Fernando Alonso: The Father of Cuban Ballet

Aurora Bosch

125 Aurora Bosch Aurora Bosch’s first ballet teacher was Magda González Mora (Auñon), and as a scholarship recipient Bosch studied with Alicia and Fernando Alonso, eventually becoming one of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s celebrated “Four Jewels.” A prizewinner in many competitions, she was awarded the Gold Medal at Varna in 1964; the Anna Pavlova Prize and the Dance Writers and Critics Award, which was created for her in 1966 in Paris; the National Fine Arts Institute Prize in Mexico in 1971; the Gold Sagittarius International Art Prize in Italy in 1977; and the National Dance Prize in Cuba in 2003. She was a founder of Cuba’s National Ballet School, artistic director of Ballet Clasico de Mexico, and guest teacher at the Ballet Nacional de España, Ballet du Rhin, the Zurich Staats Oper, the Budapest Opera, Vienna Staats Oper, and Copenhagen Opera Ballets, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet School, and Central School of Ballet, London. Bosch received a doctorate in arts and sciences from the Instituto Superior de Las Artes de La Habana. I was able to interview Aurora Bosch at the Hotel Presidente in Havana on November 1, 2008, during the Twenty-First International Ballet Festival. Who was Fernando Alonso to you? From the very beginning, Fernando was a coach. When we were in the academy I received a scholarship. I didn’t have direct contact with him then, because at that time he was the general manager of the company. My first teacher was Magda González Mora. She was a member of the company. We would peek in at the door of company class. Fernando would have the students do the steps again and again. So, I think what I got from him was the discipline in here [points to her heart] to look for perfection. In dance, it’s so hard because you have to use your body and mind to look for it, and not be weak when faced with something that is not what it should be. I saw this in Alicia. She would go and go, and Fernando would work with her and insist in such a sweet way on repeating it. For him, it came from his culture, a person with a very wide knowledge of culture. His mother was a musician. My family couldn’t afford to give me music lessons, but Fernando would say in class to the pianist, Lorina, “Play such and such a Schubert étude for me.” I can’t always remember which one it was, but when I teach I know Part III. Recuerdos (Recollections) 126 what music I want. He gave us anatomy class. He was himself a curious person , always trying to find out the whys and the hows of things. Each one of us touched him in a general way, as well as in a special way because of our personalities and tastes. My grandfather was a chemical engineer in a sugar plant. I was the first granddaughter, and when my grandmother read that the Alicia Alonso Academy was coming to audition children, she didn’t say anything to my grandfather, and took me there, and then a month later I received a letter saying that I had been accepted into the school. Fernando told me seven years later that my grandmother never paid a penny, and this was during Batista, so there was no support, but they chose me, Mirta Plá, and Margarita and Ramona de Sáa. Mirta actually had begun at the state academy, and finally came with us as the first scholarship student. Little by little, they built a company through the academy, because without money there was no other way. They only had students whose families had money, with or without talent, but who had no interest in ballet, and so they realized they had to keep us. We had two classes a day, as well as a class in makeup. I must say that Fernando is a person with a very well balanced personality , who was capable of working with Alicia to develop a methodology. The only way that made any sense was for him to prepare, and try his ideas on her, and then later, with us at the academy. He kept a copybook because he used to write about jumps in one section, and in another part, adagio, and in another part, barre. I don’t know how it fell into my hands, but I remember those variations. We...