José Manuel Carreño on being a great Cuban dancer, now director of Silicon Valley Ballet, and the strong relations developing between the USA and Cuba and what that means for ballet.
Tag - Jose Manuel Carreno
Next year I want to dedicate more time to teaching, and finally bring out my clothing line, under the brand Paloma Herrera...
Ballet San Jose is full of surprises...
This time, I made 15 trips to the theatres – there were performances at 5pm and 9pm each day - and saw 82 different full-length ballets or extracts in the eight days I was in Havana.
The three dancers who took their leave this week – Sascha Radetsky, Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews – are all soloists. Each led a different cast of the company’s 1997 production of Coppélia.
This was an evening not to be missed. Newly appointed Artistic Director, José Manuel Carreño, made sure that the quality of the eighteen guest artists for Ballet San Jose’s Gala Performance would tantalise even the most skeptical dance fan.
Alonso trained the first generation of Cuban dancers, among who there were many standouts, but the most well-known in Cuba were the “Four Jewels” of Cuban ballet: Josefina Méndez, Mirta Pla, Aurora Bosch, and Loipa Araújo (now Associate Artistic Director of English National Ballet)
The good news is that I had a very pleasant afternoon, mostly the result of the dancers actually having a splendid time on stage.
Toba Singer talks to José Manuel Carreño: "Coming from Cuba, with the Cuban school you end up with a very strong foundation because you train so much in technique and partnering. These are two things that were very strong from the Cuban school, but on top of that, there was a lot of attention paid to the theatrical elements..."
The overall spirit is vivacious, the ensemble committed, on task and fully present. As this company moves along its new trajectory... there is every reason to believe that its partnership with ABT will be celebrated...
The festival was as intensive as ever, with three performances running on seven days, four on one day, some concurrently. The range and quality of dance overall was impressive.