Dance legends Alonso, Mason meet in Cuba

Dance legends Alonso, Mason meet in Cuba
AFP
Tue Jul 14, 7:48 pm ET

HAVANA (AFP) – Visiting Dame Monica Mason, director of the Royal Ballet
of London, met in Cuba Tuesday with dance legend Alicia Alonso, head of
the Cuban National Ballet company, state-run media reported.

Alonso, 88 and partially blind, hosted Mason at the headquarters of the
National Ballet company, which she founded and has led since 1948.

The meeting came hours ahead of a Royal Ballet performance in Havana
late Tuesday, the first of three performances at Havana's Karl Marx
theater, holds up to 5,000 audience members.

Tuesday's performance was to include a tribute for Alonso.

Mason told Cuban TV news that she did not want to say much about her
first-ever conversation with Alonso, but described the meeting as
"historic."

It is the first time the Royal Ballet is to perform in Havana in its
78-year-old history.

The storied British classical ballet company and its 96 dancers arrived
late Friday in Cuba accompanied by 50 technicians for five performances.

Mason earlier told reporters she was honored to be in Cuba, where, she
said, dance is at the heart of the people and the culture.

Cuba's National Ballet is scheduled to perform in Britain next year,
Cuban officials said.

Dance legends Alonso, Mason meet in Cuba - Yahoo! News (14 July 2009)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090714/ennew_afp/entertainmentartdancecubabritain_20090714234828