• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 11 / 06 / 2010

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By PIA CATTON. HAVANA—American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Xiomara Reyes opened her wheeled luggage and lifted out bag after bag of ballet shoes and clothing. The supplies were for students at Pro Danza, a school and company with which Ms. Reyes danced as a teenager growing up in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana.

Ballet From New York Arrives in Cuba. A visit to Havana by New York City's American Ballet Theatre is part of a festival celebrating Alicia Alonso, the Cuban ballerina and founder of the National Ballet of Cuba.

The Wall Street Journal. ABT's Eric Tamm jumps for a volleyball. Many of the dancers took the morning off to exercise and visit the beach before their rehearsal at the Karl Marx Theater.

When Ms. Reyes attended Pro Danza, which is located in the Havana neighborhood of Marianao, it was a something of a second-company within the National Ballet of Cuba, and served as a fast-track to stage time. It is now an independent operation with more than 40 company dancers, 200 students and 10 teachers. Its general director, Laura Alonso, is the daughter of Alicia and Fernando Alonso, who were instrumental in establishing a Cuban style of ballet and in founding the National Ballet of Cuba. American Ballet Theatre is in Cuba this week for the first time in 50 years, in part to pay homage to Ms. Alonso, 90, who danced with ABT in New York in the 1940s and '50s before returning to her homeland.

Pro Danza allowed Ms. Reyes, who left Cuba for Europe at age 19 before joining American Ballet Theatre in 2001, to explore leading roles well before she could have with the main company. "When you were in the company, you had to go through all the stages very slowly—corps de ballet, soloist, principal," she said on Wednesday just before visiting the Pro Danza facility. "At that time, it would take a very long time to do a principal role."

Ms. Reyes joined the National Ballet's school when she was 9 years old and joined the company at 17. Meanwhile, she participated with Pro Danza starting at age 14, and enjoyed leading roles in "Don Quixote," "Coppelia" and "Three Musketeers." She also danced several classical pas de deux, including "Diana and Acteon," which she will dance again here in Cuba.

American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Xiomara Reyes visits the Pro Danza school in the Havana neighborhood of Marianao, where she trained as a child.

"I'm going to do it tomorrow," she said. "I did it like 100 times with them here. I'm a little nervous that they'll say, 'Oh you did it better before!'"

Given the intensity and energy that beams from Laura Alonso, it's not an unreasonable concern. To house her growing company, Ms. Alonso renovated a palace—allegedly built for a duchess—into a dance studio. How did that happen? "Slowly," she said. "With donations from around the world."

Though the company is supported by the Cuban government, it has a wide network of international benefactors. The Canadian Embassy donated the funds to create a classroom in honor of a renowned Canadian teacher. Philanthropist and wine distributor Marcel-Andre Clement (who was onsite Wednesday, wearing an Alvin Ailey cap) is based in Guadeloupe and actively raises money for new works, supplies and company tours.


The Wall Street Journal. Ballet students take a break outside the Pro Danza school in Havana. One of its alumni, Xiomara Reyes, now dances with American Ballet Theatre.What Ms. Alonso gives back are highly trained dancers. "An artist belongs to the world," she said, adding that a teacher's best hope for her school is that its students reach the international level. "Xiomara is still from here. All my students come back."

The message that she wants her dancers to take with them is one of wholeness. "I think a dancer should be a complete artist. Not only pointing your feet—which is like saying good morning. But in the feeling. The art, it has to be there."

Ms. Alonso gave Ms. Reyes a tour of Pro Danza, which has been housed in this marble and wrought-iron hodge-podge building since 1984. A men's class was in session in a room heavy with humidity and sweat. Down the open corridor, a seamstress in the costume shop was working on a dress for "Dracula." A scrawny dog wandered into the second-floor hallway just as the women's class let out and dancers milled around.

The setting—a beat-the-odds ballet studio in this rough, polluted neighborhood—made even clearer why, when Ms. Reyes was asked about her greatest lesson during her time with Ms. Alonso, she replied: "Not to be afraid."

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/