Viengsay
Valdes
Jury member of Benois de la Danse
Prima Ballerina and General Director of Ballet Nacional de Cuba.
She was born in Havana and began her studies at the Elementary School of Ballet “Alejo Carpentier”. In 1993 she won the Gold medal in Vignale Danza, Italy and the Grand Prix of Ballet in the Youth Contest of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). She graduated with gold in 1994 and joined the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2001.
She has performed in numerous countries with the BNC and has participated in Star Galas and Festivals in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa. She is an outstanding representative of the Cuban Ballet School, and heir of the legacy of Alicia Alonso and Fernando Alonso.
In the 2010–2011 season Dance Europe magazine placed her in the sixth in a top-100 world’s best dancers rating.
In 2019, she got a Bachelor's Degree in Ballet at the University of the Arts in Cuba.
In 2020 she won the Annual Prize of Gran Teatro de La Habana, Diploma of Recognition from the University of Havana and appointed General Director of Ballet Nacional de Cuba. In 2020 she was awarded the Positano Prize of the Dance Leonide Massine, as the Best dancer on the international scene.
Her broad repertoire includes main roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty as well as Celeste and Oscurio by Annabelle López Ochoa; The Magic Flute and Lucía Jere, by Alicia Alonso; Le Papillon and Double bounce by Peter Quanz. She also starred in well as the premiere of Concerto DSCH, by Alexei Ratmansky that took place in Cuba.