Alberto Alonso

Alberto Julio Rayneri Alonso was a Cuban dancer and choreographer, the brother of Fernando Alonso and brotherinlaw of Alicia Alonso . Alonso was influential in the development of what is known as the Cuban style of ballet, a combination of Russian and Western techniques with a Latin style.

Alonso was born in Havana, and attended Springhill College in Mobile, Alabama. At his return to Cuba he began ballet training in 1932 at the Sociedad ProArte Musical arts school in Havana with Nikolai Yavorsky. He studied in Paris with several teachers including Preobrazhenska and Idzikowski and danced with the Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil from 1936 to 1940, performing principal roles in several ballets created by Michel Fokine. He subsequently danced with the Ballet Theatre from 1943 to 1945, in works created by Fokine, George Balanchine and Leonid Massine. Back in Cuba in 1948, he cofounded with Alicia and Fernando Alonso the Ballet Alicia Alonso, which would eventually become the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, being its artistic director and choreographer.

Source: Wikipedia