The Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC) joined this Sunday in the series of official tributes for the centenary of Fidel Castro Ruz with a special gala at the Sala Avellaneda of the Teatro Nacional de Cuba, under the general direction of Viengsay Valdés, at 5:00 p.m.
The journalist and cultural critic Wilfredo Cancio Isla dubbed the event "Fouettés de pleitesía" and sarcastically noted that the BNC "would not be left behind after La Colmenita's performance at the Teatro Karl Marx to pay tribute to the Patriarch," pointing out that the company had "thrown a special gala for the centenary of Fidel Castro, Chief Dancer."
The program included four pieces: Afternoon in the Siesta, choreography by Alberto Méndez with music by Ernesto Lecuona; Vital Song, by Azari Plisetski with music by Gustav Mahler; scenes from the second act of Swan Lake in Alicia Alonso's version of the original choreography by Lev Ivánov; and the final movement of Gottschalk's Symphony, also choreographed by Alonso.
Regarding the choice of Swan Lake to honor Castro, Cancio Isla remarked with irony: "Dancing scenes from Swan Lake for Fidel Castro is, indeed, a sort of macabre reunion with Von Rothbart, the character that fits him best among the array of evil sorcerers and manipulators in classical ballets."
In the seats of the Avellaneda Hall, the usual officials were present. According to the state channel Canal Caribe, the event was attended by Elier Ramírez Cañedo, Deputy Head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso Grau; and the president of Uneac, Marta Bonet de la Cruz. The presence of the party's ideological leader at a ballet performance speaks volumes about the true nature of the event.
On stage, students from the Ballet Chair of the Company and the National School of Ballet Fernando Alonso paraded alongside more experienced dancers, all to demonstrate, according to the voice-over from the state channel, "the continuity of the Cuban School of Ballet, its technique and tradition." A tradition that, in this context, appears inseparable from the obligation to dance for those in power.
The gala is part of the year declared by the regime as the "Year of the Centenary of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz," an agenda that already included the I International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future" —held from August 10 to 13 at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana with over 1,500 delegates from 63 countries— and for which Raúl Castro reappeared in public at the Karl Marx Theater during the closing.
While the regime mobilizes artists and officials for the centennial celebration, the Cuban people are facing a drastically different reality. This very Sunday, the government announced another day of blackouts with predicted impacts exceeding 2,000 MW. So far in August, the country has recorded a peak deficit of 2,411 MW —noted on August 4—, seven complete collapses of the National Electric System in 2026, and power cuts lasting over 80 consecutive hours in some areas of Matanzas. The BNC itself had to suspend Giselle performances in June due to the lack of air conditioning in the theater.
Cancio Isla also noted a coincidence that encapsulates the distance between the two shores: exactly at 5:00 p.m. on the same Sunday, the closing gala of the 31st International Ballet Festival of Miami was set to begin at the Fillmore Theater in Miami Beach. "It's almost as if the relationship between Havana and Miami remains a landscape of opposing symmetries," the journalist wrote: in one city, ballet in service of art; in the other, art in service of devotion.
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