cubanmiamiboy Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Ah, this is Sonia Calero, Alberto Alonso's second wife-(he was first married with fellow Ballet Russes member Alexandra Denisova). Calero was a funding member of Alicia Alonso's company, as a Principal character dancer. She had a national success also as a cabaret/variety shows dancer, including in the famous Tropicana, for which her husband was also an important choreographer. This clip is part of his well known creation "El Solar", a story that revolves around the life of the lower cuban social class within the "solar"-(sort of a semi-communal existence within the limits of run down Havana mansions that once belonged to the upper class that eventually left the island and now suited for the housing of various families.). This is the "Brum Pas de Deux", one of the highlights of the work. After seeing Calero dancing this at a performance in Russia-(Moscow, I believe)-Maya Plisetskaya approached Alberto Alonso and asked him to choreograph the story of "Carmen" for her. Alberto Alonso was thrilled to do so, as he has always been fascinated with Merimee's heroin. In the recent documentary about him, he tells that he had Calero in his mind when he created his Carmen, and that it had always been his desire for her to dance the part. That never happened, either because of the tyranic control that Alicia Alonso imposed over the character, not allowing anybody to danced it for more than three decades, or also because Calero wasn't really that comfortable with pointe work-(I don't remember having ever seen her in pointe shoes). As we all know, both Alberto and Sonia eventually chose to defect, and until his death, Alonso coached several dancers in his Carmen-(including Svetlana Zakharova). About Sonia, she took charge of the staging of the ballet for the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, for which she works as a coach. This next clip is from a Miamian TV show that presented Calero right after the release of his late husband's documentary. At the end there is a rendition of "El Solar" And this is Miss Calero's page. http://www.myspace.com/soniacalero Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 More info on this movie, which real title is "Un dia en el solar"-("A day in the courtyard" 1966)-by William Johnson. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1210400?seq=4 Link to comment
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