I was recently reading an old program from Ballet Nacional de Cuba from october 2000, when Mme. Alonso
organized a program called "Gala tribute to George Balanchine" during the XVII Havana Ballet Festival. The program notes is based in an interview in which Mme. Alonso describes some of her experiences working with Mr. Balanchine. I thought it would be a good idea to translate some of these notes . Here they go:
Mme.Alonso: "Tribute to Balanchine".
"In 'Theme and Variations' Igor [Youskevitch] and i developed a hard and passionate work. We both were achieving our own particular concept of the PDD, with an essentially expressive feeling, like a dialogue, very warm and personal and way far from the usual form established by Balanchine. That's why we couldn't avoid , on the execution of the new choreography, to interpret it in our own way, as much as what the enormous technical demand would allow to. To give a sense of dancing to a melody, to express a sensibility, to follow a theme, to achieve a humanization, or in other words, to make a duo between a man and a woman. As it was expected, Balanchine noticed, but for some reason, he didn't criticized us; he stared at what we did, silent, but he respected it. He only told us:
G.B-'Is not exactly what i'm asking , but i like it..."
Mme. Alonso.
