VHeadline.com commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: Journalist Anne-Marie Garcia in the April 30, 2006, edition of Granma International did a very nice and very perceptive piece on the prima ballerina Viengsay Valdes, the 29-year old dancer of the Cuban National Ballet nurtured by the legendary director Alicia Alonso.

"I enjoy confronting the dual personality of Odette-Odile, there is a contrast between the white swan and the black swan that the dancer can bring out on the same night," Valdes told journalist Garcia.

What a rare thing, an artist who looks at her work dialectically or approaches art as an unity of opposites or as an expression of contradiction which must be "brought out" and, what's more, she somehow enjoys bringing out the contrast ... on the same night.

Apprehensive that she may have let the proverbial cat out of the bag, Valdes rushes to say "I'm not wicked," which journalist Gracia reports that Valdes utters with a mischievous grin. I'm so disappointed to hear that Valdes is not "wicked." After all, nothing is more exhilarating than wickedness in art, especially in dance.

Valdes dances quite a bit in France, studies French and English, and shockingly confesses, during the interview, that she is a fan of hip hop, listening to Alicia keys, Usher, Bronce, Whitney Houston, and Tony Braxton. "Black women voices or instrumentals above all," Valdes adds, wickedly confusing everybody.

What in the world is Valdes listening to them for? This is a catastrophe.

"Dancing" to hip hop is about shaking yo money-making and jumping around like a monkey. I like Keys and et. al., too. BUT! Music and dance are different expressions of the same thing. A separation of the two implies a decline of both. Betty Carter, Nancy Wilson, Dr. Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, and the like are the music, but jazz music not hip hop. If one of the world's most gifted dancers goes for hip hoppers, then what will happen to the world? One of the extraordinary things about Latin music, including Latin jazz, is that some people still know how to dance with it, to it, and in it. (Of course, others don't know.) The concert stage was the worse thing that ever happened to music ... and the continuing unity between Latin music and dance promises a future for both.

But I can empathize with Valdes' wish for some distance between her and, say, jazz, the dance, not the music. With its proven reserves of formalistic movements, jazz ... the dance ... has lost the spontaneity and improvisational quality which the music, its namesake, still richly possesses. Valdes' preference for Keys and the like also suggests that jazz singers in Cuba have not won the acclaim that their counterparts, the Brazilians and Puerto Ricans, have. Of course, it should be one of those generational things. Music is perhaps more generational than dance.

Let's get back to the interview.

"It is not that I feel like a famous diva, I simply like what I do, and if this makes me famous, well, even better," Valdes told Garcia, displaying a refreshing "indifference" to fame. Ambition is an element necessary to rise in the arts, but what we see here is the return of the idea of her "enjoyment" of bringing out things hidden in the work -- she likes what she does. Well, old Aristotle says pleasure perfects what we do.

"I have a normal life. I am a young woman who likes to do what all others do, have fun, go to the beach, listen to music. I enjoy the moment when the curtain opens, I go out on stage and the public applauds. I give my all in rehearsals so that in the performance I can allow myself to be led by the character," Valdes told the journalist.

A normal life is important, for so many artists go ... with relish ... crazy.

So many artists complain that they are terrified when the curtain opens, but Valdes "enjoys" the opening of the curtain. Perhaps she has more guts than many of her colleagues. But most intriguing is the connection, she sees, between giving all in rehearsals and being led by the character during the performance. Apparently, rehearsals are means to something else.

"I am a classical ballerina, we are a classical ballet company, but I am very open to other dances because there are other types of movements with new sensations that contribute a lot to a ballet dancer; that enrich one artistically, technically, and I think that it is very important for a classical dancer to be able to do both," Valdes said, sharing a point of view that is not universally shared. But perhaps it should be.

Some straight-ahead types in jazz see things differently. But in spite of Valdes "openness," she seems to have a priority or ranking with the classical thing sitting in unchallenged and solitary splendor on top of everything else. Artistically and technically, it may be good to have an identity.

Journalist Garcia writes: "The artist owes her name ' Viengsay' to the fact that her parents traveled to Laos when she was three months old; her father was ambassador there. 'It's rare, very original and I like it because it means ' Victory' in Laotian, but it causes me problems, people don't how to spell it or pronounce it; I remember a professor who always called me ' bonsai,' " Valdes said.

Those are the hazards of life and we wish her victory in her career.