In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Part III. Recuerdos (Recollections) 142 consolidated a Cuban methodology, which, together with Alicia, became the “Cuban Miracle.” Nor does it stop there. His formative years in other dance schools, contact with important choreographers, his tact in dealings with first-rank companies, acquired as a result of his enlightened upbringing, his affinity with and sensibility to Cuban and universal art, placed him in the optimal position to master the various styles of the great classics, the histories that surrounded their origins, the whys and wherefores of each gesture, the musical accent in each such variation, the specific characteristics of this or that pas de deux, a dominion that doesn’t register as a scholastic method as much as an artistic arsenal necessary to confront a piece. I have heard many intelligent and up-to-date assessments from Fernando Alonso that nourish my dance culture like sap: his concern for the artistic sense, its loss in the overestimation of technique by younger dancers, his analysis of a disciplined and knowledgeable audience faced with something that is scandalous or frivolous, requiring only virtuosity and bringing nothing to the choreographic art form. His foot-stomping masculine presence onstage was characteristic of the Cuban school of ballet, as was his insistence on conserving the styles in the great classics, respecting the step sequences in variations, with dancers not executing just the ritual spectacular steps. But—there is a sentence, deep and wise, that I keep intertwined with my brain and also sealed in my heart: “Dance not only with the muscles of your body, also work with the muscle of the heart.” Men]a Martínez Menia Martínez studied ballet in Cuba and the Soviet Union, where she became a classmate and the beloved friend of Rudolf Nureyev. Having danced in Cuba and helped to bring ballet to Cuban television audiences, she then danced with Maurice Béjart and married the dancer/choreographer Jorge Lefebre. She lives in Brussels but returns to Cuba often. The following interview was conducted at the Ballet Nacional de Cuba studios on Calzada Street in Havana, on October 29, 2008, during the Twenty-First International Ballet Festival. 143 What unique contribution did Fernando Alonso make to your development as a dancer? I found myself onstage before an audience very early. Fernando created an interesting methodology in the school because he brought in an actress to give us acting classes. He was seeing to it that we had a complete education. As I liked acting very much, it was amazing to take those classes. Fernando studied in the United States and spoke about having been interested in the human body, and he worked in a clinic where X-rays were made. So, it was he who taught us makeup, and not the actress who taught acting class; he gave us dance anatomy class and showed us slides of the human body. He explained things in terms of the exercises that we were made to do correctly, and how one could [potentially] harm the body, physically. I never had a single injury. In my generation there were four or five of us—no more—to whom he gave private classes. The anatomy class helped us a lot because all of us were teachers very early on. By seventeen years old, I was giving class. Thanks to Fernando’s anatomy classes, we could teach how to assume the positions without injuring the head and legs, and yet work the entire body with exactitude. So they were as complete as if they were private classes. Since Fernando couldn’t invite teachers who were specialists in each of these areas, he himself taught all of it, except acting, which was taught by the actress Violeta Casals. Casals was a woman of great importance to the Cuban Revolution. During the revolution she went up to the Sierra Maestra and was the voice that went out over Radio Rebelde to call out: “Here Cuba: We are in [their location on that day].” When I returned from the Vaganova Institute , Fidel wanted to meet with us to discuss organizing the arts instructors , and Violeta Casals became the head of a four-person team consisting of herself, Alberto Alonso, Sonia Calero, and myself. Sonia and Alberto were the folkloric representatives, Violeta was the drama representative, and I was the classical ballet representative. I came back to see the revolution for myself and was surprised to find out that Casals had worked in the Sierra Maestra with the guerilla...

Share