Not Just Your Ordinary Ballet Class

As you may have guessed from the lack of blog posts this last month, not a lot of excitement has happened around these parts.  Till recently.  Today in ballet class we had a few new faces.  New faces attached to gorgeous bodies that could do magical things.

Apparently, earlier this month, somewhere between 6 and 8 dancers with the National Ballet of Cuba defected while in Puerto Rico for a performance.  (The exact number depends on which news article you read.  All are dated between June 9th and 11th.  I could not find any more-recent articles that confirmed the number.  You can read about it here.)  At least 6 of them ended up in Miami, and 2 of those were in my ballet class today.

Oh. Em. Gee.

I can only imagine what they must have been through in the past month or so.  Leaving behind everything they knew, friends and family, in hopes of more artistic opportunities outside of Cuba.  Wow.

Regardless of how they may (or may not) have been feeling, they danced quite beautifully.  They both had a style that was bigger, bolder, and dare I say, a little less controlled than the rest of us who were used to precise, exact ballet positions.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the structure of a ballet class, it builds in intensity.  Any ballet class around the world begins with pliés (knee bends), and the movements gradually get bigger, until the end of class, which culminates in grand allegro, or as we say in English, big jumps.  Here, is where our guest artists really excelled.  I think they flew.

 

One of my favorite bloggers traveled to Cuba earlier this year, and he got to observe ballet class/rehearsal there.  He has quite a poetic way with words, and he perfectly captures the amazement I felt today.  Give him a read!

Cubans Are Magical

Gods and Goddesses