Viengsay Valdés is a world-renowned Cuban ballerina and actress.

Born in Havana, Viengsay Valdés moved at three months to Laos, where her father was the Cuban Ambassador. At age three, her family moved to the Seychelles. At six, she moved back to Havana, Cuba, where her grandmother continued her education.

Viengsay began artistic gymnastics at age six. She put her first ballet shoes on at the age of nine, which is when she began her ballet studies at the Alejo Carpentier Provincial Ballet School in Havana. At age 15, she continued her studies at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA). Ramona de Sáa and Mirtha Hermida were her main ballet professors, the latter being her main inspiration. While she was still a student she won numerous prizes and distinctions.

An acute asthma sufferer, Valdes was warned by teachers and doctors not to pursue professional ballet, because of its physical challenges. Valdes was determined to transcend her ailment and continued to fight for her chosen career. Her work was made even harder by the economic crisis into which Cuba descended after the loss of Soviet aid in 1989. Acute food shortages made her intense physical training extremely tough.
In July 1994, Ms. Valdes graduated from the National School of Art (ENA) with a degree in Dance and Choreography, and gold honors.

Professional ballet career
Legendary director Alicia Alonso spotted Valdés talent, and invited her to join the Ballet Nacional de Cuba when she was 17. A year later, she was promoted to the position of principal dancer. Ms. Valdés developed a reputation for her interpretations of the female lead roles in the ballets Carmen, Giselle, Swan Lake, Blood Wedding, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppélia, La Fille Mal Gardée, and The Nutcracker. She also danced in notable pas de deux from The Corsair, Diana and Acteon, Silvia and Black Swan. She has performed leading roles in the major theaters of Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America; she has toured in countries worldwide.
Every year since 1994, Ms. Valdés has been a participant in the prestigious International Ballet Festival in Havana. She was named the most outstanding dancer in the XVIII International Festival of Ballet of Havana (October 20–28, 2002). This was thanks to her starring performances in Giselle, and her performance as Kitri in Don Quixote. Her partner in Don Quixote was premier dancer Carlos Acosta.
In July 2001, Alonso promoted Ms Valdés to the category of first dancer (primera bailarina), becoming one of the four top female dancers in the company. She toured to important theatres in Spain and the United States. Valdés performed at the World Stars Ballet Gala in Budapest, September 14, 2002. In October 2002, Valdés was invited to guest star as Kitri for a performance of Don Quixote with La Scala in Milán, but she could not participate because she had a prior commitment to tour in the USA, with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. In January 2004, she participated in the 1st Festival of Ballet of Beijing with Swan Lake. In 2003, Alicia Alonso made Valdés the company's prima ballerina, the highest position for a dancer in Cuba. From then on, she took the leading roles in all the company's major galas. In February 2003, Ms Valdés was a guest for the Closing Gala of the Dessau Ballet-Festival in Germany. She was invited to dance in the Real Place of San Lorenzo of The Escorial for second time in 2003 and 2005 during her tour of Spain. In September 2003, Ms Valdes participated as a guest in the World Gala, "Les Étoiles du XXIe Siècle," which took place on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. Valdés first partner for the Gala was the Italian ballet star Giuseppe Picone and also her next partner was the Russian star Alexei Tyukov.
In September 2004, she was invited for a second time to participate in the World Stars of Ballet Gala in Budapest. The dancers, managers, personalities and other distinguished personages, voted to choose Ms Valdés as their favorite dancer of this World Gala, and she was subsequently awarded the Prize for Popularity. In the summer of 2005, Valdes danced throughout Spain. She was invited on July 23, 2005 to appear in Cannes at the Etoiles du Ballet 2000 Festival, an association of the world's most important dance critics. In August 2005 she starred in a four-day run of Giselle at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London and she received outstanding reviews from several dance critics. In the summer of 2006, Valdes participated in the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, and also starred as Kitri at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, receiving outstanding reviews from several critics.
In 2007, she participated in the Prague Ballet Gala and in the International Danze Gala in Lisbon. She performed at a gala with the Danish Royal Ballet (the first time since Alicia Alonso in 1969 that a Cuban ballerina had performed in Denmark); partnered with Carlos Acosta at the Manchester International Festival, and played the lead roles in both Giselle and Don Quichotte at the Grand Palais in Paris. In October 2007, she participated in the Gala "The Giants of the Dance", which was directed by the Cuban choreographer Alberto Méndez at the National Auditorium of Mexico City. She was then invited to dance on the show "Carlos Acosta and his Friends" at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. Her partner was international ballet star, Carlos Acosta.
In February 2008, in his first newspaper article after announcing his formal retirement as President of Cuba, Fidel Castro wrote: "A few days ago, someone gave me a filmed version of 'Swan Lake', a subject about which I am far from being an expert, but which in the current circumstances constitutes a very agreeable way of forgetting almost all the time. I observed for almost two hours the incredible performance of the greatest interpreter of this ballet in the world: Viengsay Valdes, daughter of a Cuban diplomatic couple, who gave her the name in honor of a region of Laos where they were representing Cuba. One European critic described it as an unrepeatable performance. I think the same. I never conceived of such amazing elegance and flexibility, with perfect precision."

In April 2008, Valdes performed in front of the Giza Pyramids, Egypt, in the first ever professional ballet performance on the open-air stage there. As Kitri in Don Quichotte, she danced beneath the gaze of the Sphinx. In July of the same year, she participated in the International Gala celebrated in Oporto, Portugal next to leading dancers from the Royal Ballet of Flanders and the National Ballet of Portugal. She also performed in the International Gala at the Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas, Venezuela. Subsequently in August, she participated in the International Ballet Gala in Japan, two time in the Takamatsu and Tokyo cities, after she participated in the International Gala Dance' Stars which was celebrated in the Argentinean cities like Rosario, Tucuman and Santiago del Estero. At the end of 2008, she took part in the International Ballet Competition Gala in Istanbul, Turkey. Also she performed as Kitri in the Centro de Danza de Oporto, Portugal, in the Theater Sá de Miranda and in the Europark, a large-scale auditorium.
In January 2009, she was invited again to participate in the Ballet Gala of Prague, and performed in the State Opera House. In March, she was invited as guest artist by the Mariinsky Academy to participate in the Ninth International Festival of Ballet in St. Petersburg, performing as Kitri in Don Quixote, with choreography by Alexander Gorsky, based on the original by Marius Petipa. Her partner was the Russian ballet star Leonid Sarafanov. She was subsequently invited to participate in the Ninth International Ballet Gala in Dortmund, Germany. She was also invited as a guest artist by the Ankara Ballet to join that company to dance the lead role of Giselle at the Ankara Opera Theater. In April 2009, the Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba (UNEAC) awarded her the Dance Prize for outstanding female performance during the 2007-2008 season. In June 2009, Valdés was invited to participate in The World Ballet Star Festival at the Seoul Arts Center, South Korea. In July, she performed in the special Homage Gala dedicated to Alicia Alonso, sharing the stage with The Royal Ballet of London in the Gran Teatro de La Habana. On this occasion, she danced the famous 'Black Swan' pas de deux with the ballet star Thiago Soares, premier dancer from the Royal Ballet. In September 2009, she performed the lead in Swan Lake in the Ballet Nacional de Cuba's visit to Madrid. She then traveled to Washington DC, to work as a guest artist in the 2009.2010 season opening performance for the Washington Ballet, Don Quixote in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Dancing the lead role of Kitri, this was a new staging of the classic ballet by internationally recognized choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes.