The Czech National Ballet on Tour – the 2018 Caribbean – back home

The Czech National Ballet travelled overseas to extraordinary exotic destinations – the Central American Costa Rica and also Cuba, the heart of the Caribbean. Artistic director Filip Barankiewicz picked twelve soloists for this trip and devised a full evening Gala comprising both classical and more contemporary duets and solos.

The first stop on this special tour was San José, the capital of Costa Rica. Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica hosted our Gala two times. The journal La Nación in it's special edition Viva endowed the Czech National Ballet with the attribute legendary and offered its readers a two page interview with Mr. Filip Barankiewicz.    

After the success in San José the company flew to Cuba to the magical city of Habana where it took part in the famous Festival Internacional de Ballet de la Habana „Alicia Alonso”, a well-known cultural event founded in 1960.

“It is for the first time in history that the Czech National Ballet brings its own original evening programme to this legendary festival. The outstanding quality of our performance was confirmed by an excited and warm reaction of Cuban audience and especially by the standing ovation at the end – we were honoured,” says Filip Barankiewicz who saw both performances in Habana in the Teatro Nacional de Cuba. 

Cuban ballet is famous worldwide and Cuban dancers are known to be outstanding. The greatest personality that has made Cuban dance shine is Alicia Alonso, the prima ballerina assoluta who celebrates 96 this year and who set up the  Festival Internacional de Ballet in 1960.