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The Dancer's Duty

Cell phones and motorcycle headlights illuminated the stage at the Teatro América during a recent performance of the ballet company ProDanza. When the music also failed, audience members joined dancers in singing along, ensuring the show could go on.

ProDanza performing at Teatro América, Cuba. Photograph by Sebastián Miló

ProDanza, founded and helmed by Laura Alonso, is based in Havana, Cuba. Cuba is currently in the midst of what has been called the country’s largest economic and humanitarian crisis to date. Citizens frequently experience power outages—like the one during ProDanza’s recent performance—that can last more than 30 hours. Food is at high risk of spoilage and residents are battling extreme heat. Despite it all, Alonso’s company continues to rehearse and perform.

“During the Second World War, the artists that stayed during the siege of Leningrad performed at night for the troops and the public. In England, the Royal Ballet danced under the bombardment of the Nazis,” Alonso said during a phone interview from her home in Havana. “It is the artist’s duty to perform to the public and to at least make them forget for a moment, so that their brains can rest.”

Alonso is the daughter of pioneering Cuban ballet dancers Alicia and Fernando Alonso, who founded what is now the Cuban National Ballet. She spoke with Fjord Review about how her company is meeting the current moment, the decision to dance in times of trouble, and making her trailblazing ancestors proud.

 

It’s such a powerful image, your company continuing to persevere and perform despite the ongoing difficulties in Cuba. How are the dancers faring?

The dancers have the same problems as the people of Cuba—no electricity for 30 or more hours, water shortages, there’s no transportation because there’s no gas. The dancers walk from their homes to work and back. We do it because we love ballet. If there’s no electricity, we sing the music and we rehearse.

ProDanza performing at Teatro América, Cuba. Photograph by Sebastián Miló

ProDanza performing at Teatro América, Cuba. Photograph by Sebastián Miló

I can imagine that the unique demands of a dance career, coupled with the hardships all Cuban citizens are facing right now, make for a very difficult situation.

We’re having a tough time. For example, I have a garden and I have a mango tree, a guava tree, and plums, so whenever a fruit is in season I pick it up and we make juice for the company. Whatever you have, you bring it to share. But you know what the worst thing is? The heat. There are no fans, no air conditioning and the heat is killing us. You’re not supposed to exercise when the heat reaches 40 degrees Celsius, and we’re having to.

 

Yes, with the dancers taking class and performing, heat like that can be dangerous.

It is very bad. But what can you do? You either dance or you don’t. And if you don’t, then you sort of shrink, waste away. 

 

Last year, the New York Times covered the ballet dancers who are choosing to leave Cuba. Have any of your dancers chosen to leave?

Oh yes, lots of them. They keep writing to me and telling me how they miss me, and when we tour, they’re waiting for us with tights and shoes and costumes—whatever they can get their hands on—to give us help. They’ve moved all over the place—Australia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, England, Latin America. Some are performing, others are working in something else, and, when we’re on tour, they join the performances. 

 

So, the company is continuing to tour?

Yes, we are touring Latin America in July.

ProDanza performing at Teatro América, Cuba. Photograph by Sebastián Miló

ProDanza performing at Teatro América, Cuba. Photograph by Sebastián Miló

Given that many dancers have left, I’m curious to hear about what informed your decision, and the decisions of the remaining dancers, to stay.

I have been taught that you stay where you’re most needed, where you can make a difference. The job of an artist is to make people forget their troubles, and sometimes to make people see the trouble, so they can recognize it. In “Swan Lake,” you see Von Rothbart, the evil wizard that has the princess in chains, and you teach the audience how, if they unite the princess and the prince, they can win over Von Rothbart because love and unity always triumph.

 

Your company recently performed a run of “Swan Lake,” as well as a mixed bill featuring “The Dying Swan,” and a selection of Cuban and French works. How have audiences been responding? Are a lot of people able to make it to the theaters?

Yes, because the theater we perform in is in a very populated center.

 

Your mother, Alicia Alonso, was an icon in the ballet field, and she faced a variety of her own trials and tribulations over the course of her life. Do you draw strength from her legacy during this time?

Not only my mother, I have a very interesting family. My grandmother, Laura Rayneri Piedra, was a concert pianist and president of a theater that brought art to the Cuban people. Her father was an architect, he built the El Capitolio (the National Capitol of Cuba), and the Grand Teatro de la Habana. I know they would come and nod their head if I didn’t do it right, so I have to do it right. 

 

I’m sure they would be very proud. 

I hope so, I sincerely hope so, because I am very proud of them.

Sophie Bress

Sophie Bress is an arts and culture journalist and dance critic. She regularly contributes to Dance Magazine and Fjord Review, and has also written for the New York Times, NPR, Observer, Pointe, and more. 

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