75 Years: Ballet and the Cuban Regime & Artists in Diaspora Podcast Series Interview with Claudia Hilda
We may think of artists and their work as inherently needing total freedom in order to thrive, but this isn’t always the case especially when it comes to ballet. Similarly to how ballet undeniably flourished in many respects under the communist Soviet Union, Cuba produced (and still produces) some of the best ballet and ballet dancers in the world after the Cuban Revolution, and with the full support of Castro and the communist party.
Alicia Alonso Prima Ballerina and founder of National Ballet of Cuba and Fidel Castro
There have of course been artists who have fled their countries, the most famous being the big 3 Soviet Union defectors: Mikhail Barishnikov, Natalia Makarova and Rudolf Nureyev. Most do not flee and ballet being an art form that requires a tremendous amount of support simply to exist at all did quite well under these governments if we are measuring by the quality of the dancers and the integrity of the mostly classical rep.
Why does ballet get so much support from these so called oppressive regimes?
Well, across centuries, really since its inception in the 1500s ballet has been used as a form of soft power. Employed to represent the sophisticated culture of the nation and its leaders and to exalt the values of the respective leading class. Or at least the purported values, really it was PR and/or propaganda for the ruling class. This was true for Catherine de Medici, Louis XIV, Napoleon, the Soviet Union and finally in this case the Cuban regime.
Although this is also true of under governments that aren’t monarchies or under communist dictators. In the cold war era when tensions and competition were high between the US and USSR, Krushchev came with the Bolshoi Ballet and clearly bested us with their dancers and their reverence for the arts. Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center were subsequently built, with George Balanchine founder of NYC Ballet on the advisory committee. These temples to the performing arts were part of a competition for power and prestige (along with moon landings and kitchen gadgets) between the US and the USSR.
Today the National Ballet of Cuba, in it’s 75th year is one of the best ballet institutions in the world, developing and occasionally exporting some of the top dancers in the world including Fernando Bujones and of course the revered Carlos Acosta. But it wasn’t the regime that founded the company, it was one of Cuba’s daughters. Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, world wide ballet super star and a ballerina with a tremendous disability she was nearly completely blind in even many of her prime years as a dancer. If we think about what that means, to be a performing artist in an art form that requires exacting spacial awareness and visual communications with lines, bodies and space you begin to comprehend what a force to be reckoned with she was.
Although the Cuban born Alonso was a ballet star in the US, she danced under Balanchine in one of the precursors to NYC Ballet, Ballet Caravan, and American Ballet Theater among other companies including the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, for many years she was not allowed to perform in the US on account of tensions between the US and Cuba. Fun fact: Balanchine created his iconic and notoriously difficult Theme and Variations on Alonso and her partner Igor Youskevitch.
What about contemporary dance in Cuba?
There is also a national contemporary dance school and company founded around the same time as National Ballet of Cuba in 1959. Similar to traditional big state ballet schools, it integrates academics into the studies and the students come out with full degrees. The dance training is a mix of contemporary, classical ballet, modern and folk styles. There are few countries in the world that have contemporary dance training that is this comprehensive. For example in the US there isn’t a school that compares to this unless perhaps you are looking at certain university dance programs. But if we are talking about the prime training years as a dancer which are age 8-18 give or take, then there isn’t a program that compares. Which means in classical and contemporary dance, Cuba is producing some of the best dancers in the world.
Where are these dancers today?
Come with me to talk to principal dancer Claudia Hilda on the Dance Lens Podcast. She is a Cuban dance artist, choreographer and director. We’ll talk about her journey and the influence of Cuban politics on dance and dancers.
