Alicia Alonso

Alicia Alonso ( born December 21, 1920 in Havana as Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martínez del Hoyo ) is a Cuban prima ballerina, ballet director and choreographer. She was one of the leading dancers in the 1940s and 1950s.

Life

Dancer

1937, at the age of 16 years, the ballet student Alicia Martínez married her six years his senior partner Fernando Alonso ( 1914-2013 ), whom she had met on the ballet and went with him to New York. Your professional career began in 1938 with engagements at the local Broadway. In 1940 she was accepted as first Hispanic-American dancer in the American Ballet Theatre was founded in 1939 ( ABT).

In 1941 she was first diagnosed with a detached retina, which is increasingly restricted their vision in the subsequent period. She had to pause until 1943, learned in the meantime, however, despite their progressive blindness continues to dance at the highest level.

Shortly after their return to the ABT, she had represented the injured -budgetary Prima Ballerina in November 1943 and got her first starring role as Giselle, who brought her breakthrough as an internationally celebrated star. In 1946 she rose to the prima ballerina of ABT. Between 1940 and 1948 she danced in this ballet company a total of 58 roles.

Ballet Director

In 1948 she founded in Havana with her husband originally Ballet Alicia Alonso private, they under the name Ballet Nacional de Cuba ( Cuban National Ballet ) has been head of the Cuban revolution of 1959 with government support.

In April 2003, Alonso was one of a group of prominent Cuban cultural workers who signed one in the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma published open letter, which was sent to friends of Cuba in the world and international criticism of the human rights policy of the Cuban government as anti-Cuban campaign of vilification rejected: in the weeks before President Fidel Castro had in a known as the " black spring" crackdown 75 critical journalists and civil rights activists sentenced to long prison terms in summary proceedings and leave three young black Cubans after the bloodless failed attempt of a ship hijacking also executed after summary trials.