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  Alicia Alonso’s Giselle: A Cuban Dancer’s Journey into Romantic Ballet and Modern Dramaturgy | La Giselle di Alicia Alonso: il viaggio di una ballerina cubana nel balletto romantico e nella drammaturgia moderna

  Lester Tomé

  This article examines the trajectory of Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso as both performer and restager of Giselle. After offering a historical overview of Romantic ballet in nineteenth-century Cuba, the study traces Alonso’s transformation into one of the most acclaimed figures in the performance history of Giselle. The text considers her interpretation of the eponymous role in the United States, Cuba and beyond, beginning with her 1943 debut as Giselle with Ballet Theatre in New York, and highlights the interplay between her performances and stagings of the piece. It charts the evolution of Alonso’s productions of Giselle from the first time she set the piece, for Havana’s Pro-Arte Musical Society in 1945, to her definitive staging of it on film with the National Ballet of Cuba in 1963. As demonstrated here, Alonso’s Giselle productions advanced in tandem with the growth of Cuban ballet, of which she was a passionate advocate. The study underscores key sources and influences on her stagings, including significant connections to Anton Dolin, Mary Skeaping and the Soviet productions of Giselle in which she danced during 1957-58. Among the multiple perspectives from which Alonso’s reworking of Giselle could be approached, this text foregrounds her transformative integration of modern dramaturgical concepts she cultivated through her collaborations with Antony Tudor, Igor Youskevitch and Cuban film director Enrique Pineda Barnet.