Fernando Alonso: The Father of Cuban Ballet

20. Révérence

114 20 Révérence At ninety-six you are still observing classes, taking rehearsals, traveling the world. Do you follow a special regimen? I continue to follow my faithful sidekick: precision. I have practiced it from primary school; taming the body has always appealed to me. Sports activities helped me understand the principles of shaping the muscles and helped me in my dance career. For most of my life I have practiced swimming, gymnastics, and weight training. I still exercise several hours a week. I have given up only two activities—owing to accidents. Once, when I was playing football, I was blocked by one of the bigger players and because of that my lower jaw was dislocated. I went a week without eating. Another time, I was boxing with a priest at the Colegio Hermanos La Salle. It turned out that he had been a Florida State champion. But he was disgusted with me because I lowered my guard too much. So he hit me hard and knocked me out. Clearly, these were dangerous sports. Are dance and sports compatible? Sugar Ray Robinson, who was one of the greatest fighters in the ring, practically danced. Later, I saw him perform onstage. [Olympic track champion] Alberto Juantorena, the Cuban, was very much admired for the elegance he displayed during his career. Both sports and dance have their styles and their stars. For me, of the two, it was ballet that ultimately prevailed. The threads tying them together are technique and mastery over the body, the instrument with which dancers express themselves. I am an admirer of Balanchine. I agree with him that the woman is the ideal instrument for the artist’s expression. For that reason, I have always preferred to teach girls’ classes. 115 Révérence Can you offer a balance sheet with respect to Balanchine? I don’t care for the ballerina who does not master technique. So, among the choreographers, I value Balanchine for the way he distorts technique in his works. I prefer his earlier works, such as Concerto Barroco, Ballet Imperial, Theme and Variations, and Apollo, to his later ones. Are there other choreographers whose works you especially admire? Oh, yes! I am very fond of the choreographic works of Fokine, Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Yuri Grigorovich, and Alberto Alonso. Who are your favorite dancers? Without question, I place Alicia Alonso at the top of my list. There is also Yvette Chauviré, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, and Nora Kaye. Among men I favor Erik Bruhn, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Vladimir Vasiliev, and Royes Fernández, even with his limitations. I admire the elegance of Igor Youskevitch, but he lacked technique because of a late start in studying ballet. Does a dance work have to be in the classical ballet idiom to please you? We have to struggle to create our own dance forms. For new times, new forms, but coherent, inspired ones. Not [just] to break with what is traditional . At times we want to be innovators but lack artistic loftiness. Mediocrity is always in the market for a home. Everyone has the right to search for his or her path, expression, defeat, but one needs to know what to look for and has to have something to offer. How long should a performing career last? A dancer must retire when he or she is no longer in good enough condition to appear onstage without looking old, because this is an art form that belongs to the young. Retirement age depends on each individual, their nutrition, circulatory system, outlook, and attitude toward life. And this applies to both sexes. Ballet is for me a plastic art, which, above all, requires plasticity. As in sports, the older dancers will have acquired stage experience as actors do, but when a young person dances beside them, one can see the difference. A dancer must retire between thirty-five and forty years old (much closer to thirty-five), assuming that he or she has had good training for the better part of his or her career. Part II. Después (After) 116 What role do you play today? Do you think there is room in Cuba for another ballet company? Even though I was one of the three founders of the first professional ballet company in Cuba and played a central role in the development of another, I don’t think it would...