Cuba’s Ballet de Camagüey presents Don Quijote in Havana

Havana, Nov 21.- The Ballet de Camagüey announced it will present here its version of the classic Don Quijote, created by the Cuban Gonzalo Galguera, director of a dance company in Germany.

 

The Garcia Lorca hall of the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater of Havana will host the performance this Saturday, November 23, and Sunday, November 24.

Galguera, dancer and artistic director of the Ballet Magdeburg, won the prize of the first Ibero-American Choreography Contest, held here in 1998, under the auspices of the General Society of Authors and Publishers and the National Ballet of Cuba.

He has worked with the Ballet Municipal de Lima, Joven Ballet Maria de Avila in Spain, and Germany’s Komische Oper Berlin, among many others.

His own adaptations of several pieces of the classical repertoire attract the attention of critics, including his version of Dracula, which was nominated for best choreography and production by German magazine TANZ, chosen by the most important European dance critics.

Ballet de Camagüey Director Regina Balaguer defined this version of Don Quijote as jovial and very fresh because the whole company dances, regardless of rank.

Unlike most of the classic ballets, Don Quijote is not only a mere character who walks and joins the threads of the plot but, at the same time, dances at all times, the teacher noted in exclusive statements to Prensa Latina.

The Ballet de Camagüey is almost 52 years old, was founded by dancer and teacher Vicentina de la Torre, in Camagüey, an eastern province of Cuba located about 500 kilometers from Havana.

One of the company’s directors was Fernando Alonso (from 1975 to 1992), father of the Cuban school of ballet, an entity recognized worldwide for its quality and characteristics.