Great Celebration of Cuban Culture Ends in the US (+Photos)

With the last presentation of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), a major festival dedicated to the Caribbean nation that combines music, dance, plastic arts, design, theater, and cinema ends today in the US capital.

The classic Giselle, one of the most demanded works within the company's repertoire, will be a luxury closing for Artes de Cuba: from the island to the world, the event inaugurated last May 8 at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, where some 400 artists from the island and other countries came together.

Dancers Viengsay Valdés and Dani Hernández will incarnate this afternoon the leading roles of the pinnacle of Romanticism, which already had four functions since last Thursday with other figures of the company such as Grettel Morejón, Sadaise Arencibia, Patricio Revé, Raúl Abreu, and Rafael Quenedit.

In addition to playing the main roles in this last day, Valdés and Hernández interpreted the central characters last Tuesday, when the BNC began its presentations at the event dedicated to the Caribbean country with the work Don Quixote, which was also staged on Wednesday.

The Opera House of the cultural institution is the space that has hosted each of these staging, which had the special incentive for those present to have the presence of the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, director of the BNC and one of the most eminent dance figures worldwide.

Together with this company, which in its different functions has won great cheers from the capital's public, Artes de Cuba had previous days with the presence of two other dance groups: Malpaso, with its contemporary style; and Irene Rodríguez centered on flamenco dancing.

Likewise, the music had a great presence, with proposals ranging from classical works to jazz and popular dance, with the Lyceum Mozartiano from Havana, Yissy and Bandancha, the group Los Van Van, the López-Nussa Family and the Miguel Faílde Orchestra, among others.

The plastic arts also had a great impact, with exhibitions by some of the most prominent creators of the island, including Manuel Mendive, Roberto Fabelo, and Roberto Diago; and talented figures who reside in the North American territory, such as José Parlá and Emilio Pérez.

The group El Público, with Las amargas lágrimas de Petra Von Kant (The bitter tears of Petra Von Kant), and Argos Teatro, which proposed the play 10 millones (10 million), were the exponents of that branch of performing arts at the event, which according to the organizers, more than a festival, constituted a celebration of Cuban culture.

An exhibition on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, the parade of the Art and Fashion project, and an exhibition of posters were also included among the numerous activities of the event.