Alicia Alonso

Alicia Alonso was born in Havana on December 21, 1920. Dancing with Ballet Caravan and American Ballet Theatre in New York, Alonso took the world by storm in 1943 when she stepped in to dance Giselle at the Metropolitan Opera House, establishing herself as the supreme interpreter of the role.

Despite severe retinal detachments that left her dancing guided only by stage lights, she founded the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1948. She trained generations of world-class dancers, performing into her seventies and cementing Cuba as an international powerhouse of classical dance.