• Submitted by: lena campos
• Dance
• 08 / 30 / 2012

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The South African tour by Alicia Alonso's National Ballet of Cuba (NBC) was cancelled by the Havana-based company only days before its departure to Joburg.

On Wednesday Dirk Badenhorst, the director of Mzansi Productions, announced that the company would not perform The Magic of the Dance, which was due to open at the Teatro, Montecasino, Joburg, on Thursday, August 30.
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Following the Johannesburg season, further performances were scheduled in Cape Town and other SA cities. The SA government funded tour was being produced and facilitated by Mzansi Productions.

In announcing the cancellation of the National Ballet of Cuba’s highly anticipated first SA tour, Dirk Badenhorst said the National Ballet of Cuba took the decision last night to cancel the tour after the SA government’s ongoing delays in the payment of the funding required to secure and arrange the tour and in providing assistance with the logistical details required for the tour.

Plans for this year’s National Ballet of Cuba tour to South Africa, in which the SA government requested to play a central role in line with South Africa’s long standing close historical ties with Cuba during the years of South Africa’s struggle for democracy, started between the National Ballet of Cuba and South Africa in 2010.

Dirk Badenhorst, who has piloted and propelled South Africa’s growing cultural ties with Cuba since 2008, particularly in the area of ballet and dance in which Cuba is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading countries of the world, expressed deep disappointment at the cancellation of the tour.

Dirk Badenhorst did, however, add that while the 2012 tour has been cancelled, the National Ballet of Cuba has indicated its willingness to reschedule an SA tour at some time in  future. He concluded by saying that the inconvenience and disappointment caused to patrons by the cancellation is deeply regretted.

Source: Citizen.co.za