Alina Abreu celebrates 40 years of career with “La Ciguapa”, her favorite production of the moment

Santo Domingo.- Dominican choreographer and producer Alina Abreu assured this Monday that “La Ciguapa” is the production she enjoys the most at this stage of her artistic career, highlighting the importance of fully living in the present during the creative process.

Abreu explained that his answer might have been different at another point in his career, as when he was working on “Giselle”, he probably would have chosen that work as his favorite.

“It seems to me that one of the most beautiful things we creators have is living the moment we are creating. Because that is our dream, and that is our moment to give birth to something we have been gestating for a long time,” asserted the Dominican producer Alina Abreu.

In that sense, he pointed out that, although he is still preparing “La Ciguapa”, he feels that he is getting closer and closer to materializing that dream, the presentation of which is scheduled for November 13th.

Likewise, he reflected on the ephemeral nature of art and ballet, considering that each performance is unique and unrepeatable, because no day is the same as another. As he explained, once the music begins and ends, the artistic experience has already occurred, even if new performances may take place later.

“The present moment for us, the creators of art, is the best moment, because when we start looking at what we have done in the past, we will always find some error or something that we could have done better,” expressed Abreu.

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Abreu celebrates 40 years of artistic career with “La Ciguapa”

The play will take place on November 13, 14, and 15, 2026, at the Carlos Piantini Hall of the Eduardo Brito National Theater, with a production that will bring to life one of the most fascinating legends of Dominican identity.

More than an anniversary celebration, La Ciguapa represents the creative maturity of an artist who has dedicated her life to dance, moving across stages as a performer, creating works as a choreographer, promoting productions, and training generations of dancers.

Conceived as a one-act ballet in seven scenes, the work transports the viewer to the Dominican Central Mountain Range in the 1950s, where the world of human beings meets the mysterious universe of the ciguapas, legendary creatures with long hair and backward-facing feet, deeply linked to nature.

About the history of La Ciguapa

In this scenario, a love story emerges that defies the laws of two worlds, intertwining passion, sacrifice, mystery, and the ancestral power of the mountain.

At the center of this story of love and mystery are Laura Isabel Fernández, who will bring La Ciguapa to life, and Alexander Duval, in the role of the Pilonero. Both dancers will be in charge of portraying the protagonists of an encounter that defies the laws of their respective worlds, bringing to life, through dance, a story marked by love, sacrifice, and destiny.

A legend that was born in childhood

The inspiration for this creation dates back to Alina Abreu’s childhood, when, at the age of seven, her mother made her a ciguapa costume for a carnival celebration in her native La Vega.

That encounter with the legend told by her father awakened a fascination that would accompany her throughout her life and that, decades later, would find its expression on stage.

“When I decided to bring this legend to ballet, a much more rigorous stage began: returning to the sources, researching their different versions, and deciding which elements to keep and which to transform to build my own dramaturgy. That is why I say that La Ciguapa is not the result of a few months of research. In a way, it is a work that I have been researching and dreaming about since I was very little,” expresses Abreu.

The production also represents an intimate tribute to her father, who sowed in her the curiosity for the Dominican legend, and a reaffirmation of her commitment to the preservation of cultural identity through dance.

The challenge of turning a legend into ballet.

One of the greatest challenges of this creation has been translating the most distinctive trait of the ciguapas into the language of classical ballet: their inverted feet.

Far from attempting to literally reproduce this feature, Abreu has developed a choreographic proposal that relies on illusion, displacements, changes of direction, and pointe work to convey the enigmatic nature of these beings.

“We look for positions, movements, and specific ways of walking that produce, at times, the sensation that we don’t know exactly where the body is heading. The pointe work was also fundamental because it allows us to take visual weight away from the character. The Ciguapa does not walk like an ordinary woman; she glides, appears and disappears, almost as if she never quite touches the ground,” explains the choreographer.

The creator also incorporates a poetic license that allows the Ciguapa to take on human appearance under the moonlight, making a romantic encounter with a mortal possible and opening up new expressive possibilities within the aesthetics of classical ballet.

A production that integrates dance, music, and theatricality

With original music by composer Junior Basurto Lomba and theatrical direction by Waddys Jáquez, La Ciguapa brings together a team of performing arts professionals.

The proposal integrates choreography, music, scenography, projections, lighting, and costumes to build a visual universe that transitions between the reality of the Dominican people and the mystery of the mountains.

“The choreography, the music, the set design, the projections, the lighting, and the costumes do not function as independent elements. They are all telling the same story. It is essential that it be appreciated as a continuous journey, that the spectator enters the town with us and, almost without realizing it, ends up completely inside the legend,” points out Abreu.

The staging incorporates symbolic elements such as the bellflower, the Spirit of the Mountain, and the changing landscapes of the Central Mountain Range, which come to life through movement, light, and music.

Forty years of a life dedicated to art

The trajectory of Alina Abreu has been marked by a constant pursuit of excellence, artistic sensitivity, and commitment to the development of Dominican dance.

Her international training, her participation in major ballet companies, her experience in artistic direction, and her work as a choreographer, producer, and educator have contributed to consolidating a career that has left its mark on different generations.

As founder of the Alina Abreu Dance Conservatory, created in 1986, she has also dedicated a large part of her life to training dancers, transmitting not only technical knowledge, but also values such as discipline, perseverance, ethics, and respect for the art.

However, for Abreu, these four decades do not represent an arrival point, but rather the momentum to continue exploring new creative paths.

“Forty years may sound like a finish line, but I don’t feel them that way. I feel them as a platform from which to look at everything I still want to do. La Ciguapa represents much of what I dream of for this new stage: to create, to continue producing works, to develop new repertoires, and to continue training dancers who not only have excellent technique, but also sensitivity, discipline, ethics, and an awareness of who they are.”

With La Ciguapa, Alina Abreu not only celebrates four decades of artistic trajectory; she opens a new chapter in her life as a creator, reaffirming her commitment to bringing stories that express cultural richness to the stage.

That legend that a father gifted to his daughter’s imagination comes to life, decades later, on stage.

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