Cuban ballet will transmit dancers’ sensuality to Costa Ricans

The suite Carmen, to be presented in Costa Rica, allows dancers to show their sensuality, the director of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), Viengsay Valdés, said about this performance on Saturday and Sunday.
 
That will be one of the great attractions for the national public transmitted by that work, endowed with a high theatrical component that makes it something very special for the spectator, Viengsay, who is also dancer, said in an interview from Havana with the local newspaper Semanario Universidad.

“The Suite Carmen, “The prima ballerina pointed out, “is very relevant nowadays. In our version, some changes were made, but the way we interpret it gives it a way of its own. It is a very rounded work. It is a trump card for our ballet”.

Due to the theatricality that characterizes that choreography, which has become a classic of the company, although it was not created for it, Valdés considers that “it catches the spectator from the beginning and doesn’t let go until the end,” Universidad publishes about the BNC’s presentation this weekend at the Melico Salazar Theater in Havana, with performances at 5:00 pm, local time.

“The Cuban version of Carmen,” she said, “has been presented all over the world. Since Alicia Alonso it has been part of the four jewels of our ballet. All the leading figures have performed it. It has historically been taken on every tour. I have performed it at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and it has been presented at numerous international galas.”

The BNC director told journalist José Eduardo Mora that Bizet originally adapted it from the novel Carmen, by Prosper Mérimée.

“Subsequently – he explained about the Cuban contribution – Alberto Alonso created a libretto for the Bolshoi Theater, which was the one that ended up being imposed, given its attractiveness and quality.”