Viengsay Valdés is a Cuban ballerina. Since 2003, Valdés is the Prima Ballerina Assoluta and since 2019 she is the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Cuba. Valdés developed a reputation as a dancer for her interpretations of the female lead roles in the ballets, Carmen, Giselle, Swan Lake, Blood Wedding, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppélia, La Fille Mal Gardée, and The Nutcracker. She also danced in notable pas de deux from Le Corsaire, Diana and Actaeon, Silvia, and Black Swan .
Early life and education
Viengsay Valdés Herrera was born in Havana, Cuba in 1977. Valdés and her family moved when she was three months old to Laos, where her father served as the Cuban Ambassador. Her name Viengsay means “victory” in Laotian. At age three, her family moved to the Seychelles. At age six, she moved back to Havana, Cuba, where she continued her education. She has suffered from severe asthma, since her early childhood. Valdés put her first ballet shoes on at the age of nine, which is when she began her ballet studies at the Alejo Carpentier Provincial Ballet School in Havana. At age 15, she continued her studies at the National Art Schools. Ramona de Sáa was her main ballet professors. While she was still a student she won numerous prizes and distinctions. Legendary ballet director and educator, Alicia Alonso spotted Valdés' talent, and invited her to join the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1994, when she was 17 years old. Every year since 1994, Valdés has been a participant in the prestigious International Ballet Festival of Havana. She was named the most outstanding dancer in the XVIII International Festival of Ballet of Havana.
Principal dancer
Valdés had a series of fast promotions with the National Ballet of Cuba, in 1995 to Principal Dancer, and in 2001 to Premier Dancer. In the mid-1990s many ballet dancers while on tour were defecting to other countries, this provided more advancement in dance opportunities within the National Ballet of Cuba for dancers, like Valdés that stayed in their home country. In 2003, Alicia Alonso made Valdés the company's Prima Ballerina Assoluta, the highest position for a dancer in Cuba. From then on, she took the leading roles in all the company's major galas and she has performed and toured internationally. Valdés ballet partners have include leading figures of world dance such as, Carlos Acosta, Leonid Sarafanov, Thiago Soares, Alexei Tyukov, Ivan Vasiliev, Denis Matvienko, Joel Carreño, Ivan Putrov, among others. In July 2012, she performed in the special Homage Gala dedicated to Alicia Alonso, sharing the stage with The Royal Ballet of London in the Gran Teatro de La Habana. On this occasion, she danced the famous 'Black Swan' pas de deux with the ballet star Thiago Soares, premier dancer from the Royal Ballet.
Dance performances
Valdes' performances have received outstanding reviews from the world's leading dance critics, including Anna Kisselgoff and Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times, and Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times, among others.
Swan Lake
Don Quixote
At the age of 19, Valdés debut in the role of Kitri in Don Quixote. In September 2006, Valdés and the National Ballet of Cuba performed Don Quixote in London. She traveled to Washington DC, to work as a guest artist in the 2009–2010 season opening performance for the Washington Ballet Washington Ballet, Don Quixote in the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. Dancing the lead role of Kitri, this was a new staging of the classic ballet by internationally recognized choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes.
Artistic director
In January 2019, Valdés was advanced by the Cuban ministry of culture and Alicia Alonso to the role of Deputy Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Cuba. In October 2019, after Alonso died at age 99, the Cuban ministry of culture promoted her to the Artistic Director. She is now in charge of all the artistic and technical aspects of National Ballet of Cuba, including the casting, organizing ballet tours, and programming. National Ballet of Cuba's 2020 home ballet performances will be Alonso-focused in commemorations of Alonso's centennial and starting in 2021, Valdés will have full control. As of May 2019, Valdés intendeds to continue dancing with the troupe.
Choreography
In June 2007, Valdes branched out into contemporary dance choreography, working with the British director Sebastian Doggart. They created a performance called Balance of Ice, which combined three elements: a piece of music by Canadian composer Andrew Staniland that was inspired by the sounds of ice sheets calving; a dance performance by Valdes that fragmented her usual balletic virtuosity; and moving images of the polar ice caps and the threats facing them.
Awards and recognition
1993 - First Prize in the National Competition of Dance for the Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba.
1993 – Gold Medal in the Vignale Festival of Dance, Italy.
1994 – Grand Prize in Ballet for the National Competition of Dance, Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba.
1999 – National Medal of Culture from Cuba
2003 – Valdés was awarded the Medal "Alejo Carpentier" by the Ministry of Culture of Cuba.
