Since the 1990s, many dancers from Cuba have found work in North American and Western European ba... more Since the 1990s, many dancers from Cuba have found work in North American and Western European ballet ensembles. This chapter describes how their international dance careers reflect high-skilled labor migration in the global economy, as well as the decentralizing expansion of ballet's labor market. Migrant Cuban dancers cite a depressed local economy and the artistic stagnation of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba as fundamental reasons for looking for work in international ensembles. Their exodus is also political-extending into the present practices and discourses associated with the Cold War concept of defection. The numerous departures constitute a detrimental form of brain drain for Cuban ballet, which loses precious human capital and is relegated to the subaltern role of labor supplier for the international ballet community. Yet, this diaspora could also fuel brain gain-a scenario in which émigrés such as Carlos Acosta return home to reinvest in local institutions the knowledge and resources acquired abroad.
Focusing on Carlos Acosta, the Cuban performer who became the first black principal dancer of Lon... more Focusing on Carlos Acosta, the Cuban performer who became the first black principal dancer of London's Royal Ballet, this chapter proposes that a new cosmopolitanism characterizes contemporary ballet. Such cosmopolitanism, informed by the institutionalization of diversity, is achieved through the presence of Latin American and Asian dancers in European and North American companies. Inclusion of the subaltern lends these institutions an image of multiculturalism and globality that increases their social capital. Yet, ballet's new cosmopolitanism impels subaltern dancers to negotiate the fraught politics of moving from the periphery to the center, where they find themselves both valued and devalued for their race and nationality. This essay interrogates situations in which ballet's emerging displays of diversity, while ostensibly fostering recognition of the subaltern, may prove cosmetic and not transcend coloniality. Problematic politics of desire underlie ballet's new cosmopolitanism whenever subaltern bodies, as in Acosta's case, are racialized, consumed for erotic pleasure, and fetishized as signifiers of diversity. Against a background of growing xenophobia and paired with this hedonistic consumption of the other, some forms of institutionalized diversity characterize a Marcusian regime of repressive tolerance in which multiculturalism is celebrated onstage while offstage the other is stigmatized as a burden to the nation.
El milagro de anaquillé (1927), a ballet project with libretto by Alejo Carpentier and music by A... more El milagro de anaquillé (1927), a ballet project with libretto by Alejo Carpentier and music by Amadeo Roldán, originated at the intersection of avant-garde art, afrocubanismo, and ethnography. Inspired by the aesthetic experimentation of Les Ballets Russes and Les Ballets Suédois in Europe, Carpentier and Roldán adopted ballet as a vehicle for introducing avant-garde trends in Cuba. Their work referenced two revolutionary ballets: Rite of Spring and, more importantly, Parade. Seeking to restage an Abakuá ritual, their project illustrated the artistic output of afrocubanismo as well as the movement's ethnographic approach to the study of black culture. The libretto, which depicted a conflict between a US filmmaker and a group of Abakuá celebrants, critiqued the colonialist caricatures of the racial other's dancing body in cinema and ballet. In doing so, it contributed to the concurrent repudiation of colonialist films in Latin American intellectual circles. Amid pivotal changes in cultural anthropology, the libretto also alluded to the ideological entanglement of anthropology and coloniality. It obliquely represented the lopsided interactions-mediated by class, race, and education-between ethnographers and subjects. In formulating such political messages, Milagro made adept use of caricature, irony, metatheatricality, nonrealist representation, and other techniques from the avant-garde tool kit for critical interrogation of reality.
In the 1960s, the initial decade of the Cuban Revolution, policies of proletarianization of cultu... more In the 1960s, the initial decade of the Cuban Revolution, policies of proletarianization of culture intersected an economic model built upon the heroic labor of the New Man--the ideal revolutionary and communist worker. Adapting the practice of ballet to this Marxist context, ballet dancers took their art to the working classes through popular performances and outreach events in farms and factories. Given the centrality of manual work to the Revolution's ideology, dancers drew upon their own physical labor both in ballet and agriculture to establish an even stronger association with the working classes and embody the New Man's morality. Known for their strict work ethic, Alicia Alonso and other baller dancers became public examples of hard work for the nation--one way of fulfilling the politico-pedagogical role that the state expected from artists. At the same time, media representations of female dancers' labor enabled formulations of the New Man's gendered counterpart: the New Woman.
Alicia Alonso contended that the musicality of Cuban ballet dancers contributed to a distinctive ... more Alicia Alonso contended that the musicality of Cuban ballet dancers contributed to a distinctive national style in their performance of European classics such as Giselle and Swan Lake. A highly developed sense of musicality distinguished Alonso’s own dancing. For the ballerina, this was more than just an element of her individual style: it was an expression of the Cuban cultural environment and a common feature among ballet dancers from the island. In addition to elucidating the physical manifestations of musicality in Alonso’s dancing, this article examines how the ballerina’s frequent references to music in connection to both her individual identity and the Cuban ballet aesthetics fit into a national discourse of self-representation that deems Cubans an exceptionally musical people. This analysis also problematizes the Cuban ballet’s brand of musicality by underscoring the tension between its possible explanations—from being the result of the dancers’ socialization into a rich Afro-Caribbean musical culture to being a stylistic element that Alonso developed though her training with foreign teachers and, in turn, transmitted to her Cuban disciples.
In the 1940s, Alicia Alonso became the first Latin American dancer to achieve international promi... more In the 1940s, Alicia Alonso became the first Latin American dancer to achieve international prominence in the field of ballet, until then dominated by Europeans.
Since the 1990s, many dancers from Cuba have found work in North American and Western European ba... more Since the 1990s, many dancers from Cuba have found work in North American and Western European ballet ensembles. This chapter describes how their international dance careers reflect high-skilled labor migration in the global economy, as well as the decentralizing expansion of ballet's labor market. Migrant Cuban dancers cite a depressed local economy and the artistic stagnation of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba as fundamental reasons for looking for work in international ensembles. Their exodus is also political-extending into the present practices and discourses associated with the Cold War concept of defection. The numerous departures constitute a detrimental form of brain drain for Cuban ballet, which loses precious human capital and is relegated to the subaltern role of labor supplier for the international ballet community. Yet, this diaspora could also fuel brain gain-a scenario in which émigrés such as Carlos Acosta return home to reinvest in local institutions the knowledge and resources acquired abroad.
Focusing on Carlos Acosta, the Cuban performer who became the first black principal dancer of Lon... more Focusing on Carlos Acosta, the Cuban performer who became the first black principal dancer of London's Royal Ballet, this chapter proposes that a new cosmopolitanism characterizes contemporary ballet. Such cosmopolitanism, informed by the institutionalization of diversity, is achieved through the presence of Latin American and Asian dancers in European and North American companies. Inclusion of the subaltern lends these institutions an image of multiculturalism and globality that increases their social capital. Yet, ballet's new cosmopolitanism impels subaltern dancers to negotiate the fraught politics of moving from the periphery to the center, where they find themselves both valued and devalued for their race and nationality. This essay interrogates situations in which ballet's emerging displays of diversity, while ostensibly fostering recognition of the subaltern, may prove cosmetic and not transcend coloniality. Problematic politics of desire underlie ballet's new cosmopolitanism whenever subaltern bodies, as in Acosta's case, are racialized, consumed for erotic pleasure, and fetishized as signifiers of diversity. Against a background of growing xenophobia and paired with this hedonistic consumption of the other, some forms of institutionalized diversity characterize a Marcusian regime of repressive tolerance in which multiculturalism is celebrated onstage while offstage the other is stigmatized as a burden to the nation.
El milagro de anaquillé (1927), a ballet project with libretto by Alejo Carpentier and music by A... more El milagro de anaquillé (1927), a ballet project with libretto by Alejo Carpentier and music by Amadeo Roldán, originated at the intersection of avant-garde art, afrocubanismo, and ethnography. Inspired by the aesthetic experimentation of Les Ballets Russes and Les Ballets Suédois in Europe, Carpentier and Roldán adopted ballet as a vehicle for introducing avant-garde trends in Cuba. Their work referenced two revolutionary ballets: Rite of Spring and, more importantly, Parade. Seeking to restage an Abakuá ritual, their project illustrated the artistic output of afrocubanismo as well as the movement's ethnographic approach to the study of black culture. The libretto, which depicted a conflict between a US filmmaker and a group of Abakuá celebrants, critiqued the colonialist caricatures of the racial other's dancing body in cinema and ballet. In doing so, it contributed to the concurrent repudiation of colonialist films in Latin American intellectual circles. Amid pivotal changes in cultural anthropology, the libretto also alluded to the ideological entanglement of anthropology and coloniality. It obliquely represented the lopsided interactions-mediated by class, race, and education-between ethnographers and subjects. In formulating such political messages, Milagro made adept use of caricature, irony, metatheatricality, nonrealist representation, and other techniques from the avant-garde tool kit for critical interrogation of reality.
In the 1960s, the initial decade of the Cuban Revolution, policies of proletarianization of cultu... more In the 1960s, the initial decade of the Cuban Revolution, policies of proletarianization of culture intersected an economic model built upon the heroic labor of the New Man--the ideal revolutionary and communist worker. Adapting the practice of ballet to this Marxist context, ballet dancers took their art to the working classes through popular performances and outreach events in farms and factories. Given the centrality of manual work to the Revolution's ideology, dancers drew upon their own physical labor both in ballet and agriculture to establish an even stronger association with the working classes and embody the New Man's morality. Known for their strict work ethic, Alicia Alonso and other baller dancers became public examples of hard work for the nation--one way of fulfilling the politico-pedagogical role that the state expected from artists. At the same time, media representations of female dancers' labor enabled formulations of the New Man's gendered counterpart: the New Woman.
Alicia Alonso contended that the musicality of Cuban ballet dancers contributed to a distinctive ... more Alicia Alonso contended that the musicality of Cuban ballet dancers contributed to a distinctive national style in their performance of European classics such as Giselle and Swan Lake. A highly developed sense of musicality distinguished Alonso’s own dancing. For the ballerina, this was more than just an element of her individual style: it was an expression of the Cuban cultural environment and a common feature among ballet dancers from the island. In addition to elucidating the physical manifestations of musicality in Alonso’s dancing, this article examines how the ballerina’s frequent references to music in connection to both her individual identity and the Cuban ballet aesthetics fit into a national discourse of self-representation that deems Cubans an exceptionally musical people. This analysis also problematizes the Cuban ballet’s brand of musicality by underscoring the tension between its possible explanations—from being the result of the dancers’ socialization into a rich Afro-Caribbean musical culture to being a stylistic element that Alonso developed though her training with foreign teachers and, in turn, transmitted to her Cuban disciples.
In the 1940s, Alicia Alonso became the first Latin American dancer to achieve international promi... more In the 1940s, Alicia Alonso became the first Latin American dancer to achieve international prominence in the field of ballet, until then dominated by Europeans.
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