CAMAGÜEY.-The Ballet of Camagüey (BC) premiered this Friday a suite of the ballet The Nutcracker, by the choreographer Norbe Risco, as a gift for the company's 55th birthday, to a full theater in this city.
The version, also in two acts, allows us to follow the thread of the Christmas story around a broken gift and Clara's dream that motivated the work premiered in 1892 with choreography by Lev Ivanov, book by Marius Petipa and music by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky .
Norbe Risco, a former BC dancer and current artistic director of the Kentucky Ballet Theater, began this project in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the process, among other complexities.
“Yes, I feel satisfied because it is a dream come true. They blend in wonderfully. They have begun to grow, they still lack, they cannot be trusted because there is no perfection in ballet,” he declared to Adelante.
He was a professional dancer at BC from 1988 to 1993, then he went to Mexico to work as a principal dancer, and since 2017 he has been collaborating as a guest choreographer for the company founded by Vicentina de la Torre and which counted Fernando Alonso, a Cuban dance legend, among its directors.
“Artistic maturity occurs with the same experience that dancers can use on stage. Shirley has to keep trying harder because her role is technically demanding and difficult to achieve,” he added.
In the suite of The Nutcracker, children from the Fernando Alonso Dance and Ballet Promotion Center, attached to the BC, appear in the first act and in the party and snow scenes, which promotes the active role of the family and their union, both quote from this classical ballet.
Due to the injury of the prima ballerina Rosa María Rodríguez Armengol, the soloist Shirley Suárez Huerta, 21 years old, assumed the leading role of Clara and she has been with the company for three years.
“It is a great honor and a joy to have the opportunity that I have had. They have been long days of hard training, two or three intense months, dealing with adverse situations but as long as there is passion and dedication, everything is possible”, said the young woman, also with the aspiration of other roles in the repertoire.
She looked elegant together with the couple Harold Báez Corona and claims to appreciate the choreography from the first moment: “It is a very beautiful version. I really liked it from the beginning. It demands a great effort, a lot of precision in the technique, but enjoyment must take precedence over everything and that was the case”.
“The applause generates great joy, as well as a bit of nerves knowing that an audience eager to see good results awaited us. A great emotion,” she concluded.
Former dancer and rehearsal teacher Liuba Corzo prefers to relate Shirley's first time as a leading lady with how new The Nutcracker is for the company:
“We are very happy because we have been trying to do it for years, therefore we cannot compare ourselves with ourselves”.
From the faces and the interpretations, the prevalence in the current BC of members at the beginning of their career is evident:
“There is a missing link between when you leave school and enter the company. We must work for professionalism, because they come with the technique but details need to be polished”.
In the preamble to the function, Liuba Corzo, the maître Hilda María "Lila" Martínez de la Torre and Regina Balaguer, director of the BC, received recognition from cultural institutions, higher education and the Union of Cultural Workers in the territory.
Kenny Ortigas, president of the Provincial Council for the Performing Arts, described the 55th anniversary as an "act of sincere reverence for such commendable dedication," and highlighted the collective's understanding of art "as an event of vital relevance in the ethical, aesthetic, and the spiritual”.
In statements to Adelante, Regina Balaguer praised the dedication of BC workers, artists, technicians and administrators to overcome obstacles in the country's circumstances, exemplified in sessions without electricity: "If six rehearsals have been done with music, that's a lot." .
That reason for discomfort in daily life made her doubt about the attendance of the public due to the blackouts, the dark streets, the transfer of those who live far away, however she received the satisfaction of a full Principal Theater.
“We did a suite, it is not the complete choreography because the conditions did not allow it. In any case, it was a very good performance. The boys have grown, despite the nerves of the first day. We will continue perfecting our work because our public from Camagüey, from Cuba, deserves it”, confirmed Regina, and invited to the next performance of The Nutcracker suite this Sunday, December 4, starting at five in the afternoon.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez
