Cuba’s aspiring ballerinas remain nation’s pride while finding light amid power cuts and scarcity

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Across Cuba, blackouts have left two-thirds of the country without power at night for months.

In Havana, some neighborhoods have lacked running water for over two weeks. Transportation options are scarce, while staples such as eggs, bread, and cooking oil remain hard to find.

Yet every morning, roughly 178 young students arrive for classes at the National Ballet School in the capital.

Located inside an imposing Art Nouveau building in Old Havana, the school pairs intensive dance instruction with academic courses in math, Spanish, history, and science.

Training to become a top classical dancer demands discipline and sacrifice anywhere. In Cuba today, where blackouts and shortages of fuel, water, and food complicate daily life, those 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 the school.

"Sometimes I tell my mom I don’t feel like going, but missing it could cause problems for me later in training," she said. "I’ve always said that my dream is to be a prima ballerina."

Despite Cuba’s ongoing economic problems, classical ballet remains a celebrated part of national culture, nearly as popular on the island as baseball.

Over decades, Cuba has produced internationally renowned dancers and choreographers whose careers are closely followed by an educated ballet audience.

The Cuban National Ballet, founded in the 1940s by celebrated ballerina Alicia Alonso and her husband Fernando Alonso, is considered one of the world’s most prestigious companies.

Tickets cost under $1, while comparable performances elsewhere can cost as much as $300.

For its season-ending gala in August, the company staged "Canto Vital," a work by Russian choreographer Azari Plisetski set to music by Gustav Mahler.

The performance starred Dani Hernández, a principal dancer who also directs the National Ballet School where Pérez de La Mora trains daily.

Fuel shortages had left city streets nearly empty that night, yet Avellaneda Hall at the National Theatre of Cuba was filled with elegantly dressed patrons, their hair and makeup styled 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 prominent dancers.

Some have gone on to become principals at leading companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London, and American Ballet Theatre in New York.

Hernández, a professional dancer and teacher, rides an electric motorcycle daily from his Havana apartment to dance class—a risky commute for someone whose career depends on avoiding injury.

During recent persistent blackouts, heat and mosquitoes forced Hernández, 37, to sleep on the terrace of his apartment 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 refrigerator spoil?"

Hernández expressed worry about how the country's mounting crises could affect future generations of dancers.

"The entire situation we’re experiencing today could affect a generation of students training in ballet, dance, music, the visual arts," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And it’s been the same for all other fields: engineering, medicine, education, everything else."

Yet classical ballet remains a source of national pride while maintaining internationally recognized standards, an endurance reflected in the discipline's broad appeal across 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.