Founded in 1931 as the Ballet School of the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical de La Habana, the Cuban National Ballet School (Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet) is one of the largest and most prestigious ballet schools in the world. Currently, the school has approximately 3,000 students under the tutelage of director Maestra Ramona de Saà.
Great maître of the Ballet, Maestra de Saà is one of the most remarkable figures in the pedagogy of dance in the contemporary world and creator of the current education system of the Classic Dance of the Republic of Cuba. A professor of the National School of Ballet; adjunct professor of the Superior Institute of Art; founder, under the direction of Fernando Alonso, of the School of Ballet of the National School of Art (1962); in 1965 she became the Directress of this institution.
As a dancer and founder of the National Ballet of Cuba, she performed her art in important theatres in Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Ecuador, the United States, Hungary, Mexico, Peru, Poland, the Soviet Union, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Maestra de Saà has been the teacher of several important figures of the National Ballet of Cuba, among them the principal dancers Amparo Brito, Rosario Suárez, Lorna Feijóo, Alihaydée Carreño and Carlos Junior Acosta. In October of 2000, the Superior Institute of Art of the Republic of Cuba gave her the Doctor’s title Honoris Causa in Art.
Originally from Santa Clara, Cuba, where he began his studies, he joined the National School of Art in Havana in 1978, from where he graduated in 1983, joining the ballet under the direction of Maestro Fernando Alonso. As a dancer, he has participated in international tours and festivals throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. He participated in the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 1989. That same year he was invited to the Perm Ballet Company in Russia at the Festival of the Young Creator. He was laureate of the Trujillo Peru international ballet competition in 1991, as best couple and individual gold medal. In 1993 he joined the Monterrey ballet under the direction of Ann Marie D´Ángelo, sharing the stage with Fernando Bujones and working in productions by Cynthia Gregory, Kevin Mackenzie, Melissa Hayden, Nellie Happei, among others. In 1995 he joined the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago under the direction of Gerald Alpino. In 1996, together with Fernando Alonso and Christine Ferrando he directed the creation of a new Classical Dance Workshop at UANL and is a member of the faculty, performing productions of the traditional and contemporary repertoire. In 2006 he became a Teacher of the Superior School (ESMDM), where he held the position of coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Classical Dance. In 2009, he was invited as a teacher at the Córdoba Dance Festival, an event of the American Grand Prix. He has been a teacher and temporary rehearser for the Monterrey Ballet company; selected as a jury for Conarte contests; as well as Synodal and Adviser of graduations in local and national events. In 2011 he participated as a rehearsal teacher in Opera Prima (First Ballet Reality Show in Mexico City). In 2013, 2014 and 2015, he was invited by the National Ballet School of Havana Cuba to teach classes at the International Meeting of Ballet Academies. In 2014 he is invited as a teacher and choreographer to the first international course of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet.
Tania Suárez is a ballet teacher born in Havana, Cuba. In 1993 she graduated as a dancer and ballet teacher at the National School of Art and joined the National Ballet of Cuba, until 2002. In this company she developed experience as a professional dancer and received instruction from renowned teachers such as Loipa Araujo, Josefina Méndez, Aurora Boch, Lázaro Carreño, Martha García, Orlando Salgado, Joaquín Vanegas, Cristina Álvarez and Svetlana Ballester. As an independent dancer, Tania performed solo roles in dance projects with dancers and choreographers Tangin Fong and Carlos Acosta.
Between 2002 and 2020 Tania worked as a ballet teacher in important Cuban dance institutions such as Compañía Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Compañía Rakatan, Compañía Malpaso and Compañía Danza-Teatro Retazos, as well as at the Acosta Danza Ballet Academy. In this period, she received classes from Masters of Modern and Contemporary Cuban dance such as Dulce María Vale, Luis Roblejo, Yoerlis Brunet and Isabel Bustos. In 2013, Tania graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, contemporary dance profile, at the University of the Arts and then would be part of the university faculty as a professor and researcher of the Methodology of the Cuban Ballet technique and as a tutor of many degree theses. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in dance at the university.
With twenty years of experience as a researcher and as a ballet, floor bar, pointe technique, and repertoire teacher, Tania is captivated by teaching and sharing her passion for dance, standing out for her high commitment to the teaching of ballet and her responsibility and empathy with her students. For her, ballet class should be a means of expression and personal and collective creation, a special place of self-realization and improvement, a space to live dance as life itself.
Outside of dance halls and classrooms, Tania enjoys her home life with her husband and daughters; she likes to travel with his family, visit museums and art exhibitions, frequent cinemas and shows of any dance genre.
Tania Suárez has dedicated her life to instructing and perfecting the Cuban method of classical ballet technique, with the aim of teaching and giving this style to preserve its aesthetic, artistic, and cultural values.