A CHAT WITH... ANA GALLARDO LOBAINA

Ana Gallardo Lobaina, 30, is a Royal New Zealand Ballet soloist who joined the company in 2020. She was born and raised in Holguín, Cuba, and studied at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana. She came to New Zealand a er dancing with the West Australian Ballet Company. She was handpicked to play the lead role in Louglan Prior’s Firebird last year and dances in four works in the upcoming Tutus on Tour.

She tells Sarah Catherall how ballet can be an addiction.

How old were you when you started ballet? I was 3. I had asthma quite badly when I was young. I had bronchitis a lot and had to be hospitalised quite frequently. I was quite a weak child and the doctors suggested I do some physical exercise to help me breathe. Mum started me in ballet and gymnastics lessons. She could have picked basketball, which is quite popular in Cuba. There’s no ballet in my family. No-one dances. At age 9, I auditioned for a ballet school. I think I had natural talent, even though I had been dancing as a butter y, that kind of thing.

Why did you emigrate from

Cuba to the US with your family? I was in the Cuban National Ballet School and a group of us were going to dance with another ballet school in France. We had to get a passport to travel. But in Cuba, people don’t typically have a passport. You can’t just buy a ticket and leave Cuba unless someone buys you one. A lot of people can’t leave the country. The fact I had a passport triggered questions. It wasn’t normal to have one and they’re expensive too. I had to explain that my grandmother was an American citizen and she was getting me a passport. They took me out of the group that was going to France, in case I went from there to America. My mother thought: if this is how it’s going to be and they’re going to limit my opportunities, we should leave. We had family in Miami and there’s a big Cuban community there.

“I love it. How lucky am I to utilise my career and travel around the world, make friends and learn from other cultures -it doesn’t get any better than that.”

The move to Miami sounds tough? When we arrived, we couldn’t speak English. I knew how to say some colours and the days of the week in English but not much else. At the Cuban Ballet school, I hadn’t studied science or maths, so to graduate from an (American) high school I had to study maths, physics and all these subjects I didn’t have and I had to learn them in English. I had to have four maths classes and I had to have evening tutoring, which put me behind in ballet. It was really rough. I cried a lot. We go back to that year and think about how it uni ed us as a family.

You have moved around a lot for your career? I le home when I was 1 to go to Havana for ballet study. A er a year studying ballet at the Miami City Ballet School, I went to Boston Ballet School for a year and then I joined Cincinnati Ballet when I was 19. That was where my career really took o . It took me ve years to become a core member, and I learned so much. I went from being a student to becoming a professional dancer. I love it. How lucky am I to utilise my career and travel around the world, make friends and learn from other cultures – it doesn’t get any better than that.

What are some of your favourite dance roles? I prefer pieces where I’m a character and I can take the audience on a journey. I love acting. Not all dancers do. I love to be that character to the point where you forget what you are doing. The Firebird role was amazing, knowing that something was going to be created for me. Not many dancers have that opportunity. Classical ballet has been around centuries so thousands of dancers have done those roles. But to have a role created for you, that is tailored for you, it is a privilege. Dancing the Firebird,

I had tears on stage. This is what I’m talking about: when you lose yourself and become that character. It’s like an addiction in a way.

Have you had any disaster moments on stage? When I was the Blue Fairy in Sleeping Beauty ,it was opening night and it was right a er the 2020 lockdown. It was my rst performance with the RNZB company. I’m wearing a tutu and on the stage with another fairy. I fell on my face, on the ground, tutu upside down, I could hear the audience gasp. I wanted to open a hole in the ground and disappear into it. I jumped up in two seconds but I was shaking for the whole scene. I could feel a burn in my knee but I couldn’t see my leg because the tutu was covering it. You just have to keep going. Leaving the stage is not an option unless you’re terribly injured.

How important is health and diet when you’re a professional dancer? You need to eat well and get lots of sleep. My body pays my rent. I always eat lots of fruit and vegetables but I do need to drink more water.

Away from dancing what do you like to do? I love painting but I don’t have much time for that. I enjoy eating and cooking. I’m seeing my family in Miami over Christmas and I can’t wait to eat all that delicious Cuban food every single day for a month.

WATCH: Tutus on Tour travels around New Zealand from Friday. Visit rnzb. org.nz for tickets and information