Prima Ballerina Assoluta and Director of Cuba's National Ballet, she is finest figure of classical dance in the field of Ibero-American culture and at the same time one of the most outstanding personalities from the history of the art of dance.

Born in Havana, she began her dance studies in 1931 at the Ballet de la Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical. Later she moved to the United States and continued her training with Enrico Zanfretta, Alexandra Fedórova and various renowned teachers from the School of American Ballet.

Her professional activity began in 1938 when she made her debut in the musical comedies Great Lady and Stars in your Eyes. One year later she joined the ranks of the American Ballet Caravan, which would later become the New York City Ballet. She joined the Ballet Theatre of New York the year it was founded in 1940. From then on she began a brilliant phase of her career as she expertly performed in great works from the romantic and classic repertoire. In this phase she also worked alongside Mijail Fokine, George Balanchine, Leonide Massine, Bronialva Nijinaka, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, and Agnes Mille, as well as other important personalities from our century.

She played the lead role in the world premières of important works such as Fall River Legend and Theme and Variations. As a member of the American Ballet Theatre she performed in numerous European and American countries as Prima Ballerina. In 1946 her commitment to developing the art of ballet in Cuba lead her to found the Ballet Alicia Alonso in Havana, today known as the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. From this time her activities were shared between the American Ballet Theatre and her own ensemble which had little or no official support until 1959, the year in which the Revolutionary Government of Cuba offered her the necessary support.

From 1955-1959 Alicia Alonso also performed every year as the guest star for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. She was the first ballerina from the Western Hemisphere invited to perform in the then Soviet Union and the first figure from the American continent who danced as a guest artist with the cast from the theatres companies of Bolshoi from Moscow, and Kirov from Leningrad 1957-1958. For several decades Alicia Alonso made annual tours in various countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and in the United States, Canada, and Australia. She also performed as a guest star in Nice, Calcutta, Tokyo, and Manilla with the Paris Opera, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Bolshoi from Moscow, Ballet of the 20th Century, and with other companies and in other countries.

Her choreographic versions of the great classics are internationally renowned and are danced by notable companies such as the Ballets of the Paris Opera (Giselle, Grand Pas de Quatre, Sleeping Beauty); Vienna State Opera and Teatro di San Carlo (Giselle); Prague Opera (La fille mai gardée); and Teatro Alla Scala from Milan (Sleeping Beauty).

She has sat on judges panels for International Ballet Competitions in Varna, Bulgaria; Moscow, Russia; Tokyo, Japan; and Brazil. Considered by critics for several decades as one of the greatest ballerinas of all time, Alicia Alonso has received numerous awards from Cuba and other countries. Some of her most notable awards are: the Annual Award from the United States magazine, Dance Magazine in 1958; Order of Work of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1964; Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris personal award in 1966 and group award with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1970; Anna Pavlova Award of the University of Dance, Paris, 1966; the Porselli "A life for dance", Prize, Italy, 1983; Gold Medal of the Gran Teatro by Premio Gran Teatro de La Habana in 1985, and Osimo Danza, in Italy in 1994.

As an eminent figure from Cuban culture, Alicia Alonso received, in 1973, an honorary doctorate in Art from Havana University and in 1987 an honorary doctorate in Dancing Art from The University of Arts of Cuba She was proclaimed National Hero of Labour in Cuba and is a member of the World Peace Council.

In 1980 she received an international homage in Paris, organized by UNESCO. In 1981 she was awarded the Order Felix Varela by the Council of the State of the Republic of Cuba. She has received the highest official honours from Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic: the Order Aguila Azteca, the Order Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and the Order Duarte, Sanchez, and Mella, as Class Commander. In 1993 she was awarded “Encomienda” of the Order of Isabella the Catholic presented by King Juan Carlos I.

Since 1993 she has run the “Alicia Alonso” Ballet Department at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. On the university’s seventh centenary she was awarded the commemorative medal.

Similarly, the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo awarded her the title of Honorary Professor of Humanities.

In September 1996 the Scientific, Artistic, and Literary Ateneo of Madrid publicly honoured her for her valuable artistic and cultural creations. In the same year she was made an Honorary Member of the Spanish Association of Stage Managers.

In May this year she was honoured at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York by the American Ballet Theatre on the fiftieth anniversary of the première of Theme and Variations conceived especially for her by George Balanchine. Similarly, the Festivals of Joinville in Brazil and Nervi in Italy shall honour her for her exceptional artistic career.