Cuba's National Ballet Company to Tour Canada

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 14 (acn) Cuba's National Ballet Company (BNC), directed by prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, will make several presentations in Canada of the classic piece Don Quixote during a tour scheduled for May, the company announced on Thursday.

The presentations of the dance group founded in Havana in 1948 will take place on May 4-7 at the Palace of Arts of Montreal, considered to be the largest cultural and artistic complex of the northern nation.
The tour will bring together on stage great stars like Viengsay Valdes, Anette Delgado, Sadaise Arencibia and Dani Hernandez and young talents like Adrian Masvidal, Raul Abreu, Rafael Quenedit and Patricio Reve.
Choreographed by Alonso on the original work by French artist Marius Petipa and the version of Russian Alexander Gorsky, this classic ballet is inspired by El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, one of the most important works of world literature, written by Spanish Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra.
The world premiere of Don Quixote occurred at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on December 26, 1869, inspired by an episode of the famous novel, while in the summer of 1988 the premiere of the Cuban version was presented at the Gran Teatro de La Habana.
The staging conceived by prima ballerina assoluta shows, from a creative point of view, a thorough job on the authenticity of cultural references in the literary work, considered an icon of Spanish language.
Together with Fernando and Alberto Alonso, the prima ballerina assoluta founded Cuba's National Ballet Company, one of the most prestigious troupes in the world, which also occupies an important place in contemporary Spanish American culture.