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Introduction

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Alicia Alonso Photo Credits: The Washington Post When one is told to think of a ballerina, the picture that surfaces is most likely one of a thin, able-bodied, long-limbed, light-skinned, pink-tights-wearing young woman. Seldom would we think of a tan, visually impaired Latina. Alicia Alonso was a Cuban ballerina best known for performing professionally with a visual impairment. A hopeful in the dance world, Alicia suffered a detached retina surgery gone wrong and lost her peripheral vision, but through such trials, she would go on to dance globally, found the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and become a pillar in the Cuban, Latin American, and International communities of ballet and the arts. Alonso’s signature role was as Giselle, where her embodiment of the heartbroken peasant girl remains an inspiration for young dancers aspiring to tackle the role today. Her star power and storytelling would pave the way for her career as a ballerina. Alonso took on many roles, received worldwide praise,...
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Biography

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    Alicia Alonso was born Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martinez del Hoyo on December 21, 1920, in Havana, Cuba, to Antonio Martínez Arredondo and Ernestina del Hoyo y Lugo. She began dancing as a child and started studying at Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical in Havana with Nikolai Yavorsky in June 1931. That same year, when she was eleven years old, Alonso performed publicly for the first time under the name Alicia Martinez. Alonso’s ballet lessons stopped when she fell in love with fellow dancer Fernando Alonso, whom she married when she was sixteen. Fernando and Alicia Alonso Photo Credits: The Guardian They moved to New York to further pursue their dance careers, and in 1938, Alonso gave birth to their daughter, Laura. Alonso continued to train at the School of American Ballet. In 1941, Alonso was diagnosed with a detached retina and needed surgery to correct the problem. The surgery was, unfortunately, unsuccessful, which led to permanent vision damage and no pe...
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Career

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Alonso’s debut was in Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty at the Teatro Auditorium in 1932. After getting married, having her daughter, and undergoing several operations – the last taking place in Havana – Alonso returned to New York in 1943 and was asked to replace the Ballet Theatre’s prima ballerina Alicia Markova in Giselle . Critics quickly noticed her prowess on stage. Barbara Steinberg wrote, “Her vision difficulties helped inspire her interpretation of the role” in Dance Magazine. She was promoted to principal dancer of the company in 1946 and performed her role in Giselle until 1948. Watch Alonso perform Giselle and Swan Lake !      Alonso also performed in Swan Lake , Antony Tudor’s Undertow , Balanchine’s Theme and Variations , and in world premieres such as de Mille’s Fall River Legend . Alonso had developed a reputation as an intensely dramatic dancer, an ultra-pure skilled technician, and an extremely skilled interpreter of classical and romantic repertoires. ...
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"Pointes" of Prowess

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    The most profound aspect of Alonso’s life was her ability to continue performing without peripheral vision. A detached retina – the very diagnosis that forced Alonso to receive surgery – is when the retina disconnects from the back of the eye. A detached retina causes the vision to blur, and without surgery, the eye could become blind. The unsuccessful surgery caused Alonso to live without her peripheral vision, also known as tunnel vision. Tunnel vision causes difficulty in navigating and spotting obstacles, impacting daily activities and increasing the risk of accidents. For Alonso not only to live with this disability but also to dance through it means that she would have needed to be hyper-aware of her body and movements and her partners’ bodies and movements. While recuperating in bed, Alonso’s training enabled her to be in complete control of her limbs, down to her toes. Seeing her disability as a deeper way to convey her story and the stories of others, Alonso ...
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Her Legacy

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     Alicia Alonso breaks multiple barriers as a ballerina. First, as a Latina woman. Second, as a handicapped woman. Her international recognition breaks ideas of who a true ballerina is and what a true ballerina looks like. Along with many women of color, Alonso has given ballet a new definition. From the early sexualization of ballerinas to the modern mockery of ballet being girly and weak, Alonso has proved ballet to be a noble craft that requires resilience, discipline, and passion. Alonso could have very well given up when she learned that she would not have peripheral vision and succumbed to the idea that she would never be a great ballerina because of her disability. Every day, blind and on her back, Alonso trained her hands and feet to carry her body through the dances. She had one of the biggest excuses to give up, but she did not. She refused to allow her disability to define whether she would be a powerhouse of a ballerina or a sad story of a prodigy’s tragedy...
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References

1. “Alicia Alonso, La ‘Prima Ballerina’ Latinoamericana, Cumple 90 Años.” El Imparcial, El Imparcial, 21 Dec. 2010, www.elimparcial.es/noticia/75962/america/alicia-alonso-laprima-ballerina-latinoamericana-cumple-90-anos.html.  2. “Ballet Nacional de Cuba.” ICM - International Creative Management, Inc.., web.archive.org/web/20050317051654/http:/www.icmtalent.com/musperf/profiles/60015.html. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.  3. “SAB Trailblazer - Alicia Alonso.” School of American Ballet, 20 Sept. 2023, sab.org/scenes/sab-trailblazer-alicia-alonso/.  4. Levin, Jordan. “‘A Genius of Dance.’ Cuban Ballet Icon Alicia Alonso Dies at Age 98.” Miami Herald, 17 Oct. 2019, www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article236359533.html.  5. Merrigan, Emma. “‘Ojos Muy Grandes Que Llamaban La Atención’: Alicia Alonso Performs as a Revolutionary Supercrip.” Hispania, vol. 105, no. 2, 2022, pp. 213–29. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27184335. Accessed 23 Mar. ...
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