The Latin Ballet of Virginia Touring

Internationally to Colombia
VII International Festival of Ballet Clasico, “Ballerine”

The Latin Ballet proudly announces its participation to The VII International Festival of Ballet Clasico, “Ballerine,” celebrating the seventh anniversary in 2023. The Festival focuses on the artistic discipline of dance, specifically, classical ballet, contemporary dance, flamenco, and dance theatre. Dancers and dance companies with national and international acclaim participate every year, such as Ballet Nacional de Panama, Director Graciela Guillen, Panama; International Classical Ballet company, Incolballet with principal dancer, Danna Sandoval; Ballet Nacional del Salvador, Director Rumen Ivanov Rashev, El Salvador; Compania Nacional de Ballet, Ana Pavlova, Director, Jaime Diaz, Colombia; Fundacion Ballet Capital, Director, Julian Garay; Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin, Directora, Juliana Acosta, Colombia. The Latin Ballet of Virginia (LBV) is honored to be included in the 2023 invitation list and to be peers with these companies and their directors and dancers. Approximately, 15,000 individuals from all over the world attend the Festival per year.

The Festival has significant impact locally, nationally and internationally because of the artistic engagement, collaboration, and multicultural exchange opportunities. In 2023, Festival will be hosted celebrated in Hula, Neiva, one Colombia’s premier cities because it is both known and loved for celebrating the country’s annual Folklore Festival. LBV’s artists will have the great opportunity to learn not only dance but also about culture from artists from other countries, as well as folklore from Colombia.

LBV’s performances elevate and gain exposure for underrepresented voices and traditions. While classical ballet is a dance form that is recognized all over the world, LBV has combined the traditional form with a Latin aesthetic in a fusion style that is casually known as Latin Ballet. LBV is one of the founders of this type of fusion of ballet with Latin, African, and Caribbean dance styles. This combination has opened up dance as a profession to students who might have been rejected by more classical ballet schools and companies due to their body shapes, skin tones, ethnic/racialized backgrounds. LBV mentor students of all backgrounds and has become a haven for dancers who might have been relegated to background roles or rejected altogether in other dance schools and companies.

LBV’s director emerita and founder, Ana Ines King, will assist the Latin Ballet of Virginia artists in Colombia, directing the performances and teaching for the Festival. One of the participating artists, Rebecca Barragan, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital city of the Confederacy, to Colombian parents. Her studies at the School of the Latin Ballet of Virginia with teachers, Ana Ines King and Marisol Cristina Betancourt, guided her to find her unique voice in dance that combines her heritage with classical ballet, Flamenco, African and Caribbean dance. Other LBV company dancers who will be participating include Elkey Love and DeShon Rollins. Elkey Love was born in the U.S., and he celebrates his ancestry in Puerto Rico. DeShon Rollins was born in the U.S, but he has had to hyphenate his identification as African-American for his whole life. LBV has given safe and professional spaces to both Love and Rollins to both find and refine their voices in dance. By doing so, they are providing natural mentoring to young dancers at LBV’s school and to audience members worldwide.

The three scenes The Latin Ballet is presenting in the Festival are from the full-length productions of VICTOR, ALMA LATINA and SON CORAZON. In addition to the performances, the Latin Ballet will teach three master classes in Flamenco, Contemporary Dance and African Caribbean.

Productions: 
1- VICTOR, The True Spirit of Love, based on the autobiography Victor Torres, inspired by the true story of a teen from Puerto Rico, who's forced to survive the "dark streets" of Brooklyn, New York, in 1962. 
2- From ALMA LATINA: Spanish roots that influenced the culture of Latino America.
3- From SON CORAZON: Nada Puede Dormir (Nothing can Sleep)

Like sending a ray of darkness and dead over a lighted bullring

Defining what Goya and all Spain had to represent…an enormous bullring broken with violence in two colors:

White and Black. White of sun and luxuriance

Black, deep of shadows and black blood clot

What horror, what horror far away…The blood takes the dreams away

Nothing can sleep… Nobody can sleep

- R. Alberti