• Submitted by: manso
• Dance
• 08 / 16 / 2010

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NORTH ROYALTON -- After years of ballet training in her homeland with the National Ballet of Cuba, ballerina Ana Lobe danced to cheers around the world.

She represented Cuba in international ballet competition, became a principal dancer with the English National Ballet which had Princess Diana as a sponsor, and then defected to the United States and came to Cleveland as a principal dancer with Cleveland San Jose Ballet. Then, in 2000, the ballet company closed here.

"It was hard, but it's life," Lobe said. "It gives me other opportunities."

She became a guest artist with ballet companies around the world and taught ballet at the University of Akron.

Today, still with the ultra-trim and fit frame of a ballerina, Ana Lobe is artistic director and principal instructor at Great Lakes Youth Ballet in North Royalton.

"Dance is my duty," she said. "Though the company left Cleveland I cannot let dance die here. It is my passion."

Students at the ballet school, ranging from grade school age to seniors in high school, are in classes up to 11 hours a week.

 Eleven rigorous hours.

Seventeen-year-old Mallory King hopes to be a Broadway dancer.  She is here for the demanding ballet training.

"I think it's really important to have a strong background in ballet before you do any kind of dance," she said.

Sarah Gabay is fourteen and already knows she will be a ballerina, nothing else.

"No, no no," she said when it was suggested she might change her mind.  She knows what she'll be at age 14?  "Yes, I hope so."

Sarah is not related to Karen Gabay, another longtime principal dancer with Cleveland San Jose Ballet.

Dance classes at the school emulate the training Ana Lobe had in Cuba and other places in the world where she danced. Ballet is the most disciplined and demanding of dance training.

Even students who do not go on to dance professionally will have their lives changed by the rigors of ballet classes.

"They become very organized, very disciplined," Lobe said.  "With the focus they learn here, studies will not be a problem for them. They know how to put in the extra hours and the hard work to achieve the results they expect of themselves."

Though her career as a member of one of the leading ballet companies in the United States ended prematurely, Ana Lobe is very much at home in Cleveland and appreciative of the opportunity to pass along her passion for dance here.

"I just love this country," she said.  "It has given me a lot.Coming here from Cuba I cannot  ask for anything greater than that." © 2010 WKYC-TV

Source: www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=144051&catid=3