' Coppélia, Giselle in the eponymous production to music by Adolphe Adam.
Alicia Alonso became the first performer of parts in the productions of choreographers Anthony Tudor, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille.

After the 1959 revolution, the new government declared the development of ballet and choreographic education one of the priorities of the cultural policy of the renewed Cuba. The troupe of Alicia Alonso turned into a state structure and was named the National Ballet of Cuba (NBK). She performed in theaters and squares in Havana, went on tour to other provinces of Cuba, ballet performances were often broadcast on Cuban television. Then the NBK went on a big tour of the countries of Latin America, which was considered by the new government as a "cultural embassy of the Cuban revolution."

In 1967, Alonso created one of the most striking images in her work - the image of Carmen in the ballet by Alberto Alonso. This was the second edition of the ballet that Alberto Alonso staged in Moscow for Maya Plisetskaya. Alicia Alonso's partner was Maya Plisetskaya's brother Azary.

Throughout her creative life, the ballerina has performed in almost 60 countries around the world.

Thanks to the fanatical capacity for work, Alicia Alonso was able to prove that the creative life of a dancer can last much longer than the generally accepted norms. Alonso's last performance in her own ballet "Butterfly" took place in 1995, when she was 75 years old. The ballerina has also staged a number of original ballets.

After leaving the stage, she continues to lead the National Ballet of Cuba.

Alonso often performed in the USSR. In the late 1950s, she first appeared on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. At various times, her partners were Vladimir Vasiliev, Anton Dolin, Alexander Godunov, Antonio Gades and others.

She has repeatedly been a member of the jury of the International Ballet Competition in Moscow. In 1969-1989 she was vice-president of the Cuban-Soviet Friendship Society.

Alicia Alonso has been awarded the title of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

The ballerina is an honorary doctor of the University of Havana, the Higher Institute of Arts of Cuba, the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) and the University of Guadalajara (Mexico).

Alicia Alonso has numerous national and international awards. In 1998, she was awarded the title of Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba, in 2000 - the Cuban Order of José Marti. In December 2010, the ballerina received the Aide Santamaria medal, an award awarded by the Cuban Council of State.

She was awarded the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle (1982), the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic (1993), the French Order of Arts and Letters (1998), etc. In 2003, the President of France awarded Alonso the title of officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

In 1999, UNESCO awarded her the Pablo Picasso Medal for her outstanding contribution to the art of dance.

Alicia Alonso received the award of the Galina Ulanova Foundation "For Selfless Service to the Art of Dance".

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Career: Ballet
Date of Birth: December 21, 1920, zodiac sign Sagittarius
Place of Birth: Havana, Cuba
Alicia Alonso is a famous Cuban ballerina, choreographer and teacher. She was born on December 21, 1920. Alicia Alonso is known as the creator of the National Ballet of Cuba.
"... Cuba is lucky to have you, who belongs to the world and is already immortal in the history of our great art."
Arnold Haskell, critic, 1966
The end of the forties of our century. A small Latin American power in the Caribbean, ruled by the dictatorship of Batista. Everything in the country is subordinated to the interests of the United States. National culture, like everything national, was not encouraged or supported by the government.
During these years of violent underground struggle for the independence of the country, the creation of a national ballet was not a priority. Moreover, under no circumstances did Cuba have its own ballet traditions. There were no famous Cuban ballerinas. There was no suitable scene. The broad masses of the people were not familiar with this art form. Under such conditions, Alicia Alonso began to realize the goal of her life - the creation of the National Ballet of Cuba.
Undoubtedly, the achievement of this audacious goal exceeded the capabilities of a young, unknown ballerina. Its implementation required a well-thought-out plan of action, incredible ability to work, mastering the achievements of world ballet and their original use, and also cultivating the strength in oneself to repel the blows of fate and the temptations of a beautiful life.
Target
"I think for the first time I understood what I wanted when I taught my paramount lesson." A.A.
The life of Alicia Alonso is interesting for us, first of all, with its system of goals. Having solved the next task, she switched to a freshly baked order of creativity throughout her life.
It is difficult to say what pushed the veterinarian's daughter to the ballet scene. Alicia herself says about this: “I have always been a ballerina ... As a child, in order to force me to calm down, there was only one technology - to close me in a room where music plays. And everyone knew that I would not do anything there because I was dancing. At that time, I did not know what ballet was. Making different movements, I reproduced in the dance what I felt.
Already at the age of 9, after her first lesson at the private ballet school of the Russian choreographer I. Yavorsky, Alicia realized that ballet was her whole being. From the desire to show her feelings with dance moves, she moves on to the desire to become a real ballerina and create the National Ballet of Cuba. Having accomplished this goal, in a fantastically short time she raises the young Cuban ballet to the level of world ballet with centuries-old traditions. And again the transition to the supersystem: the creation of the ballet of Latin America.
“The problem of unity is very important. Having reached it, we will be able to give the world more than we give today. Each Latin American power must make its contribution to the formation of the ballet. Folklore enriches and nourishes the ballet. However, Latin America has not yet contributed one third of its folklore to the important ballet.
This boundary of A. Alonso's life goals is aimed at the formation of a national and enrichment of an important culture. But that's not all!
Alicia turned out to be not only a talented ballerina and the creator of a unique ballet school, she decided to turn Cuban ballet into a truly national one. “Ballet ceases to be an art for the elite, it is born among the people and goes to them, fulfilling a close main purpose: to transform reality.
... If the viewer cannot go to the ballet, the ballet itself goes to the viewer - where there are no theaters, where the performance takes place in the open air. But that's not all!
Noticing that dance helps to control the work of the muscles, she decides to use ballet as a therapeutic tool for the treatment of epileptics, asthmatics, people with physical disabilities that affect the psyche. A new target appears - the creation of psycho-ballet. But that's not all!
Alicia's entire existence is an affirmation of the victory of the power of the human spirit over the inevitable frailty of the human body. Almost blind, at the 10th Havana International Ballet Festival in 1986, she again, as always, amazed everyone with “her eternal surprise, her unique manner of dancing.” During the 13 days of the festival, she performed a few roles of both classical and new free productions, where she described the characters amazingly subtly: tragic (Medea, Joan of Arc, Juliet, Jocasta, etc.) and comic (Merry Widow), and flashed " another interesting element is a series of fouettes diagonally, clear and swift, at the sight of which the hall burst into applause. (Dino Carrera, j. "Cuba", 1937, © 4, p. 19).
This ancient art - ballet, which has passed through the steps of Alicia Alonso's life goals - has turned into the finest tool for understanding and transforming the Human world: from the moral and physical perfection of an individual to the spiritual enrichment of mankind.
Program
“About plans? Well, listen: live to be a hundred years old and continue to dance, see being and not get lost in it. A.A.
Throughout his outlandishly productive existence, A.A. based on well-thought-out plans. To create the ballet of Cuba, she sought the implementation of the program:
1. Become a professional ballerina.
2. Find funds to create a ballet in Cuba.
3. Create a national ballet school.
When in 1956 the existence of a ballet troupe in Cuba became impossible due to government persecution, A.A. changes its program to include keeping in shape until better times the most gifted dancers.
After the victory of the revolution in Cuba in 1959, she creates a fresh project of action:
1. Select among the population of the country gifted students.
2. Raise Cuban ballet to world-class heights.
3. Start creating a Latin American ballet.
However, A.A. is not limited to "striving up". In parallel, she plans and implements into existence a wider and deeper influence of ballet on a person:
1. Creation of all the necessary attributes that allow you to perform in any conditions in order to bring ballet to every Cuban.
2. Identification of new possibilities for the impact of ballet on a person's well-being.
3. Extension of the dancer's creative life.
In addition to plans for long periods of life, A.A. has current plans. Her daily service is always scheduled by the second.
performance
"I am a ballet laborer." A.A.
Only the one, but not the only fact from the life of A.A. that she continues to dance on stage, without giving herself allowances for age and poor eyesight, is evidence of her fanatical performance. Alicia herself believes that the secret of her success is “work, exercise without self-pity. I am convinced that the duration of a dancer's creative life depends on his discipline and will. “Neither then, nor later, nor now, am I satisfied with myself!” And Alicia continues to work, giving the work the maximum available opportunities.
Problem solving technique
“I think in every profession it is necessary to strive for excellence. Feel responsible for this not only to yourself, but also to your people. A.A.
I think A.A. intuitively found and used the academic technology of solving problems, including the collection of information, its generalization and the search for patterns.
I will cite a few statements by A.A. regarding this quality. “I studied like uncut dogs and continue to learn. And not only for major artists ... but also for smaller figures. In my opinion, if you are sympathetic to the case, then even a mediocre performer is allowed to learn something.
“When I was young, I learned a lot from my more experienced partners. Then came the second period - we learned mutual friendship from a friend. Now my partners are much younger than me and I think that I help them grow and mature. Of course, without them, there would be no me.”
Touring around the world, scrupulously studying the skill of different schools and performers, A.A. accumulates an "information fund" to create his own way of educating a dancer.
“We have our own, Cuban way of training, taking into account the climate, the characteristics of the physical and muscular structure of the body. This method allows you to reduce the training of a ballet dancer to 7 years.
According to Fernando Alonso (husband of A.A.), “Cuba does not have its own school of choreographers - we have a choreographer who wants to write a dance and can fantasize it.
... The dancers themselves put on one-act ballets, prompted by life itself.” Freedom of creativity, embodied in being, is the basis for solving problems at a high level. Each dancer can contribute to a special "information fund" of the troupe.
The work of A.A. over the creation of the image of a particular character in a ballet is typical for a high-level actor. This is a study of the era and a deep penetration “inside” the image. While working on the scene of madness in Giselle, Alicia visited the psychiatric hospital, talked with doctors, observed patients. Here again, the collection of information, analysis and generalization are repeated.
It is possible that due to this depth and subtlety of interaction with the image of A.A. discovered a new quality of ballet - the ability to cure certain diseases.
Understanding that ballet is enriched by folk art, A.A. seeks to return the highest achievements of this art form to its true creators. Far from an arbitrary Cuban can and wants to please a ballet performance. But Alicia does not wait for the viewer to rise to an understanding of ballet. She finds the perfect solution: the SAM ballet goes to the audience. “We have been working towards this for years.
... Now we can travel to factories, fields. We have everything for this." A mobile stage, equipment, lighting equipment have been created.
Alicia's problem-solving technique is interesting not for solving individual problems, but for solving a complex of interrelated problems, which brings her work closer to the scheme of an ideal creative strategy. From the tasks of the first tier (31) - to master the art of ballet - she moves on to the super-systemic task (32) - to create the ballet of the nation - she goes down to the initial tier (31) and solves a series of tasks to introduce ballet into the population, notices the influence of ballet on the human psyche and moves on to the development and implementation of a new direction in ballet - psychoballet (32). Then she returns to the classical ballet channel to solve a new task (god, supra-above-system 33) - the creation of the ballet of Latin America.