The SA tour by Alicia Alonso’s National Ballet of Cuba (NBC) was cancelled by the Havana-based company only days before its departure to Joburg.
On Wednesday Dirk Badenhorst, the director of Mzansi Productions, announced that the company would not perform The Magic of the Dance, which was due to open at the Teatro, Montecasino, Joburg, on Thursday.
Alonso and her 55 dancers were scheduled to arrive on Sunday. After Joburg the production would have travelled to Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein. This “South African- government funded tour” was being produced by Mzansi Productions.
The NBC took the decision on Tuesday night “after the SA government’s ongoing delays in the payment of the funding required to secure and arrange the tour and in providing assistance with the required logistical details. Plans for this year’s tour to SA, in which the SA government requested to play a central role in line with SA’s long-standing close historical ties with Cuba during the years of SA’s struggle for democracy, started between the NBC and SA in 2010,” the media statement said.
“The cancellation of the NBC’s tour to SA,” said Badenhorst, “is a sad blow for our country as it would have marked the culmination of four years of hard work between Cuba and myself and given South Africans the chance to experience the brilliance of one of the world’s major ballet companies.”
He added that “the company has indicated its willingness to reschedule a South African tour at a future date”.
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