International Ballet Academy Gathering in Cuba: A Guarantee of New Talent

The International Gathering of Academies for the Teaching of Ballet in Cuba is preparing its new edition with the goal of fostering an exchange of artistic knowledge among multiple schools from various countries, its organizers reported today.

This is a unique annual event in Latin America that provides foreign students, dancers, and teachers the opportunity to appreciate the methodology of one of the youngest schools, such as the Cuban one.

The Artistic Pedagogical Vice Director of the National Center for Art Schools of Cuba (CNEArt), Daimirey Navarro, highlighted the importance of these ballet academies as an essential part of the country's cultural policy.

This gathering serves to showcase the achievements of the Cuban Ballet School and present it as a benchmark center for the training of both Cuban and foreign dancers, expressed the official.

The school also promotes and continues to champion ballet teaching both within Cuba and abroad, she emphasized.

Event Details and Historical Context

The director of the National Ballet School and premier dancer of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), Dani Hernández, provided details of the gathering, which will take place from March 27 to April 5, 2026.

Hernández traced the event's origins back to its founding in 1996 by the teacher and iconic figure of the BNC, Ramona de Saá. He recalled how her teachings marked a continuity of innovation and development for the Cuban Ballet School, both nationally and beyond.

Our school is the most recently created, founded, and recognized in the international arena, distinguished for its methodology and pedagogy, with a design focused on ballet teaching, stated the director of the center.

We are talking about the Cuban Ballet School, created over 70 years ago, which shows a solidity in its development and its instructional system, he added.

Scope and Format of the Gathering

The International Gathering of Academies for the Teaching of Ballet in Cuba encompasses a wide range of participants.

*As in other editions - and for several years - there will be around 600 students or more; we hope that will be the case*, Hernández indicated. We will start from the premise of achieving an artistic-technical exchange with the participants; thanks to them, we have absorbed tools and new trends in ballet, he specified.

We will be holding ballet classes, such as classical dance, ballroom dancing, and how those period representations were developed; but there will also be workshops and conferences, he pointed out.

We will try to carry out the event in a more scientific area, one of innovation and research, which is necessary for the teaching of ballet, especially so that the student who comes to the event can enjoy every space within the international gathering itself, explained Hernández.

A New Focus and Special Topics

Since last year, the National Ballet School decided to separate the International Academy Gathering from the competition to give participants the opportunity to demonstrate the quality of what they have learned.

We will also have surprise personalities and themes on the study of the ballet shoe and how it needs to contribute to the development of the dancer, highlighted the director of the National Ballet School.