by Toba Singer | Dec 2, 2018 | Training, Trending
If you’ve had an opportunity to see the Cuban National Ballet Company perform, or taken class with a Cuban-trained teacher, or observed a Cuban-trained dancer in classical, contemporary or character roles, you’ve probably wondered what it might be like to...
by Toba Singer | Nov 11, 2018 | News, Training
The largest performance studio at the Fernando Alonso National School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba, is packed with lower school students, seated helter-skelter around the edges of its new sprung floor. They move over to make room for photographers and visitors in town...
by Natalia Boesch | Jul 10, 2018 | Career, Profiles, Reverence
How was training at the Cuban National Ballet School different from what you see in the U.S.? It was free education, so it was very hard to get in, and there was a cut every year. We had academics alongside art, and we had to take a lot of different things: modern,...
by Marina Harss | Nov 9, 2017 | Profiles, Viral Videos
One of the highlights of New York City’s Fall for Dance Festival this year was an appearance by the Ballets Trockadéro de Monte Carlo, a company of men who dance on pointe with as much panache and style as any prima ballerina. Their performance of Paquita...
by Catherine Conley As Told To Suzannah Friscia | Oct 15, 2017 | Training
When I was 4 or 5, I told my mom, “I want to go to a real dance school with barres and a mirror.” My preschool recommended Chicago’s Ruth Page Center for the Arts. That’s where I trained until I left for Cuba a year ago. I went to regular...
by Suzannah Friscia | Jun 30, 2016 | Company Life
Ever since diplomatic relations were reestablished between Cuba and the U.S. back in 2014, people have been wondering what increased cultural exchange might mean for Cuban ballet. This week, it was announced that Catherine Conley, a dancer from Chicago’s Ruth...
by Claudia Bauer | Mar 31, 2016 | Career
This story originally appeared in the April/May 2016 issue of Pointe. Photography by Quinn Wharton “My dream was to dance in Cuba,” says Lorena Feijóo. “I didn’t want to leave my country.” It’s a lament the San Francisco...