Dancing from the heart of Cuba

Young Chang

With dancers whose blood courses with a swan-like grace and whose

devotion lies in classical forms of ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba

is considered the country’s premium export, topping even cigars.

Their traditions have been danced by Jose Manuel Carreno, now with the

American Ballet Theatre; Lorena Feijoo, with the San Francisco Ballet;

and Carlos Acosta, a principal dancer with the Houston and Royal ballets.

But when the Cuban national troupe performs company-founder Alicia

Alonso’s “La Magia de Alonso” and “Coppelia” through Sunday at the Orange

County Performing Arts Center as part of the Eclectic Orange Festival,

ballet aficionados predict we’ll get to know more than just the standard

pas de deux.

“It’s extremely warm,” said Jane Hermann, senior vice president and

director of dance for ICM Artists, a company that acts as a management

agency to bring ballets to the Center. “I would say that’s one of the

main attributes of the Cubans, how warm they are.”

Alonso founded the company in the late 1940s, during a time when

Cubans were more known for dancing the mambo than for their toe shoes.

The Havana native wanted a dance troupe that would express the heart of

the Cubans. Having danced internationally -- as a soloist for Ballet

Caravan, with the American Ballet Theatre, in such classics as “Swan

Lake” and “Giselle,” and with celebrated choreographers including Mikhail

Fokine and Anthony Tudor -- the prima ballerina returned to her small

island nation and took over the Teatro Pro Arte.

The company was later renamed the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company, and in

1959, after garnering state backing, the National Ballet of Cuba.

“She’s an extremely patriotic Cuban,” said Hermann, who says she knows

Alonso like a sister. “Her loyalty to her country has always been primary

in her professional life and in her personal life.”

Alonso trains her dancers with classical techniques.

“They have one of the most classical ballet forms in the world,”

Hermann said. “It’s really quite extraordinary. It says something about

the people -- that this musical heritage is obviously intrinsic to these

people.”

Oscar Torrado, a dancer with Alonso’s company, says the troupe’s

commitment to classical and romantic styles is valuable in a world of

more modern dance.

“I think that’s important because in many companies over the world,

the classical ballet is a little bit forgot,” he said. “In the National

Ballet of Cuba, it’s a good company for that.”

Also innate to Cuban ballet is a multiethnic medley of body types,

which, Hermann said, creates an unexpected uniformity on stage.

“In such a small country, you have a much greater variety of sizes and

shapes and colors,” she said. “It’s an amazing feat to see these separate

body types and colors and shapes come onstage and be as one.”

The National Ballet’s repertoire includes “Giselle,” “Swan Lake,” “The

Sleeping Beauty” and “Don Quixote.” Productions by Russian choreographer

Serge Dighilev, including “Petrushka” and “The Afternoon of a Faun,” have

also been performed, along with such Cuban works as “Fiesta Negra,”

“Songoro Cosongo” and “Combres.”

ICM has brought the ballet to America five times since Alonso formed

the company, which also performed at the Center about two years ago.

“In Cuba, it’s a little island,” Torrado said. “But we do many tours

over the world, we can dance in many countries.”

But its location still renders Cuba isolated both physically and

financially, Hermann said, which helps ballet dancers retain a classical

style.

“By and large, they are not exposed to as much new works as they would

like to be,” Hermann said. “But the isolation has, if anything,

strengthened them.”

Laudo Hormigon, also a dancer with the company and Torrado’s wife,

adds that every one of Alonso’s ballets are different.

“It’s very human because the company dances with passion and with,

maybe, the spirit of the Latino. And we dance with a lot of heart,” she

said. “But the movement and the style is not the same in every ballet.

Each ballet has its personality.”

FYI

* WHAT: The National Ballet of Cuba will perform “La Magia de Alonso”

and “Coppelia”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. today for “La Magia”; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m.

Sunday for “Coppelia”

* WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

* COST: $20-$70

* CALL: (714) 740-7878