Cuba celebrates Alicia Alonso's centennial

Artists and intellectuals pay tribute are paying tribute on Monday to Cuba's prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso, on the Ibero-American Day of Dance, declared to mark the centenary of her birth.

The Aula Magna of the University of Havana will host a Solemn Session to celebrate the event. At the same time, a Centennial Commemorative Coin will be presented at the Grand Theater that has been named after Alonso.

This Monday, various activities will take place in the country's capital and hometown of one of the most extraordinary dancers that has ever existed and Cuba's most universal artist.

The Cuban National Ballet (BNC) and the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra will pay tribute to the prima ballerina assoluta, sharing the stage with other great dance companies in a gala at the Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso.

The show will begin with excerpts from Giselle's second act and will continue with scenes from Carmen, choreographed by Alberto Alonso.

Film images of the dancer's most famous performances will be projected on the facades of different buildings in Havana.

Alonso was born in Havana on December 21, 1920, and reached her highest professional level in the United States, where she participated in the founding of the American Ballet Theatre in 1940.

After becoming a star of that company, she came to Havana eight years later to establish the National Ballet of Cuba, along with brothers Fernando and Alberto Alonso.