Representatives from over 15 countries will attend the 28th Alicia Alonso Havana International Ballet Festival, to be held in Cuba from October 28 through November 10, organizers announced on Friday.

The prestigious event will once again attract outstanding ballet figures from around the world, all of them speaking in one voice: dance, which according to Director Viengsay Valdes, knows no borders, because when we are on halls and stages everyone speaks the same language, she stressed exclusively to Prensa Latina.

That is the magic of the festival, an event that provides the opportunity to show the public how people dance in other parts of the world, a whole gamut of styles and emotions, said the prima ballerina and director of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), organizer of the event.

The 28th edition will be held at the Avellaneda and Covarrubias halls of the National Theater, the Marti Theater and the Karl Marx Theater, where Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo will perform Core meu, a work by renowned French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot, current director of the company.

According to Valdes, this will be a special edition, as it will feature several guests who have contributed their art to the prestige of the festival in previous years.

The Argentinian Julio Bocca, current director of the Colon Theater of Buenos Aires Company, will arrive in the capital and will be honored with a performance of Swan Lake, a classic he danced for the first time in Cuba as part of a festival, and therefore, he chose years later to give his last performance here.

Nurturing the special guests list will be two former first dancers of the BNC: Russian Azari Plisetski and Cuban Jose Manuel Carreño.