Developing Global Citizens

Alberto Alonso's Carmen Suite: From Cuba to Russia, and now Florida

October 11, 2019 Alora Haynes, Chair, Fine Arts Department, Santa Fe College Season 1 Episode 1
Developing Global Citizens
Alberto Alonso's Carmen Suite: From Cuba to Russia, and now Florida
Show Notes Transcript

This fall, Santa Fe College welcomes the American Ballet Theatre and the New York Dance Project to its Fine Arts Hall for an historic event. For the first time since 1974, a U.S. audience will experience “Carmen Suite” performed with a live orchestra. The ballet was choreographed by the legendary Alberto Alonso, who after leaving Cuba came to teach at Santa Fe College. Produced by his wife, Sonia Calero-Alonso, the performance will showcase the talents of principal dancers Sarah Lane and Corey Stearns.

In this episode, Vilma speaks with Alora Haynes, chair of the Fine Arts Department at SF. When the Alonsos defected from Cuba, it was Alora who took them into her home and then brought them to the college where they would teach for over a decade. She shares her intimate knowledge of Carmen Suite and the significance of it coming back to the stage.


Vilma Fuentes:

Welcome to Santa Fe college. My name is Vilma Fuentes and this is our podcast on developing global citizens. We are joined today by Alora Haynes, chair of Santa Fe's fine arts program. She's here to speak to us today about a very special ballet that's coming to Santa Fe college, Carmen Suite. So, Alora, please tell us about this ballet. What is it? Why is it so significant? What should we know about it? Great, right.

Alora Haynes:

It's an incredibly historic ballet that has this very specific significance in the history of the dance world, because it is a ballet that expresses freedom of expression inside of it in a political time that was very oppressive. The ballet was first choreographed in 1967 and it came about because a great ballerina, M aya Plisetskaya of the Bolshoi had always wanted to do the ballet based on the opera from Bizet. So when she set out to find a choreographer, she wanted to find someone who did movement that looked completely different from anything that they had ever seen at that time in Russia, in Russia at the time, the classics were, were treasured and preserved, and everyone wore very restrictive costume the tutus, the platter tutus, the look. That's what it was. And that's what the government paid to see. And that's what the people went to see. Uh, so what Maya was trying to do is something very revolutionary. She had heard of a famous Cuban choreographer that was traveling in Europe with his wife, and that's Alberto Alonzo and Sonia Calero Alonzo, two people who worked on our campus from 1993 until 2007. Actually, Sonia worked here until 2010. And, um, we were fortunate enough to have these two people from Cuba expatriate to our country and to our campus and teach our students for 18 years. That's unheard of. But let me go back to the ballet. When Alberto took Sonia to Europe to perform a ballet called El Solar, uh, the critics were raving about it. It was considered to be a Cuban style of dancing. And Maya and her mother heard about it and went to go and see this ballet in the France. There were movements that with the feet turned in, movements of the pelvis, movements that had more of the salsa, uh, Cuban flair involved. Maya took one look at it and said, I want to dance. Like that woman pointing at Sonia said, she looks as though she's been bitten by a snake. So in the intermission, Maya and her mother went backstage and ran up to Alberto and she said, I want someone to choreograph the ballet Carmen on me. Would you be willing to do it? He said, it's my dream. And then they got started in 1967 they started with Maya as Carmen and Alberto doing the choreography and Rodion Shchedrin, who is Maya's husband composing the music after Bizet's. It's a very interesting musical composition, all strings and percussion. As the ballet went on, people started to rumble about it. People thought it looked vulgar. They had some pelvis to pelvis choreography.

Vilma Fuentes:

Wait, which people?

Alora Haynes:

People of the government.

Vilma Fuentes:

So the ministry of culture, so in 1967 we're talking about the Soviet union. So the Soviet union, communist party leaders who control the ministry of culture were outraged when they saw this. Right?

Alora Haynes:

Yes because they thought it was vulgar. Yes. And they control what gets put on stage. They pay for it and they expect Maya as a, a person involved in their military organization. Cause that's the way artists were seen there as part of the whole structure of the government to fall in line. And this was going way outside of the line from what they could see. A partnering from the legs, the man grabbing the woman's legs and moving her around, pelvis to pelvis movements and the costume totally form fitting with fringe. Never seen before. Feet turned in after all that classical training. What in the world are you doing with your feet flexed in a point you, you know it, they said that at the ministry of culture, they said you've made a prostitute of a Spanish heroine. When they decided to, it was supposed to go on tour to Canada and it was censored and they sent the Nutcracker instead. The safe ballet.

Vilma Fuentes:

So I'm sorry, how, how long did it play in Russia?

Alora Haynes:

It didn't, it was a one night, one night in Russia, and then it was taken off of the repertoire. Um, but all this to a lot of, uh, uh, uh, both Maya and her husband were very dissatisfied with that because they really felt that they were coming, uh, at the Russians with a whole new flavor of dance. And it needed to be seen as that it needed to be seen as innovative and they wanted innovation to be a part of the future of the repertoire of the Bolshoi ballet. Because St Petersburg was known more for preserving the, the classics and Moscow wanted to set themselves apart from St Petersburg. You preserve the classics. We're going in an innovative direction. If you look at the two cities, you can see that Moscow has the big onion buildings and the bright colors, very circusy looking, you know, kind of outside the box. And St Petersburg has these long lines and very classical looks very European, the city. So that's the difference in the two cities. One preserving what we, what they know as the history of dance and one ready to move on. And Maya thought she was doing this for the company. She didn't see what she was doing as bad. Even though inside the ballet was a dissonant message, there was a message there of being oppressed and having to act like you had two faces. There's a segment in the ballet where they wear masks. When the military figure comes in, they all wear the mask and they behave in very stilted ways and when that person leaves, they're free. So the message is pretty obvious and I think that's something else at the ministry of culture was picking up on.

Vilma Fuentes:

So if I can turn to Cuba for a minute. So again, 1967, this is also a communist Cuba. It's shortly after the Cuban revolution. Um, I think that in Cuba, uh, certainly among Cubans of a certain age, meaning slightly older, the names Sonia, Alecia and Alberto alone are known by everyone. Uh, tell us a little bit about them and their significance within Cuban culture and, and the Cuban ballet world in particular,

Alora Haynes:

Alberto was really the first male famous dancer from Cuba. He joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and went on tour. And when he returned, they performed the ballet he went to Monte-Carlo for and performed in Cuba. And, uh, and suddenly being a male dancer in Cuba went from being something that was frowned upon to something that was celebrated. And from that point forward, all the male Cuban dancers from that, uh, national ballet are, are the most lauded dancers internationally.

Vilma Fuentes:

And he had strong ties to the Ballet National de Cuba, right?

Alora Haynes:

He was the choreographer, he was like the resident choreographer. There was the great triumvirate of the Alonzos. Alicia was the dancer who had gotten international acclaim and as a performer, Alberto was the choreographer. And then his brother Fernando was the instructor. So they all had, you know, very significant roles in the development of these new dancers, uh, in Cuba. Uh, even though after time when, when actually when Alberto came home, Raul Castro came up to him and they had all heard about the message of the ballet and said, you know, Alberto, we're not that bad.

Vilma Fuentes:

So, okay. So, um, Alberto, Fernando, Alicia, we're brothers and sisters, right. And founders of the Ballet National de Cuba?

Alora Haynes:

Correct.

Vilma Fuentes:

Eh, so Alicia Alonso today, even today, it's doesn't matter your age, you know who Alicia Alonso is, certainly if you live in Havana or anywhere in Cuba. Um, why is that? Tell me a little bit about her. Sure.

Alora Haynes:

She took the reigns of the ballet company because she was a, a party member and she followed along with that quite, uh, clearly because, uh, she felt like if she were in, in control of, of things politically there, then she could be in control of things artistically there. And she is. And she was, um, the two brothers sort of faded back because they didn't really have the same political views as her. Um, Fernando stayed in Cuba and was taken care of for most of his life. But, um, Alberto always had a little bit more of a rebel in him than the others. And so did his son. His son was even more disappointed with the political situation there and had always wanted to leave. And this is where the story comes to Santa Fe, uh, at point, uh, Alberto because he was making these dissonant messages with his choreography that the Ballet National on told him, we don't want you telling stories. You can talk about folklore and you can do pretty ballets but don't, don't do what you did with, with Maya. So he felt he was very censored and, uh, the only place they trusted him to travel to, there were just a handful of places, was one was Mexico. He was going to Mexico with his wife to choreograph the son wanted to go with them, but he had a very clear idea that he was gonna leave and not come home. Just the day before they left, his son's visa was pulled and they knew farewell, what he was up to. So Alberto and Sonia had to go on, cause they had work to do in Mexico. Meanwhile, their son Albertico got with some friends, five of their friends and got on an inner tube and made their way to the shores of Miami. Alberto and Sonia were watching television and saw their son wash up on the shore in the footage that had happened in the news that day. And Alberto said, we can't go home. They both knew it. If they wanted to ever be reunited with their son, they had to leave.

Vilma Fuentes:

And this was 1993.

Alora Haynes:

correct.

Vilma Fuentes:

So they basically fled the Island. Alberto Alonzo, the choreographer of the Ballet National de Cuba and Sonia Calera, who had been the prima ballerina for ever. Um, but they arrived in Miami and the Cuban, the Cuban and Cuban American community there, um, didn't receive them well. Right.

Alora Haynes:

They didn't leave when the others left. And there's a saying amongst the Cuban community when, when the ship is sinking, only the rat stay on. Right. And so they sort of viewed them that way. They're a little afraid of them, afraid to even fraternize with them at the time, even though they still held them with high regard as artists. Uh, there was kind of a, we don't, we don't really communicate, we don't really mix in with the, that those Cubans.

Vilma Fuentes:

Sure. Or to say it differently as I've heard some Cuban Americans in Miami say" they're communistas." Right. And they were always seen as such because they didn't leave, like you said, in the 60s, in the 70s. That didn't leave during the Mariel Boatlift right. Left. Um, really after the Soviet union collapsed. So 1993, the Soviet union had just collapsed. A lot of the economic aid that Cuba had been receiving from the Soviet union just dried up and that the, the Island was facing perhaps the most, the worst economic crisis of its history. So, uh, but you put that within the context of, you know, artistic censorship and, um, I, I imagine the situation became quite intolerable for famous artists like him. Correct. So, uh, Alberto and Sonia, tell us how they ended up at Santa Fe.

Alora Haynes:

I was fully aware of who he was. I've always studied history. U m, I'm a firm believer in, in gratitude for that that happened before us. I, I believe that we stand on the shoulders of the great a rtists before our time. They've paved the way for us. And so I've kept up with what happened, what, what a pivotal things have happened in the history of dance. And I was fully aware of this Carmen ballet. I was fully aware that Alberto was the first non Russian to ever choreograph at the Bolshoi. I knew that it had been censored, but I also knew that now this ballet is one of the most beloved ballets in Russia and in much of Europe. And the one place i t hasn't really had that much notoriety is actually America. So I thought, well, this would be a wonderful situation for mr A lonzo to come to the States. And then his ballet will be seen by all of us. How lucky for us. I knew of some of the people who were students of his, some of the Cuban teachers, there are some of the best teachers in Florida. We're all friends with each other. So one of his former students called me and said, listen, guess who's in Mexico and needs to defect. And I said, I don't know who are we talking about? She said, it's Alberto Alonzo. I said, how can I help? She said, he needs a job, he needs a place to live. I said, he can move in with me and then I'll talk to the folks at Santa Fe college and we'll see what happens. So I go to Leslie and Larry Tyree at the time, Leslie was my chair and Larry Tyree was the president at the time. And my message was, can we take care of this family for a brief period of time and let them work with our students? We will all be better for it, even if it's just for one semester and then I'm, maybe I can help him get on with his life and become a citizen in this country and get some recognition that he was held back from for all these years. He's been censored in this other country. And it would be incredible if we could help him in this way and then he would help our students while this is all happening. And we all agreed this was a good idea. So he moved in with me. My daughter was one year old, she's 27 now. And, um, Sonia was barely speaking English, so my daughter and Sonia were reading from the same little cardboard book, dog, cat, you know, was adorable. And we fell in love with each other. And, um, we've been family ever since then, you know. Um, unfortunately though people didn't have the same recognition of his place in history that I didn't in this country. And I don't know if maybe they didn't have the same love of history that I did. I thought everyone was going to be as thrilled about it, but I called several companies, several major companies in the United States and said, mr Alonzo is here, would you like to hire him? And their response was, how old is he? You know, cause he was 78 at the time. And, um, I, I was kind of surprised that people weren't taking him in with welcome arms the way I was. I thought that was what we should all do, but I guess I discovered something about myself at that point. But anyway, we did find a couple of companies that wanted him, and one was Indianapolis because they had a Russian director who was fully aware of that, that ballet. And then the other was Sarasota ballet. Robert Dworkin was also a great lover of the history of ballet, and he knew about the ballet and very much wanted it in his repertoire. So two co companies, since Alberto defected have done the ballet in the United States, but neither one did it with a live orchestra. So when Carmen comes to Santa Fe college, which I'm so excited to talk about this, November 8th and ninth, it will be being performed for the first time since 1974 with a live orchestra in the United States.

Vilma Fuentes:

So let's talk then about the ballet that's coming, who will be dancing in it. Um, and so let's talk about some of these ballerinas who, uh, who, who will be the lead ballerinas please in the show? Well, Sara Lane,

Alora Haynes:

Well, Sara Lane, she's a beautiful principle dancer with American ballet theater. Um, I had the pleasure of meeting her in 2011 when we opened the fine arts hall. We did a big light up the night event. It was amazing. Um, I asked Sonya and Alberto if they knew of a, of a famous Cuban that we could bring here because it might, you know, just bring some cachet to the performance night. And they said, Jose Manuel Carreño is available. He was the top dancer at ABT for many, many years, male dancer. And I called him and he said, I know of a, of a ballerina that'll come with me. Her name is Sara Lane. And I've fully thought that Jose Manuel would be the one that Sonia and Alberto would connect with the most. But actually Sarah and Sonya fell in love with each other. They were, uh, S uh, Sarah speaks a little Spanish because her husband, Luis is Spanish and they were communicating about the character. And Sarah was just so excited to be able to work with someone with this level of history and this level of character development. Sonia is a great actress as well as a dancer. So Sarah transformed. I watched them work for a few days together and I watched her go from this dancer to that dancer in the time frame that that was happening. I could tell that this was a very rich experience for her. I think she came down here just to be a guest artist, but she left going, wow. I feel changed from that experience.

Vilma Fuentes:

So in 2011 when the fine arts hall opened, Jose Manuel Carreño came here, brought his friend Sarah Lane from the American ballet theater. Um, Jose Manuel had worked under Albert.

Alora Haynes:

Yes.

Vilma Fuentes:

So I mean it was more, it was more than that. He was just a Cuban dancer. He was a Cuban dancer that had that trained.

Alora Haynes:

Yes. Okay. And A lberto w ould love to work with people who knew him b ecause of course he's had years of not feeling respected.

Vilma Fuentes:

So, eh, so now in comes Sara Lane, this American ballerina, you know, falls in love with them, returns. And so how did you get her back?

Alora Haynes:

Well, as she was leaving after we finished the ballet, she said, if you ever decide to do this full length ballet, I want you to call me. And I said, absolutely. And at one point she checked in with me a few years ago and said, you know, how's it going? Are you guys still thinking about doing the full length ballet? And I said, yeah, but I don't know right now. I think we were still working with budgets and things like that. And um, so she tried one more time, it was about a year ago. She called and said, where are you with doing the ballet? And I was actually talking to a Cuban couple from Miami, um, that we're very interested in doing it. And I was kind of doing like the lower budget version of it. And I said, you know what, let me let me talk to the provost. And I went to Ed Bonahue and I said, listen, um, I got a call from a principal dancer at ABT wanting to come and perform this ballet. This isn't going to happen again. We can jump on it. And Evans says he's onboard. Evans Haile, who's the, the great director of the Gainesville orchestra. They're the in house orchestra here at Santa Fe college. All the ingredients just came together. We had Evans, the orchestra director and the orchestra there. We had Sarah, the principal dancer. Then I also had been working collaboratively with the New York dance project for about eight years now with Davis Robertson, the director. And uh, he, I had mentioned to him, you know, I really want to do this ballet, but, um, our, our dancers are not quite at the level to be the corps de ballet. Would you be willing? And he said, absolutely. You just gave me the call when you're ready for this to happen. So about a year ago, we all made the plan that we were gonna do this. And uh, it's a, it's a beautiful process. Everyone involved in it is not just doing it because they want to do this ballet. They're doing it because they love the artists. They love each other. Everybody involved is very, very much embracing this artistically.

Vilma Fuentes:

Yes. So do you think Sarah Lane will be able to dance this with the Cuban sazon, the Cuban kind of spice? Do you think she'll be able to move like a snake?

Alora Haynes:

She is up for the challenge! She is adorable. She's only five foot two. But she was saying to me when I was in New York watching the rehearsals just a little bit ago, she goes, I'm going to dance bigger than I ever have in my entire life.

Vilma Fuentes:

She's going to dance like a Cuban!

Alora Haynes:

Yes. She is, she's doing it. I mean, she's married to a Spanish man. So that, I think there's something involved there... Definitely an appreciation for the culture.

Vilma Fuentes:

And who will Sarah be dancing with? Then?

Alora Haynes:

Cory Stearns, who's the principal dancer at American ballet theater and quite the princely looking person. He's also a runway model. He's gorgeous and he's an incredible dancer and very, um, machismo. He looks, he's the Don Jose fits him perfectly and Sonia is very pleased with him.

Vilma Fuentes:

Wonderful. And so, so it'll be here at Santa Fe college, we're going to have the live performance of the Carmen Suite with a live orchestra starring Sarah Lee and Corey Stearns. And you said the New York dance project?

Alora Haynes:

Yes.

Vilma Fuentes:

And then what else? So what about our students? How are they going to benefit from it?

Alora Haynes:

Our students get to take class with the New York dance project and the dancers from ABT for a week while this production is being mounted here on our stage. So I have probably been scaring them to death the past few telling them, you know, don't you don't want to embarrass yourself. Let's get it together folks. And there've been wonderful. They've been very dedicated to their classes and very focused. Everyone's very focused with the recognition that we're all holding the bar way up here and we're all going to try to reach it. And even if we don't, we're going to enjoy this process.

Vilma Fuentes:

So, um, the theme of this podcast is developing global citizens. I'm hearing you right this ballet. This Carmen suite, u h, went from Bizet's Carmen to Cuba or it was interpreted choreographed then to Russia through the Bolshoi ballet and now coming to Florida, u m, do our students get it? Do you think our students, our faculty, our staff here understand the, the, the significance and how this could be opening them to the world?

Alora Haynes:

At the beginning of the, of the semester, I sat everybody down and I said, you're about to experience something that probably won't happen here again, any in this, in the near future. But I'm not saying that something wonderful won't happen as a result of it. So here's what you need to know. And I told them who all the players were. I told them the whole chronology of how this thing came to be here. Um, and then I wanted them to know the context of what they're about to experience. So they've all watched the film Dance Of My Heart toward the end of Mr. Alonzo's life. He was very fearful that he may pass and no one would've ever known who he was on, on in this country or even in Cuba. Cause you know when you leave a communist country, you get erased from the history books. So I said, we need to write a book. It started with the idea of a book. And I sat down with him and I said, let's just go chronologically through time. And he was having a really hard time from year doing something sequentially from year to year. He kind of jumped from this event, did that. And through that experience I discovered that he was in the early stages of dementia. And I then I said, you know what, why don't we just turn on a video camera and see what happened? And then we were working with some local people to help capture some stuff on video. Um, I suddenly realized that this was much bigger than a local experience. And that's when we brought on the, uh, the Cuban director and editor, Ricardo Acosta, who works with Sundance film festival as an editor. He's one of the best, I called him out of nowhere and said, this is gonna sound crazy. I'm calling you from a college in Gainesville, Florida because I have this person in my life who I feel I need to help his relevance to his life before he leaves us. And would you be willing to help edit a film that we're trying to make about him? And he said, who is it in us at Alberto Alonzo? He goes, I left the same year he did. So he knew exactly who he was. He worked for us for peanuts. We didn't even have enough money to pay him, actually. He moved to Gainesville for three months and made the film. And, um, there's just been a whole lot of people loving each other through not only the film, but through this process. And, um, and I'm just grateful to be whatever piece of this center point, whatever I am in this whole thing to the situation.

Vilma Fuentes:

Now. Alora when, uh, the documentary dance with my heart was being filmed, you and a few other representatives from Santa Fe were able to travel with Alberto and Sonia to Russia. Take, tell us about that please.

Alora Haynes:

It's one of the highlights of my career. Going to Russia and seeing Alberto treated the way he was meant to be treated by Maya Plisetskaya and all the greatest heads of state. It was her 80th birthday. She invited him, uh, to come and restage Carmen on Svetlana Zakharova, the most famous ballerina in Russia right now, as a tribute to, not only to him but to Maya and all to, to Svetlana. Um, as a birthday present, her 80th birthday, they invited all of the heads of state to the Kremlin to watch your performance of all the great ballerinas from all over the world doing Maya's favorite ballets. There was Raymonda, there was Dying Swan, and then there was Carmen. So I'm sitting there looking around, you know, and there's people from France and Germany and this and that and Alora from Gainesville. I'm watching Alberto speaking Russian with Maya. And you know, I, knew he did, but to the extent that he was fluent like that, this man is a global citizen. And, and he was, he was speaking French to the French people and you know, he knew a little bit of German, a little bit of Japanese, cause he's been to Tokyo many times and set the Valley there. I mean, this Valley has been done all over the world. Uh, we're a little late to the game USA, but we're there. We're here and we're doing this. And the traveling was incredible. My favorite piece of the traveling was when we went to Edmonton to bring the film, uh, to a film festival. And because it was in Canada, we were allowed to invite his brother. He and his brother had not seen each other in 15 years. And, um, that was a beautiful moment and something that couldn't have happened in any other circumstance, but because it was in this neutral country, we all got to come together and witness those brothers and their love for each other and their beautiful memories of, of the development of the Cuban ballet.