The Cuban Cupid Mystery
Since I started seeing videos of this variation everywhere on the YAGP circut, I became curious about its history.
The variation is said to be from Don Quixote, the text on the screen attributes the choreography to Gorsky and the description along with most other competition videos attributes the choreography to Petipa.
Gorsky's production from 1902 is the basis for all modern Don Quixote productions. The Mariinsky production is thought to resemble the original the most, but all productions have been subjected to a century's worth of revisions. The notations are said to be lost, so there's likely no possibility of Ratmansky or someone doing a reconstruction.
The music to 'Cuban Cupid' is not from Don Quixote, that score has been archived very clearly. It's from Paquita, the coda from the pas de trois. Unlike many of the other variations in Paquita, the pas de trois is one of the few parts of the ballet that was actually written for Paquita and not pulled from a less popular Petipa ballet.
Going back as close to the source as possible, the Bolshoi and Mariinsky dance the traditional version of Cupid to music from Don Quixote. We know this, this is not news. Cuban Cupid is not in the Nureyev edition danced by La Scala or Paris Opera, which are again, based on the Gorsky original.
I obviously then went to consult videos of the Cubans, considering it's called "Cuban Cupid, it should obviously be in their production right? WRONG!
In this 2019 production Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Kitri/Dulcinea doesn't even dance a variation in the dream scene. Instead, the dancer playing Cupid dances the Dulcinea variation. No Paquita music to be found and the typical Cupid variation is absent as well. This 2016 production and 2007 productions have the same staging. Here is a current dancer who posted just an excerpt of her 'Cupid Variation', it's Dulcinea again. So for everyone saying "oh the Cuban's do it".... it doesn't look like they've done it in basically the past 20 years.
So where did it come from? If the Russians, with the oldest productions, aren't doing it, and the Cubans aren't doing it, which choreographer is actually responsible for the creation of this? Has it ever been performed on stage in a professional production, outside the context of a stand-alone variation?
I then wondered if it was just an American comp school invention...but I found videos online that far predate the YAGP craze of the last few years. Just by searching "Cupido Cubano" I found several older videos (9-12 years old) of the variation, mostly done by students from Mexico, Brazil or Portugal.
However, I did find this video which is interesting because it was filmed at the Cuban National Ballet School. So they at least did teach it to their students at one point...yet the company doesn't perform it????
This is the oldest video I've found, from 2008. Otherwise, I keep scrolling around and eventually, all I'm seeing are videos of the Cupid Shuffle...which is not helpful either.
If anyone has more information, please share, the mystery and origin of this, as well as the miscrediting is a fascinating mystery.
