Acting Minister for Culture and Sport regrets death of Cuban dancer and choreographer, Alicia Alonso

José Guirao regretted the death of the Cuban dancer and choreographer, Alicia Alonso, at the age of 98. Speaking from the 20th Ibero-American Conference of Culture Ministers in Bogota (Colombia), the Spanish minister believes that losing Alicia Alonso means "a dance legend has died".

The Cuban dancer began studying ballet at the Havana Pro-Art Music Society. In New York, she set up the American Ballet school and made her professional debut with choreographies by George Balanchine. Other creators with whom Alicia Alonso worked during her time in New York include Mikhail Fokine, Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille. During the 1950s, she was a star guest at the ballets in Monte Carlo and she became the first American performer to dance with the Bolshoi and the Kirov at theatres in Moscow and Leningrad. Director of the Cuban National Ballet from 1948, she was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Doctor Honoris Causa from Havana University.

Non official translation