"Pointes" of Prowess

    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 collaborated in psycho ballet, a rehabilitative therapy practice part of a culture of physical and mental fitness aimed towards helping children overcome disabilities (Merrigan 216). Merrigan writes in response of the community of disabled dancers, “Underlying this moral are historically ingrained assumptions that people with disabilities are fundamentally unproductive and cannot contribute to society in any valid way unless rehabilitated or cured” (216).

    Among her many accomplishments, Alicia Alonso was named “National Hero of Labor” in Cuba and holds membership in the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Culture in the National Committee of Writers and Artists Union of Cuba and the Collaborating Council of the Governing Boards of the Federation of Cuban Woman. She was honored in 1993 when she received the Commendation of Isabel Catholic Order from the King of Spain Juan Carlos I, and she was honored again in 1996 when a public homage was tributed to her at the Scientific, Artistic, and Literary Ateneo or Madrid for her valuable contributions to the arts and culture. In 1999, UNESCO awarded Alonso the Pablo Picasso Medal for her extraordinary contribution to dance. Along with being the first dancer from the West and the first American to perform in the Soviet Union, Alonso’s achievements stack high.

    Alonso continued to perform well into her sixties. In 1985, Alonso performed with Jorge Esquivel in Havana. Today, it is extremely uncommon for ballerinas to continue performing past forty to fifty years old, but Alonso continued to perform titular roles internationally until she could not. It is no wonder that she would feel threatened by younger, brighter dancers threatening her role as a principal ballerina, hence her imitating opportunities for some of her dancers. One would suspect that these performances were lackluster, clumsy, and greatly deprived of proper technique, but Alonso performed until the end with precise technique and a beautiful storytelling ability.

Watch Alonso perform at 64 years old!



 

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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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