She was the prima ballerina prima, choreographer and director of the National Ballet of Cuba.  She was born in Havana on December 21, 1920. She came to dance in 1934. She made her professional debut in musical comedies in 1938 and two years later she joined the Ballet Theatre of New York as a supreme interpreter of the great works of the romantic and classical repertoire. She had a great opportunity on November 2, 1943 when she replaced Alicia Markova in Giselle, on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. That night she played for the first time a leading role. The audience was ecstatic and surprised. In 1948, with the aim of promoting ballet in Cuba, she returned to her homeland and founded a ballet company in Havana with Fernando Alonso and Alberto Alonso.  In 1950 the Alicia Alonso Academy was definitively founded, an institution that was initially nourished by the knowledge of its creators and the techniques of the Russian, Italian, English, French and Danish schools.

Fernando Alonso

He was born in Havana on December 27, 1914. In his professional career he stood out as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of ballet companies. He was among the founding dancers of the National Ballet of Cuba and master par excellence of the Cuban Ballet School. He also worked in the foundation of the Camagüey Ballet. He received several awards, among them, the National Dance Award. She died in Havana on July 27, 2013.