PASTOR VALLE -GARAY / HAMILTON / It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas. It is certainly beginning to look like the start of a marvellous tradition. For the second consecutive year Cuba sends to Hamilton its most treasured cultural expression.
Mark your calendar. From December 11 to December 14 the world-renown Cuban National Ballet promises to delight audiences of all ages at Hamilton Place with repeat performances of The Nutcracker, the magnificent ballet traditionally associated with the Christmas season. It will be an unforgettable experience for one hundred and one Hamilton children. They will participate in a once-in-a-life-time dream come true as they share the stage with the professional Cuban dancers and play the coveted roles of mice in the lavish classic fairy tale. Visions of sugar plums indeed!
However far from being just another ‘holiday show’ the interpretation of The Nutcracker, “with its spirit and profusion of details and within the classical style, make it a work totally different from others,” according to Alicia Alonso, Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Artistic Director of the Cuban National Ballet and The Nutcracker’s legendary choreographer.
Such characters as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier “belong to a world of fantasy,” and in Alicia’s interpretation these characters are “the quintessence of the fantasy: they belong to an impossible country of candies and dazzling fantasies, conceived in the dream of a girl. This dream world is declared in a fabulously exquisite way, so much like the illusions of the infancy are capable of creating. Therefore, even being a classical duet, in every moment the dancers express certain dazzling romanticism. It’s like sweetness with sparkles, inside the classical sobriety.”
“On the other hand the Cavalier is a gentleman, a fantasy soldier that, without needing to stop being classic has certain demicaractère tone. That is expressed in a certain mood, certain martial mannerisms in his positions, and in the musical accents of his dance, a little more marked or "cutting". The female dancer, that in this case is a fairy, shows, within the romantic majesty, a lot of femininity and modesty. Her dance should be light, airy, of great delicacy, with the accent very markedly up. It is a sensation that recalls a romantic ballet.
“Another very characteristic moment of the Nutcracker corresponds to the Snow Scene. Here the central focus is another important Pas De Deux, danced by the Snow Queen and her King. This is a duet that requires an extreme classicism, but with a completely unreal projection, that transmit the spectator the sense of the ephemeral thing, the dance of two ethereal beings made of snow, that can dissolve in any moment. Therefore they should be totally impersonal, cold and very airy, which makes them of very difficult interpretation, reason that explains why this Pas De Deux is eliminated of many versions. In this scene, the snowflakes Corps should have, similarly, the same con-substantial, ephemeral character as the royal snow couple. All this differentiates the Snow Scene, as for style and expressive form, of the so characteristic scenes of “ballet blancs” in other words, of the great classical repertoire.”Rocket science? Not really. Alicia Alonso however is a genius. The diva, always candid and captivating in her interviews, invariably captures and gains new audiences as she regales the interviewer with her revolutionary concepts of ballet techniques. She is an expert at marketing her product and in making her dance and her company accessible to all audiences wherever she goes. In the process, Alicia Alonso and the CNB gather recognition and honour wherever they go.
In 1973 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Arts from the University of Havana. In 1980 UNESCO organized an international homage for her in Paris. In 1981 the Cuban Council of State awarded her the Order Felix Varela and in 1981 the Superior Institute of Arts in Cuba awarded Alicia an Honorary Doctorate in Dancing Arts. In 1993 King Juan Carlos I of Spain presented Alicia with the Commendation of Isabel la Católica, and in 1996 the Scientific, Artistic and Literary Ateneo de Madrid honoured her for her valuable artistic and cultural creations. In 1997 the Cuban National Ballet honoured Alicia Alonso on the 50th Anniversary of Theme and Variations, the great ballet created for her by George Balanchine and Igor Youskevitch. In 1998 the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia, Spain, awarded her an Honorary Degree, and in 1998 France´s Ministry of Culture and Communications awarded her the Art and Letters Order, Commander Degree. In 2000 the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba awarded her Cuba´s highest honour, the Order José Martí. This award was followed by the highest official awards from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama: the Order Águila Azteca, the Order Vasco Núñez de Balboa and the Order Duarte, Sánchez and Mella, respectively.
Since 2002 Alicia has been UNESCO´s Ambassador of Goodwill. Two months ago she was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Bolivarian University of Venezuela. In October 2008 King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain presented Alicia with Spain´s Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and Toronto´s York University has invited her to become a Fellow of Winters College. Under Alicia´s artistic direction the Cuban National Ballet became one of the best five ballet ensembles in the world. Under these circumstances, the CNB brings Alicia´s version of The Nutcracker to Hamilton. If this year’s Nutcracker is anything like last year, when Hamilton Place sold out every night, the city will again become a gathering place for devoted balletomanes from all over Canada and the United States. If it’s anything like the awards, the accolades and the magnificent reviews the Cuban National Ballet and Alicia Alonso, its artistic director received after recent performances in Egypt, Spain, Venezuela, Japan, the Dominican Republic and Hamilton, The Nutcracker will exceed all expectations.
“It is an immense honour to have with us the Cuban National Ballet in Canada again,” said Belma Gurdil-Diamante, CEO for the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble. Gurdil-Diamante, Madame Alonso’s partner-extraordinaire on the CNB’s world tours and most certainly the indefatigable motor in securing the Cuban dancers for Hamilton, was absolutely thrilled. “It is indeed a privilege that Alicia and the Cuban National Ballet have chosen Hamilton to close its most successful performance season ever. That it happens here and now, when Cuba culminates a year honouring Alicia with an International Ballet Festival in Havana for founding the Cuban National Ballet 60 years ago, makes the performances in Hamilton a most unique and extraordinary event.”
Choreographed by Madame Alonso on the original by Lev Ivanov (music by Russian composer Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky; scripted by Marius Petipa and based on the free version of Alexandre Dumas Pere of the story The Nutcracker and the King of the Mice, by E.T.A. Hoffmann), The Nutcracker was first staged last year at Hamilton Place as Cuba’s New Year’s gift for the Canadian people.
This year’s version of The Nutcracker at Hamilton Place will be co-produced by The Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble. Giovanni Duarte, Conductor of the National Ballet of Cuba, will conduct the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
In a season marked by clouds of uncertainty, once again the gentle magic of Alicia Alonso and the fabulous dancers with the Cuban National Ballet will reach across the ocean and touch Hamilton. For a precious moment the audience’s hearts and minds will be transported to another dimension by the child-like, fairy-tale evening of lovely music and dance. Once again, Cuba’s warmth and creative imagination shall provide theatre goers with a much-needed Season Greetings. Once again the performance will leave behind the unforgettable, uplifting memories of one of the world’s greatest ballet ensembles telling a story that through the years has always remains as beautiful as ever with every audience that ever watched The Nutcracker.
Tickets can be obtained from the COPPS Coliseum box office; from Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.ca or call (905) 527-7666. For more information visit, www.CBYE.ca.
PICTURES
1. Alicia at an Evening of Elegance Reception
2. Pastor Valle-Garay, Alicia Alonso, Pedro Ramón
3. Guest at Alicia Alonso's Evening of Elegance