Tagged: Miami City Ballet

The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami operates out of an old, white mansion in Little Havana. Just like any company, the dancers start their day with ballet class.

But what makes this company different is that it’s a holding station for dancers who defect from Cuba, a place where they can stay in shape and get help finding permanent jobs.

If you ask someone to name a valuable commodity, they may say gold, or oil. Ask someone in ballet the same question, and there’s good chance they’ll say boys.

Most ballets have almost equal part male and female roles. But in the U.S., boys who want to do ballet are hard to come by.  

For that reason boys often receive full scholarships to ballet schools and other forms of special treatment in order to attract them to the profession.

Former principal dancer with New York City Ballet Philip Neal was one of those boys.

The legendary choreographer George Balanchine once said, “ballet is woman,” and that seems to be the case, considering the scarcity of boys aspiring to become ballet dancers compared to the legions of girls.  But of the girls who grow up to become top dancers, few have actually graduated into the upper levels of leadership.

Ballet’s Glass Ceiling

On September 4th, the Miami City Ballet suddenly announced the company’s founder, Edward Villella, had resigned that morning from his post as artistic director 8 months earlier than planned. Not only is Villella one of America’s most famous dancers, he is one of South Florida’s biggest cultural commodities. In 25 years, he created a world-class ballet company from scratch and helped spark Miami’s arts renaissance. But, the last year at Miami City Ballet had been marked by financial troubles and power struggles. Insiders claimed that Villella had been forced out.