She also assured that she has been traveling to Spain for about thirty years to "promote ballet" and she considers being someone who is "happy to have contributed with an important personal drop to dance." "You, who have dance incorporated into folcklore, have managed to produce great ballet dancers," she declared.

Now, Alicia Alonso returns to Spain with a piece that manages to revive the style of romanticism and whose tour has had a spectacular welcome in the community.

To the presentation of the piece came also the general director of Teatres, Inmaculada Gil Lázaro, who declared that this is a double celebration, since we are also celebrating our tenth anniversary as a chorographical center with the constant collaboration and teaching from Alicia and the BNC."

According to Inmaculada Gil Lázaro, this collaboration has served so that "the project of the choreographic center and the company Teatres de la Generalitat could be consolidates thanks to the presence of teachers from the BNC and the push from Alicia to carry on despite all the drawbacks."

Alicia Alonso participated in Giselle in 1943 during the season of the New York Ballet Theater and from that moment onwards she has been related to this show. During that long stage, the famous dancer and choreographer has performed many characters and has risen Giselle over the long trajectory which has traveled the piece, adding new profiles to the choreography, the style and the dramatic action.

The version from the BNC received the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1966, apart from being incorporated to the Paris Opera in 1972 and it has been proclaimed as the best achieved among all of those that can be seen in the international repertoire. With this piece, Cuba enters for the first time in the international dance field, going through Spain.

The important Cuban choreographer declared, during the presentation of the ballet, that the work undertaken to bring Giselle to Spain has been the result of "a mutual collaboration" between both companies and the it is "totally necessary" that Teatres de la Generalitat may exist "to continue making a great job with art."

"Giselle has been one of the most famous ballets from the BNC, the product of the work of many years," added Alicia Alonso, who also showed her happiness thanks to "the wonderful welcome this tour has had around the theaters of the Comunitat." The company arrived past Monday and they have already visited Alcoi, where they managed to fill the theater, in Alzira, past Saturday in Aldaia and after they abandon the Principal theater they are to travel to Gandia.

On the sort of spectators that come to see these shows, she declared that in Cuba "it is filled mainly with young people and there is even the need to perform special functions," something that demonstrates "the need of the people to see something beautiful and not so many bullets."

The general director of the BNC is responsible for a huge number of ballet dancers and "some people think that separating themselves from a great company they might go further on their own, but that is not true, because they always need a mark of reference," she explained.

"The BNC is the company that travels the most in the world and we send our dancers as guest artists to other ballets, even though afterwards they always come back to Cuba," explained Alicia Alonso, who also added that "this company has a huge repertoire, something very difficult because you need a strong economical support which is hard to get."

The Cuban choreographer explained that one of the key points of her work is that she is "very strict" and demands from all of her dancers that they must "reach their maximum potential, because otherwise, they would always think that they could have done something more." "Everything I do, I do it with my body and soul, since I have many responsibilities with my dancers and above all, with my conscience," she declared.

Lastly, the legendary dancer did not tell what is kept in the Caja de las Letras (Letter Box) from the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, where she recently placed her legacy. The founder of the BNC and one of the great figures of classical dance in the 20th century, placed "something of her" in a box as a personal secret which is to remain under key for twenty years and when it is to be opened, "we will see what is inside because I expect to live for two hundred years," she declared.

(Europa Press)