Gilda Hortensia Zaldívar Freyre: her greatest virtue, in addition to dedicating her entire life to ballet, was taking the first steps to establish in Camagüey, the teaching of so important artistic manifestation for local and Cuban culture.

First steps

The history of Camagüey ballet is full of great personalities who have dedicated their entire lives to the development of this artistic manifestation. About the leading figure that concerns us today, her greatest virtue, in addition to dedicating her life to ballet, was taking the first steps to establish in the city the teaching of this very important manifestation for Camagüey culture.

Gilda Hortensia Zaldívar Freyre was born on July 23rd, 1917, in a large house in La Vigía neighborhood, specifically located on Mártires Avenue, number 372. She was the youngest of five children, three girls and two boys.

Her family had good economic solvency thanks to the amount of land that belonged to Don Oscar Nicolás Zaldívar, the householder. On the other hand, the family culture in which little Gilda grew up was remarkable, since they had one of the most complete libraries in the city and her mother, Oliva Freyre y Cisneros, stood out as a wonderful pianist and was always interested in developing in Gilda and her brothers interest in art in general.

Some of the family’s friends, such as Dr. Luis Martínez and the neighbor Flora Basulto de Montoya, say that Gilda from a very young age was notable for her intelligence and used to be seen running around the majestic patio of the house as if she were dancing, even trying to get on tiptoe.

Her sister Olivia and Julio Antonio Mella…

When Gilda was very young, her entire family moved to Havana due to her father’s work. It is then that Olivia, one of her sisters, begins to study at the University of Havana Law and falls in love with Julio Antonio Mella. She marries him and joins on the revolutionary struggle movement.

For this issue the history of this family also transcends because Olivia did not limit herself in any way to support her husband. Most of the relatives did not agree with this union; they argued that Mella, because of his revolutionary activities, would not be good for Olivia’s life.

In 1925 the family returned to Camagüey, except for Olivia who accompanied her husband to Mexico. As time goes by, Olivia returns with her nine-month-old baby and she stays with her family until after the death of her husband in that country. After the fall of the Machado government, Olivia, for all her revolutionary work, was sent as a Cuban attaché to the German Embassy and Gilda traveled with her.

In 1934 they both moved to Oslo, Norway, where Olivia had tasks inherent to her diplomatic work and Gilda began her first ballet studies.

A disruptive debut

Her first classes were taught by Love Krohn, a disciple of the famous Russian dancer of the early twentieth century Anna Pávlova. For some years she travels to various cities such as Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, which fosters her already wide culture and allows her to develop great language skills.

One of the most important events of this time in Gilda’s life was when she danced dressed in the Cuban robe a “stylized rumba” for the kings of the Norwegian country, showing off Cuban rhythms.

Gilda returned to Camagüey in 1935 and she made her debut at the Main Theater on December 5th of this year, accompanied by the “Yemayá” orchestra, led by Jorge González Allué.

It is then that in 1936, Gilda, inspired by her creative spirit and her great vocation for dance, founded the first Camagüey Ballet Academy and the only one of its kind in the interior of the country.

The place where this school is located was her own home. She was accompanied by the pianist Felo Bergaza, pianist of the aforementioned “Yemayá” orchestra.

The Unique Academy

The academy begins to work with girls from the highest social classes. At that time the scope of artistic education was difficult to reach the poor sectors of society, although some members such as Vicentina de la Torre managed to access it despite having low economic resources. The newspaper “El Camagüeyano” would praise the debut of Gilda Zaldívar and her group of students who made the presentation for the first time in a magnificent recital of “classic” dances at the Main Theater on December 7th, 1937, for an entrance fee of 50 pennies a bezel.

Every year at the end of July, as the end of the academy course, she presented performances at the Main Theater, gradually increasing her student body. Thus arose the need to move the ballet school to a larger location.

It was first located on Independencia Street and then on San Esteban between República and López Recio.

As a distinctive fact, in this academy, in addition to the classical ballet classes, classes of ballroom dancing, tap-dance, Swedish gymnastics with exercises for women and children, and a gymnastics section for gentlemen were taught under the direction of the Cienfuegos dancer René Rodríguez Mondéjar.

The school, the company, and Gilda as her leader did not manage to separate themselves from political and social work. In 1937 she was Deputy Secretary of Minutes of the Camagüey delegation of the Spanish Children’s Association. She organized all kinds of propaganda work in order to obtain moral and material support for the Spanish children whose lives and dreams were destroyed by the terrible war unleashed by the internal enemies of the Popular Front and the Italian-German invasion.

She donated money so that the students could carry out patriotic and protest acts against the new ruling tyranny of the country and whose leading figure was Fulgencio Batista.

Fainting

Her health begins to deteriorate in the 1940s, so she tries to stop dancing and go to Havana to study Agricultural Engineering. It only took two years for her to recant and decide to return to her city and her great passion. From this moment, Gilda’s life began to fade, even in the prime of her youth and dancing.

One of the most abrupt events of this time in her life occurred when she, dressed in yellow lamé, performed with passionate force Stravinsky’s The Firebird at the Main Theater. In the middle of the performance she had a sudden faint and she collapsed on stage.

At the end of April 1951 her health was slowly deteriorating and she asked her relatives to be shrouded with her costume from The Death of the Swan, so that her ballet could accompany her to the afterlife. She died of cancer on May 2nd, 1951. As a tribute to her memory, there is only one plaque placed in the house where she lived and established her school.

The specialized critics of the time classified Gilda’s style as “acrobatic ballet”, since her majestic technique made her stand out among her peers. Her broad culture, which went beyond her talent for ballet, places her as a determining figure for Camagüey history and culture.

Today, seventy years after her physical disappearance, it is worth remembering and praising the initiator of the ballet in Camagüey, the one who managed to lay string foundations for its future.

Bibliography

• Cepero Estrada, L. (2014). Memorias del Ballet de Camagüey. Editorial Ácana. Camagüey. Cuba.
• Gomez Portelles, E. (2021). Gilda Zaldívar: una vida dedicada al ballet. Recuperado el 28/4/2020 de https://www.elcamaguey.org
• Pagés Abeleira, E. (2019). Apuntes biográficos sobre el ballet en Camagüey. (Trabajo de Diploma). Departamento de Arte Danzario. ISA. Camagüey.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García