(73) Ivonne Lemus: Ballet Mistress at Next Generation Ballet & Former Soloist with National Ballet of Cuba

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Today we talk with Ivonne Lemus: Ballet Mistress at Next Generation Ballet & Former Soloist with National Ballet of Cuba. We took a quick break over the holiday from our regularly scheduled programming, but while we were on our break, we went to Tampa to teach master classes, host a lecture, and record interviews with the dancers, staff, and guest artists of Next Generation Ballet. Today we talk with NGB’s Ballet Mistress, Ivonne Lemus. Ivonne trained at the National School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba, where she graduated in 1986. She then went on to join the National Ballet of Cuba where she danced under the direction of Alicia Alonso for a decade. After her promotion to soloist in Cuba, she went on to join the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. After her dancing career, she has gone on to teach all over the country, joining Next Generation Ballet’s full-time teaching staff in 2007. We talk with Ivonne about what he training was like in Cuba, about dancing for Alicia, how she defected and ended up in Canada, and how she is now producing the next generation of professional dancers.