ANOTHER BRIDGE OF PEACE AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

At the International Theater Institute (ITI), based in Paris, they are extremely happy and grateful that it was possible to celebrate the World Dance Day in Havana, together with important celebrities who delivered beautiful messages, at a gala performance truly emotional and memorable for the Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso.

This International Day is celebrated every April 29, in homage to Jean-georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet. And this year coincided with the seventieth anniversary of the ITI, the first non-governmental organization founded by UNESCO, right at the same time as the National Ballet of Cuba was founded, which has created a Cuban ballet school thanks to a public policy of free access to artistic education.

"We managed to consolidate a scenic dance movement that fills a place of exception in our national culture and enjoys an undeniable recognition on a worldwide scale," reads the message of the prima ballerina asssoluta Alicia Alonso to the Gala for the World Dance Day. At the same time, she urges that the chance encounter of these dates "marks the consolidation and development of new paths of collaboration, to the glory of performing arts of the whole world".

In the previous editorial by Arte por Excelencias, I said that “brick by brick a bridge is built,” in view of the massive presence of North American jazz musicians in the past Jazz Plaza International Festival, and now of more than two hundred Cuban artists on the various stages of the Kennedy Center in Washington for over two weeks, which will end on June 3rd, on the fortieth anniversary of the debut of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba at the Kennedy Center and in the United States.

It confirms, among other reasons, that the ITI has chosen, for its welcoming words to the celebration, the same symbol to seek exchange with local artists and the Cuban people: "If you look at the traffic on a bridge, you will see that it is always a two-way road. In our bridge, ideas, actions, humanistic and educational efforts can always travel both ways at all times ». And it is so that respect for people on both sides of the bridge, without harming hegemonies, is the basis of mutual understanding.

I hope that, in the same manner as the messages from dance personalities from the five continents from Havana have multiplied, the Cuban art and culture reaches the hearts of the people in the USA capital. May they all appreciate in peace the unique strength of the invited Cuban theater and dance companies, the telluric movement of Latin and Caribbean jazz, the installations and performances, the imprint of Cuban cinema and the renewed mark of the BNC, and even the art and fashion shows, and the unparalleled Cuban cocktails, now that Havana is already the capital of Iberian-american cocktails. Congratulations!