On the eve of the 8th Habano Festival that has reserved for the opening gala a presentation of Romeo and Juliet or Shakespeare and his Masks by Cuba’s National Ballet Company, directed and choreographed by Alicia Alonso, at the Havana Grand Theater, Caribbean Tourist Excellencies magazine is honored to publish this exclusive interview with the Prima Ballerina Assoluta.

An all-time ballet glory of both Cuba and the world, Alicia welcomed us in a peculiar encounter in which, for moments, words of wisdom teamed up with intimate reflections only to underscore the Cuban identity of this outstanding woman.

Was dancing a need? “I can’t tell you what actually inspired me to dance. It was a need. I remember that every time I listened to music, the sound of it urged me to sway, to dance. Of course, since I didn’t know anything about dancing and I hadn’t seen a ballet function, I simply used to dance with popular music moves. I was always trying to cook up something, doing some dance moves that made my family wonder where I’d learned that. “I loved to have long hair, and since my hair wasn’t long, then I used to put a towel over my head, pretending it was my long hair, and I danced. I’d never seen a dance class in my life. Never. As a child, I didn’t get as lucky as today’s girls are.”

How’s Alicia in her daily life?

“I love the break of the morning and wake up to crowing of a rooster. That sound gives you happiness and strength. Whenever you hear a rooster crows, you open up your eyes and look out and say, ‘life has awakened.’ It’s the prodigy of nature. “I raise roosters, hens and chicken. I love them. I hear them crowing and cackling and tweeting all the time. I love animals. I adore them. I’ve got five cats and two dogs. Dogs have their territory and cats have theirs, and whenever something happens, each gang stands up for its own turf. They’re incredibly jealous. Jealous of me! They’re my masters and I belong to them, rather than me being their master.

“Nature is punishing us real hard for what we’ve done to it. I know we had it coming to, but it’s tough. We’re doing away with everything; with nature, the sea, the trees, the air that we breathe, with the lives of human beings, the trees, the animals, everything. Man has turned out to be the worst plague on the face of the earth. That’s why we ought to fight hard to stop so much damage before it’s too late.”

How are ballet dancers trained and formed? “Running a ballet company and a national ballet school is very expensive, and so is the training and education of a ballet dancer. That’s the moment when the State pitches in and plays its role, building all those huge schools. That’s the cradle of our ballet dancers.

“We recruited them since an early age, we educate them and make them grow. We the teachers provide the talent and develop that talent. Afterwards, when they join the company as professional dancers, they already have some technical knowledge that must be honed in terms of showing them what dancing is really all about. They need to be a part of the company, of the ballet. They must become resistant which is, by all means, the fusion of all those technical moves and the esthetic quality. They have to be ready to dance a whole night rather than just for a few minutes. “Technical knowledge is applied to achieve artistic outcomes. They need to rely on that technique as art, not as simple technique. When youngsters join the company that’s exactly what they do. That’s no doubt one of the greatest cultural treasures this country has.”

What actually singles out Cuba’s Ballet School? “Cuban ballet dancers are distinguished by the projection of their personality on stage and in the different characters and roles they play. Technically or esthetically speaking, Cuban dancers have what I call an “aerial accent.”

“We’re very light when we dance. You can notice that when you see them dancing. At the same time, we’re very expressive because we pay close heed to the fact –and this is something I myself pay close attention to- that when a man and a woman dance together, they ought to be a couple, a pair. Not just two individuals doing adorable deed on stage with overflowing technical prowess. They cannot focus solely on their own characters, but on the entire set. That’s very important. Top dancers playing main characters must be aware of the corps de ballet, and the corps de ballet needs to be linked to the soloists.

“In addition –and this is something that we find in all Cubans and Latin Americans, but especially in all Cubans- no matter how classical or romantic the dance might be, we always give it a soft, fine and sensual touch to the moves. The art of dancing –the ballet- is by and large one of the most important things we have today in Cuba.”

And in the case of Shakespeare and his Masks? Shakespeare and his Masks present Shakespeare telling the story of Romeo and Juliet, the same story he wrote, but this time around told by his masks: the mask of pain and sorrow, the mask of death, the mask of laughter. Just like in the classical theater. “We don’t use the music of the Romeo and Juliet ballet composed by Prokofiev, but the one that Gounod composed for his homonymous opera. In this case, it’s going to be opera music for a ballet presentation. It’s just lovely and we’ve adapted it to our ballet. We did the same with some parts of the opera, that was of course composed for opera singers.

“That’s why we’re so very happy of doing the grand opening of the 8th Habano Festival with Shakespeare and his Masks, just to show our work, a job that starts when dancers are children and finishes with their full-blown development as artists. Those are the great things that Cuba has. Staging this presentation at the Habano Festival is something beautiful and we’re so very happy about it.”

Before wrapping up this lovely meeting, Alicia Alonso paused for a moment and started out a comparison between the past and the present, between what she’s lived and the road ahead. “As a ballerina, I’m extremely happy because I’ve been able to give something that I like and people appreciate. That’s the strength I’m given to keep creating, keep projecting. That’s what life is all about for me?