Alberto Julio Rayneri Alonso (22 May 1917 – 31 December 2007) was a Cuban dancer and choreographer, the brother of
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver who competes in Formula One for Aston Martin in Formula One, Aston Martin. Alonso has won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with ...
and brother-in-law of
Alicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso (born Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martínez del Hoyo; 21 December 1920 – 17 October 2019) was a Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer whose company became the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1955. She is bes ...
(née Martinez). He was influential in the development of the Cuban style of ballet, a combination of Russian and Western techniques with a Latin style.
Biography
Alonso was born in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Spring Hill College
Spring Hill College is a private Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It was founded in 1830 by Bishop Michael Portier of Mobile. Along with being the oldest private college or university in the state of Alabama, it was the first Catholic college ...
in Mobile, Alabama. On returning to
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, he began ballet training in 1932 at the ''Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical'' arts school in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Nikolai Yavorsky. He studied in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
Michel Fokine
Michael Fokine ( – 22 August 1942) was a Russian choreographer and dancer.
Career Early years
Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and at the age of 9 was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet Sch ...
. He subsequently danced with the Ballet Theatre from 1943 to 1945, in works created by Fokine,
George Balanchine
George Balanchine (;
Various sources:
*
*
*
* born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...
and Leonid Massine. Back in Cuba in 1948, he co-founded with Alicia and Fernando Alonso the Ballet Alicia Alonso, which would eventually become the
Ballet Nacional de Cuba
The Cuban National Ballet () is a classical ballet company based at Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba, founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948. The official school of the company is the Cuban National Ballet ...
, being its artistic director and choreographer.
From 1942 he also worked as ballet master and choreographer, creating several works including ''Antes del Alba'' (1948, music by Hilario Gonzalez, libretto by Francisco Martínez Allende), ''Rapsodia Negra'' (1953, music by
Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona y Casado (; August 7, 1895 – November 29, 1963) was a Cuban composer and pianist, many of whose works have become standards of the Latin, jazz and classical repertoires. His over 600 compositions include songs and zarzuelas as ...
), ''El Solar'' (1965, music by Tony Taño, filmed as ''Un día en el solar'' by Eduardo Manet), ''Espacio y movimiento'' (1966, music by
Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...
, prize for best choreography at Varna in 1968), ''Un retablo para Romeo y Julieta'' (1969, to the music of
Roméo et Juliette
''Roméo et Juliette'' (, ''Romeo and Juliet'') is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on ''Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Ly ...
by
Berlioz
Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...
), etc. His most well-known ballet is '' Carmen Suite'' (1967), to music by
Rodion Shchedrin
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin ( rus, Родион Константинович Щедрин, , rədʲɪˈon kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ɕːɪˈdrʲin; born 16 December 1932) is a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist, winner of USSR St ...
; it was created for
Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. In post-Soviet times, she held both Lithuanian and Spanish citizenship.
in the
Bolshoi Ballet
The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest Ballet company, ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it ca ...
, and simultaneously for
Alicia Alonso
Alicia Alonso (born Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martínez del Hoyo; 21 December 1920 – 17 October 2019) was a Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer whose company became the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1955. She is bes ...
in the
Ballet Nacional de Cuba
The Cuban National Ballet () is a classical ballet company based at Great Theatre of Havana in Havana, Cuba, founded by the Cuban prima ballerina assoluta, Alicia Alonso in 1948. The official school of the company is the Cuban National Ballet ...
, and later it has been re-created by several other companies.
He was married from 1939 to 1944 to the
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...
Canadian dancer Alexandra Denisova. Later he married Elena del Cueto, a Cuban dancer, until 1962, when she left for the United States with their two daughters. In 1964 he married the
Cuban Rumba
Rumba is a secular genre of Cuban music involving dance, percussion, and song. It originated in the northern regions of Cuba, mainly in urban Havana and Matanzas, during the late 19th century. It is based on African music and dance traditions, n ...
dancer and actress Sonia Calero. They were married until his death and had a son, Alberto Jr.
He left Cuba in 1993 with his third wife, and settled in
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...
, where he became master artist in residence at the Santa Fe Community College and resident choreographer for the Dance Theater of Santa Fe. He continued choreographing for several companies including New York's Ballet Hispanico in 1994, and re-creating Carmen for Svetlana Zakharova in the Bolshoi Ballet in 2005.
Alonso died from
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood.
Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...
in his adopted hometown of Gainesville, Florida, at age 90.
The minor planet 58373 Albertoalonso was named after Alonso in 1995.