Another leading Cuban dancer has defected to the United States and will perform in South Florida next weekend, the fourth Cuban ballet performer to come to the United States in as many months.
Carlos Quenedit, former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Cuba, crossed the Mexican border April 21, and will appear with the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami May 10-11 at Little Havana's Manuel Artime Theater.
Quenedit, 22, will be joined by three other Cuban principal dancers, Taras Domitro, Hayna Gutierrez and Miguel Angel Blanco, who defected from the National Ballet in December while on tour in Canada. The three have already performed several times with the Miami troupe, which has become a launching pad and first stop for defecting dancers.
''I'm going to have to rent a yacht -- a fast one,'' joked Pedro Pablo Peña, co-artistic director of the Cuban Classical Ballet.
Quenedit went to Mexico approximately a year ago and had been dancing there with Ballet de Monterrey, which is headed by fellow Cuban Luis Serrano, a former principal dancer with Miami City Ballet. On April 21 he headed north, seeking more artistic opportunity, Peña says. ``He's very young, so he comes with all this desire to dance and do everything. For our part, we're very happy, and he'll also get the chance to show himself.''
Serrano says that the young newcomer has a lot to show. ''He's a prince,'' Serrano said Tuesday from his company's offices in Monterrey. ``He's got a great physique, tremendous talent, great charisma. He's got everything he needs to dance with any company in the world.''
Serrano says he encouraged Quenedit to travel to the United States. ``He always said he wanted to try the U.S., and I always said I'd support him 100 percent. Dancers have to fly, and you have to let them test their wings.''
For now, Quenedit is in Chicago, where his uncle, a former member of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, lives. But one of his first calls was to Magaly Suarez, Peña's partner and co-artistic director of Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami and a longtime former teacher at the National Ballet of Cuba. It was Suarez who brought Domitro, her son, and his two compatriots across the border from Canada in December. ''Magaly was a teacher of [Quenedit], so it's a logical connection,'' Peña says.
While in Miami, Quenedit will perform the lead role in Le Spectre de la Rose, a short romantic ballet depicting a young woman who dreams of a rose that comes leaping to life. Performances are at 8 p.m. May 10 and 5 p.m. May 11 at the Manuel Artime Theater, 900 SW First St., Miami. Tickets are $35 and $30. Call 1-877-877-7677 or 305-549-7711.
