Nieves María Torres Scull, artistically known as "Nieves Nivis, La Torbellino", passed away on the afternoon of this Friday, May 8 at La Dependiente hospital in Havana, after a long and difficult illness.
Her body was laid to rest at the Santa Catalina Funeral Home, in La Víbora, 10 de Octubre municipality.
The news was shared by communicator and artistic director Ángel Ernesto García Brito, who accompanied her in her final years and directed a public message to the Ministry of Culture, the ICRT, Cubavisión, and other Cuban cultural institutions, denouncing the neglect she was subjected to.
Nieves Nivis was remembered by millions of Cubans as the second couple to win the popular television contest Para Bailar, alongside her partner Alfredo.
Both were members of the dance group at the University of Havana and won the competition in 1979, in a final that had to be moved to the Juan Abrantes stadium because the television studios were insufficient for the audience.
The program, which aired on Sundays at two in the afternoon on Channel 6 of Cuban television, "paralyzed the country," as the artist herself recalled in an interview.
"The program broke molds and did not imitate any foreign ones," Nieves stated about the experience that shaped her decision to dedicate herself "entirely to dance."
His career was, however, much more extensive than that television recognition.
She was the First Dancer of the Cuban National Folkloric Ensemble, a graduate in Physical Culture, a teacher for the Camilitos, a singer for the EPCME Adolfo Guzmán Company, and a stage oral storyteller trained by Mayra Navarro.
He received the Raúl Gómez García Medal for his tireless cultural work and his thousands of free community initiatives.
Her death was marked by a double tragedy. Months before she passed away, she lost her son, who had been suffering from an illness since childhood.
His loved ones decided to hide the news from him to protect his health. "He lost his son just a few months before and was unable to learn of this in his lifetime in order to preserve his health for as long as possible," wrote García Brito.
In a video posted on Facebook shortly before her death, Nieves herself informed her followers about her condition: "The ailments have been diminishing a lot, a lot, a lot."
"I use a walker. And my son is in an excellent institution run by priests and nuns who care a lot about the kids."
In her final years, a small group of friends and supporters organized a WhatsApp chat called "Por Nuestra Nieves" to provide her with food, medicine, financial support, and companionship, supplying what Cuban cultural institutions never offered.
García Brito publicly denounced that abandonment and did not rule out that the death may have occurred due to hospital negligence.
"Regarding the mistreatment by today’s nursing shift at that hospital, starting with the person in charge there, we will talk about it another time. I hope that, aside from its seriousness, their farewell hasn’t come early due to negligence," they wrote.
The case of Nieves Nivis fits into a pattern that repeats with painful frequency in Cuba.
The actor Jorge Losada passed away on April 5 in conditions of institutional neglect, and Samuel Claxton died in May 2025 without basic medical supplies. In all these cases, it was community networks —not the State— that supported the artists in their final hours.
The abandonment of those who dedicated their lives to the cultural project of the Cuban revolution has generated growing outrage among artists and intellectuals on the Island.
Samuel Claxton's colleagues also raised their voices at the time, without any concrete changes from the institutions.
"The institutions that should have cared but didn't, I urge them to take better care of the people who gave everything; do not leave them alone when they need the support of those they represent most," wrote García Brito. He concluded with a phrase that encapsulates the irony of the date: "The Day of Son has passed, she who defended it so fiercely."
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