Say what you will about Rupert, but one of his papers is gettin' it right – as in correct – this week. Gettin' it right indeed.
It's been hard keeping up with The Wall Street Journal's fantastic coverage of the International Ballet Festival in Havana. Here is yet another superb article by Pia Catton, this time focusing on Cuban native and ABT principal Xiomara Reyes who grew up in a Havana neighborhood and attended Laura Alonso's school Pro Danza. Reyes brought along shoes and clothing for the students at her old school which she returned to today for a visit. Pia Catton got the story and the pictures, including some great slides of the ABT dancers frolicking at the beach.
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."
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