When Alicia Alonso was establishing the National Cuban Ballet in the 1950s she was faced with interrogation from the communist regime as to how a European art form could represent and serve the Cuban people.
Historian Lester Tome has written extensively about Alonso. Tome says she argued ballet as an art form must be thought of in the same way as music, painting or sculpture. Cubans should dance Cuban dances but must also have the freedom to engage with international cultural forms and trends. She argued they would make ballet their own and redefine what ballet was on the world stage. And they did.
