HAVANA, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's National Ballet (BNC), directed by the legendary dancer and choreographer Alicia Alonso, will perform in three Chinese cities in late April and early May, Cuban official media reported Thursday.

From April 28 to May 4, the BNC is scheduled to perform in Chinese capital Beijing, commercial hub Shanghai and southern city of Guangzhou, presenting its interpretation of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet "Swan Lake," with choreography by Alonso based on the original by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, the Cuban National Information Agency said.

Featured dancers include Anette Delgado, Viengsay Valdes, Sadaise Arencibia, Danni Hernandez, Osiel Gounod, Yanier Gomez, Arian Molina and Victor Estevez, with soloists and the ballet corps.

As a top attraction at the Beijing Arts Festival, the Cuban ballet company will open the cultural festival with the first of four functions of "Swan Lake," before travelling to Shanghai and finishing its tour in Guangzhou.

Alonso said she was pleased to be performing at the festival because "the Chinese public is a great lover of arts, enthusiastic and with great knowledge of the world of dance."

She said the BNC presentations in China were "an artistic gift to the youth and a people I admire."

Alonso and the BNC previously performed in China in 1960, 1964, 1965, 2002 and 2004, when they presented the best of the company's repertoire with performances of "Giselle," "Coppelia," "Don Quixote" and "La fille mal gardee," among others.