HAVANA — For months, two-thirds of Cuba had no electricity at night. Some neighborhoods in the capital city of Havana have been without running water for more than two weeks. Transport is scarce and eggs, bread and cooking oil are hard to come by.
But every morning, around 178 young students gather for classes at the National Ballet School in the capital. Housed in an elegant Art Nouveau building in the heart of Old Havana, the school combines rigorous dance training with academic classes in math, Spanish, history and science.
Training to be a top-level classical dancer requires discipline and sacrifice anywhere. In Cuba today, where blackouts and shortages of fuel, water and food make daily life difficult, these demands extend far beyond the dance studio.
For 14-year-old Roxana Pérez de La Mora, that means waking up before dawn and traveling about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from her home to school.
“Sometimes I tell my mom that I don’t feel like going, but if he misses it could cause me problems later in training,” she said. “I’ve always said my dream was to be a prima ballerina.”
Despite the ongoing Cuban crisis, classical ballet is still a well-known part of the country’s culture, almost as popular on the island as football. Over the decades, Cuba has produced dancers and choreographers of international renown and their careers are closely followed by experienced ballet audiences.
The National Ballet of Cuba, founded in the 1940s by the venerable ballerina Alicia Alonso and her husband Fernando Alonso, is considered one of the most prestigious companies in the world. Tickets cost less than $1, while comparable performances elsewhere can cost as much as $300.
For its end-of-season gala in August, the company presented “Canto Vital,” a work by Russian choreographer Azari Plisetski to music by Gustav Mahler. The show featured Dani Hernández, a principal dancer who also directs the National Ballet School, where Roxana trains every day.
A lack of fuel had left the streets almost empty that night, but the Avellaneda Hall at the National Theater of Cuba was packed with well-dressed supporters, their hair and make-up done for the occasion. The audience gave a standing ovation, shouting “Bravo!”
The combination of demanding leadership at the National Ballet and rigorous training at a public school has helped produce dozens of famous dancers. Some have gone on to become principals of major companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London and the American Ballet Theater in New York.
Hernández, the professional dancer and teacher, rides an electric motorcycle every day from his apartment in Havana to ballet class, a dangerous commute for someone whose career depends on avoiding injury.
During a recent blackout, heat and mosquitoes forced Hernández, 37, to sleep on the terrace of his building.
“Whether I have electricity or not, I have to be in the studio,” he said. “But I keep thinking: Will the food in my fridge spoil?”
Hernández expressed his concern about how the country’s great crisis could affect future generations of dancers.
“The whole situation we are in today could affect a generation of students who train in ballet, dance, music, the visual arts,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press. “And it’s been the same for every other field: engineering, medicine, education, everything else.”
But classical ballet remains a source of national pride while maintaining its internationally recognized standards, a stability that is reflected in the broad appeal of its discipline over Cuban society.
“It’s one of those things where you go out on the street and say, ‘Hey, I saw the ballet,’ and everyone starts talking to you about ballet,” he said.
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