HÀ NỘI – Cuban ballet artists Viengsay Valdes and Patricio Reve will stage their debut performances in Hà Nội and HCM City on August 19 and 31.

The shows will take place at Hà Nội’s Công Nhân Theatre and HCM Dance School.

Prima ballerina Valdes is one of the most respected exponents of the Cuban School of Ballet in recent times.

Along with talented dancer Reve, she would perform sections from classical international repertoire such as pas de deux from Don Quixote, The Dying Swan, Les Sylphides and a more contemporary piece called Dan-Son, she told the Prensa Latina news agency last Saturday.

The lead role of Kitri in Don Quixote is one of the two most favourite roles of her ballet career. As Kitri in Don Quixote, she has danced beneath the gaze of the Sphinx.

Valdes was also invited as a guest artist by the Mariinsky Academy to perform as Kitri at the Ninth International Festival of Ballet in St. Petersburg, choreographed by Alexander Gorsky and based on the original adaptation by Marius Petipa. Her partner was Russian ballet star Leonid Sarafanov.

Don Quixote opened at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on December 26, 1869. It was inspired by an episode from the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The Cuban version premiered on July 6, 1988, in Havana.

The two artists will dance act 3, entitled The Square.

Valdes is a high-profile ballerina. Born in 1976 in Havana, she moved, at the age of three months, to Laos where her father was the first Cuban ambassador. Her name Viengsay means “Victory” in the Laotian language.

She graduated from the National School of Arts with a degree in dance and choreography. Legendary director Alicia Alonso spotted her talent and invited her to join the National Ballet of Cuba when she was 17.

She was named the most outstanding dancer at the 18th International Festival of Ballet of Havana in 2002, thanks to her starring role in Giselle and Don Quixote.

She was invited to perform at the World Stars of Ballet Gala in Budapest for the second time in 2002-04.

In April 2008, Valdes performed in front of the Giza Pyramids, Egypt, in the first-ever professional ballet performance on the open-air stage there. She is the second Cuban ballerina to perform with the Danish Royal Ballet, after Alicia Alonso in 1969.

She has performed as a guest artist with many theatres such as La Scala in Milan, World Gala on the Champs-Elysées, Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London and the Ballet Gala of Prague.

Valdes was ranked sixth in an evaluation of the top 100 ballerinas in the world by Dance Europe magazine in 2011.

Her partner during performance tours is talented dancer Reve, who works at the National Ballet of Cuba.

The Cuban artists’ performances in Việt Nam will also include those by Vietnamese artists from the Việt Nam National Academy of Music. Veteran guitarists such as Lê Đức Sơn and Nguyễn Văn Phúc will play Cuban and Argentinean pieces at the performances.

After the show in Việt Nam, the artists will perform at the National Culture in Laos and Chaktomuk Conference Hall in Cambodia.

The Ballet National of Cuba’s performances in Việt Nam, Cambodia and Laos are part of activities being carried out by Cuban embassies in these countries on the occasion of the 90th birthday of historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro.

Free tickets can be collected from 32, Nguyễn Thái Học Street, Hà Nội. -- VNS