A student of
Esmée Bulnes, she trained at the
Teatro Colón Dance School and became a member of the theater's permanent
ballet. At the age of 18 she was a soloist and, from 1949, the first dancer of the theatre's ballet, starring in the premieres of
Romeo and Juliet,
Margarita Wallmann's The Birds, and
Léonide Massine's Fantastic Symphony. In 1954, The Lady and the Unicorn by
Heinz Rosen premiered, based on an idea by
Jean Cocteau, and in 1958,
Alicia Alonso was chosen to star in
Giselle as the first Argentine dancer to perform it in its original choreographic version. Her international career took her to
Brazil and
Paris, where she perfected her skills with
Victor Gsovsky,
Nicolas Zverev and
Boris Kniaseff whilst in
Munich and
Berlin, and then as a soloist with the
Ballet del Marqués de Cuevas and
London's Festival Ballet in 1960, 1961, 1963 and 1966, where she danced
Giselle,
The Snow Maiden,
The Spectre of the Rose and others. In that British company she starred in the premiere of the complete version of
Swan Lake choreographed by Jack Carter and
The Dying Swan. She alternates her international activity with the
Teatro Colón where in 1971
Rudolf Nureyev chose her for his version of
The Nutcracker which premiered with him in
Buenos Aires and where she also danced "
Coppelia", "
The Sleeping Beauty", "
Orfeo" as well as the world premieres of "
Romeo and Juliet" (with
José Neglia ) and "
Cinderella" by
George Skibine and "
La Sylphide" by
Pierre Lacotte. == Legacy ==