On October 17th this year, Prima Ballerina Assoluta and choreographer Alicia Alonso passed away aged 98 – the last living star of 20th Century Ballet. She and other dancers who shared the prestigious title, like Maya Plisetskaya and Margot Fonteyn, have shaped modern ballet, keeping it constantly moving and alive. With the death of these symbols of progression in the art form, the question arises: is ballet dying?
Alicia Alonso encapsulates the energy of 20th Century ballet. The last century saw the renovation of the historic art form, with figures like New York’s Balanchine, Britain’s Ashton and Russia’s Vaganova, who transformed Ballet, exciting audiences around the world. The century was full of radical innovation, from the Ballet Russes’s ‘Rite of Spring’ whose premier in 1913 shocked audiences worldwide, to Balanchine’s development of the neoclassical style. Alicia Alonso’s career shows the active, energetic nature of 20th Century ballet inspiring movement beyond the stage. Alicia Alonso was born in Havana, Cuba, and began dancing at an early age. After becoming pregnant aged 15 by fellow dancer, Federico Alonso, her family scorned her and they soon left for New York, a move that would mark her international career. There she began training at the School of American Ballet, later dancing on Broadway and touring with Balanchine and Kirstein’s company, the roots of the famous New York City Ballet. By the age of 20, she joined Ballet Theatre, (now known as ABT) and quickly landed principal roles, most famously, Giselle. Thus, though Cuban, she became the star of American Ballet, and gained international fame.
This wasn’t without obstacles. Aged 19 she was diagnosed with severe retinal detachment, causing her to partially lose her vision, with doctors believing she would soon become blind. Indeed, for the majority of her career, she was partially blind, needing lights to guide her on the stage. Between joining the company and her first Giselle, she underwent three major eye surgeries, learning the role from a hospital bed. Yet she is remembered as the best Giselle of the 20th Century.
Not only was she one of the greatest dancers of the century, she brought ballet to Castro’s Cuba, founding the Ballet Alicia Alonso in 1948, now known as Ballet Nacional de Cuba. This created a distinct, innovative Cuban style of dance, with an energy which charmed the world. It is this company which placed Cuba at the forefront of international ballet, becoming one of the most prestigious companies worldwide. In the context of Cuba’s revolutionary politics, the company highlights the power of ballet as a movement capable of reflecting external, political movements. In an interview for magazine Gramilano in 2017, Alonso showed her support for revolutionary Communist Cuba, stating: “In 1959, we had no economic or moral support from the state, and it was the revolution which gave us everything … Fidel Castro was an immense leader who continues to be a presence in the lives of Cubans with his example of patriotism and dignity.” Although established during Batista’s presidency, backed by US military and finance, Alonso emphasizes the importance of Castro, his funding and the communist ideology in creating a national style of ballet, as she states: “A famous Cuban writer once said that our Cuban Ballet was a democratic strength that never tired.” Throughout the 1950s, before the 1959 Revolution, Alonso’s international recognition reached new heights, being the first western artist to be invited into the Soviet Union’s prestigious stages, dancing with Moscow’s Kirov and Bolshoi ballet.
Even this connection with the USSR, shows how ballet was being used as a political tool, forging relations between Cuban and Soviet ballet whilst the USSR was simultaneously establishing a stronger presence in Cuba through Castro. As soon as Castro succeeded in his 1959 Communist revolution to overthrow Batista’s regime, Alonso returned to Cuba and renamed her company the National Ballet of Cuba, as it is known now.
Following the USSR’s use of ballet for political means, Castro was fundamental in the growth of the company because of his financial aid. Alonso received $200,000 from Castro to fund a new dance school and develop the company, alongside a promise of annual government funding. The Company recruited its dancers from across the island, regardless of class or monetary background, deconstructing what is known as an elite art form into a socialist framework. Despite the USA’s isolation of Cuba through their economic sanctions, Alonso’s already established international status allowed the company to continue growing under a global spotlight, producing internationally recognized dancers like the Royal Ballet’s Carlos Acosta – an icon of Cuban and english ballet. However, despite fomenting this new, distinctive ballet style, it is precisely its uniqueness which led many established Cuban dancers to deflect from Cuba and the Company to join ballet companies overseas. Now, Cuban dancers extend across the world’s most prestigious companies, spreading Alicia Alonso’s legacy.
Has ballet lost its energy and momentum in the 21st Century? In the same week of Alicia Alonso’s death, the innovative Victor Ullate Ballet company in Madrid closed down. Meanwhile, the New York City Ballet scandal in light of the #MeToo movement surrounding Balanchine’s protégée Peter Martins, has brought the out-dated hierarchies of ballet under scrutiny. Notwithstanding, there is choreographic innovation, seen for example in Wayne McGregor’s ground-breaking works for The Royal Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theatre’s constant experimentation since its inauguration in 1959, or the increase in diversity through companies like Ballet Black or The Dance Theatre of Harlem. However, in the new age of social media and technology, the prospect of going to the ballet has declined, much like the fall of the Cinema or the stage in the last decade. Ballet seems more expensive and elitist than ever, as prices have inflated drastically, making it an art form for the rich. Although all major ballet schools, much like Alonso’s in the 1960s, offer scholarships and aid to less-privileged dancers, ballet is nevertheless catered as an elite experience to an elite audience, losing the political and social energy that Alicia Alonso embodied.
The influence of social media on the art form itself has turned it into a show-reel of tricks, with Instagram pages reposting inhuman flexibility stunts and innumerable turns, that replace the artistry of the form to a short, 30 second video. Ballet should look to dancers like Alicia Alonso, who’s artistry and uniqueness inspired and changed the art form. It should not fall under the monotony and homogeneity of social media, but nevertheless use the platform to reach new audiences. YouTube broadcasting of rehearsals of the main global companies during World Ballet Day for years now have spread the artistry of ballet to worldwide audiences. Ballet must inspire new audiences if it wants to remain alive and moving. Much like how Alicia Alonso’s dancing and choreography was intrinsically linked to her contemporary world, society, and culture, ballet should adapt to contemporaneity. Ballet can’t be stuck in a retrospective representation of the traditional ideals. Core to the art form is movement: not only physical, but social and political too.
