Viengsay Valdés

In January 2019, Valdés was advanced by the Cuban ministry of culture and Alicia Alonso to the role of Deputy Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Cuba. In October 2019, after Alonso died at age 99, the Cuban ministry of culture promoted her to the Artistic Director. She is now in charge of all the artistic and technical aspects of National Ballet of Cuba, including the casting, organizing ballet tours, and programming. National Ballet of Cuba's 2020 home ballet performances will be Alonso-focused in commemorations of Alonso's centennial and starting in 2021, Valdés will have full control.

As of May 2019, Valdés intendeds to continue dancing with the troupe.

In July 2012, she performed in the special Homage Gala dedicated to Alicia Alonso, sharing the stage with The Royal Ballet of London in the Gran Teatro de La Habana. On this occasion, she danced the famous 'Black Swan' pas de deux with the ballet star Thiago Soares, premier dancer from the Royal Ballet.

She traveled to Washington DC, to work as a guest artist in the 2009–2010 season opening performance for the Washington Ballet Washington Ballet, Don Quixote in the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater. Dancing the lead role of Kitri, this was a new staging of the classic ballet by internationally recognized choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes.

In April 2009, the Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba (UNEAC) awarded her the Dance Prize for outstanding female performance during the 2007–2008 season.

In June 2007, Valdes branched out into contemporary dance choreography, working with the British director Sebastian Doggart. They created a performance called Balance of Ice, which combined three elements: a piece of music by Canadian composer Andrew Staniland that was inspired by the sounds of ice sheets calving; a dance performance by Valdes that fragmented her usual balletic virtuosity; and moving images of the polar ice caps and the threats facing them.

In September 2006, Valdés and the National Ballet of Cuba performed Don Quixote in London.

In 2003, Alicia Alonso made Valdés the company's Prima Ballerina Assoluta, the highest position for a dancer in Cuba. From then on, she took the leading roles in all the company's major galas and she has performed and toured internationally.

Valdés had a series of fast promotions with the National Ballet of Cuba, in 1995 to Principal Dancer, and in 2001 to Premier Dancer. In the mid-1990s many ballet dancers while on tour were defecting to other countries, this provided more advancement in dance opportunities within the National Ballet of Cuba for dancers, like Valdés that stayed in their home country.

Legendary ballet director and educator, Alicia Alonso spotted Valdés' talent, and invited her to join the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1994, when she was 17 years old.

Every year since 1994, Valdés has been a participant in the prestigious International Ballet Festival of Havana. She was named the most outstanding dancer in the XVIII International Festival of Ballet of Havana (October 20–28, 2002).

Viengsay Valdés (1977) is a Cuban ballerina. Since 2003, Valdés is the Prima Ballerina Assoluta and since 2019 she is the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Cuba (in Spanish: Ballet Nacional de Cuba).

Viengsay Valdés Herrera was born in Havana, Cuba in 1977. Valdés and her family moved when she was three months old to Laos, where her father served as the Cuban Ambassador. Her name Viengsay means “victory” in Laotian. At age three, her family moved to the Seychelles. At age six, she moved back to Havana, Cuba, where she continued her education. She has suffered from severe asthma, since her early childhood.