BALLET IN FESTIVAL: A Symphony to Open the Party

Today begins the XXVII Alicia Alonso International Ballet Festival of Havana. And the play chosen for tonight's opening gala is a declaration of principles. With Seventh Symphony, of the German Uwe Scholz, the National Ballet of Cuba (the host company) bets on the extraordinary capacity for renewal of an art that is essentially dynamic. Ballet will never be a museum piece. Tradition and contemporaneity: those are the flags raised by the group directed by Viengsay Valdés. And the Festival intends to honor that line of work.

This Thursday's work is a 'visual symphony', with everything that the concept would suggest: multiplicity of tones, confluence of registers, united development in several fields, succession of tempos, compositional variety, dynamism in the design. From Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Scholz one could say what used to be said of Balanchine's symphonic-choreographic transcriptions: one can almost 'see' music.

It’s really remarkable the vast culture of the choreographer, who understands the essential nature of the musical score and honors its peculiarities. The dancers seem to inhabit the very realm of music. The movement adjusts to what is heard and at the same time opens a range of plastic possibilities.

Scholz's compositional logic recreates Beethoven's formal paths: it’s evident in the repetition (with punctual variations) of phrases, the use of the canon, the pyrotechnic alternation of soloists and corps de ballet, the shades that define intentions.

The result is a very well-articulated framework, which is never boring or tiresome: the repetition in Beethoven (and in Scholz) is never cacophony: it’s the triumph of unprejudiced classicism in the most inspired romantic spirit. On top of that the choreographer brings waves of relative modernity.

The Alicia Alonso International Ballet Festival of Havana will end on November 13^th. There is much to watch and tell.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff