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• Arts and Culture
• Dance
• 10 / 16 / 2006

By Omar Vázquez

The Lizt Alfonso Ballet has been staging its productions over the past fifteen years. Since it emerged, there has emerged one creative idea after another in each of its gestures and in all its choreography. Talent, supported by great effort, has been rewarded. The fifteen anniversary of the company was celebrated in Havana in a unique performance on October 14 at the Karl Marx Theatre.

The company will be presented several works that have helped it to strengthen its prestige. Among those were Fuerza y compas (1999), Ire a Santiago (1998), and Alas (2006, their latest).

On stage, the troupe was accompanied by the Afro-Cuban singing group Sintesis, the Conjunto Folclórico Nacional(the National Folkloric Group), and popular Cuban singer Raquel Hernandez and guitarist Eduardo Martin.

The company formed on October 19, 1991, the evening before the Day of Cuban Culture. This was followed by nine years of struggle for the group and the country; this was a time known as the "special period," following the collapse of Cuba's principal trade partner, the Soviet Union.

Weathering that storm, the troupe made its first tour of Spain In September 1998 with Sinceramente, FG. "We made thirty-two successful presentations."

Travelling to the United States in June 2001, they presented Fuerza y compas at the Summer Stage Festival in New York and at the Columbia Festival of the Arts in Maryland. "These presentations have marked our international presence," said Alfonso.

"After that," she said, "everything has been easier and the company has enjoyed positive reviews form the critics. One of these came from a writer of The New York Times who wrote"This is a valuable and surprising company with its own festive style;" and another reviewer from the Chicago Sun Times commented, "Lizt Alfonso, from Cuba, is a sensual mix of fire and spice."

"We are going to continue working while maintaining this same quality as our premise," said the renowned artist.

Source: CubaNow