Lorena, Lorna,

and the
Feijóo Effect
I want to dance for our people again, for an
audience that knows us a little better. And I am
optimistic. I want our Cuban people someday
to have the art they deserve, without the all the
hardships and oppression they have suffered.
Someday we will have that.
—Lorena Feijóo

We are everywhere, and we learn a lot from

D B
everywhere. But the Cuban style is inside us all,
inside every Cuban dancer no matter where. It
is alive as long as we dance.
—Lorna Feijóo

Lorena and Lorna Feijóo. Courtesy Greg Gorman.

135
Little Lorena, one of those
children who simply could
not sit still. Courtesy of the
Feijóo Family Collection.

W e can never predict where life will take us, and

I know I have hardly been the first Cuban to wonder what I was doing in San Francisco. Not long ago,
as she prepared to coach a City Ballet School student production of The Nutcracker at Fort Mason in the
city by the bay, Lupe Calzadilla was far from another city by another bay, where she was born. She was far
from the Havana where she and the handsome actor José Lorenzo Feijóo Menéndez grew up, married,
and raised two beautiful daughters; the Havana where they learned to dance. Lupe’s daughter Lorena
Feijóo was across town at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker. Across
the country in Boston, her other daughter, Lorna Feijóo, and her son-in-law Nelson Madrigal were on
stage with the Boston Ballet. Fast approaching the age of seventy and looking every inch the ageless bal-
lerina, Lupe Calzadilla teaches ballet, something she has done since almost as long as she has danced.
Her husband died June 20, 2007. She has every right to be at least as surprised as her daughters by the
turns her world has taken.
Lupe Calzadilla was born September 25, 1944. She studied at the Escuela Nacional de Ballet

136 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

and was quickly chosen for the Ballet Nacional She was tough on her daughter. She still is.
de Cuba, where she would dance for a dozen Lupe learned the habit of perfection from Fer-
years. She stopped dancing briefly after the birth nando Alonso, and by the time Lorena entered
of Lorena, October 13, 1970, and after the birth the company school, Lupe was known as one of
of Lorna, May 6, 1974. It took no great seer to its most demanding teachers. Laura Alonso, a few
predict that Lupe and Jose Lorenzo’s daughters years older than Lupe and by this time also easing
would go far in dance someday, even if that was her way into teaching, years later would be fond
the last thing on the couple’s mind as they raised of this joke. Question: “What is the difference
their family during some of the Cuban Revolu- between a terrorist and a ballet mâitre?” Answer:
tion’s most difficult years, years that also coin- “You can negotiate with a terrorist.” That sums up
cided with some of the most beautiful for Cuban the uncompromising side of Cuban ballet teach-
ballet. Lupe studied with Alicia Alonso and Fer- ers all over the world, and Lupe carried it to the
nando Alonso, as well as with Ana Leontieva, José point where, in school competitions, other jury
Parés, and other luminaries who had flocked to members would insist she raise Lorena’s scores. The Feijóo Calzadilla fam-
the Alonsos’ school in El Vedado in those heady She was hardest on her daughter, because she ily at home in La Víbora.
days. Ballet was indeed a world apart, and the knew how good she could be. When Lorna, too, Courtesy of the Feijóo

dancers were kept busy. Baby Lorena, like baby announced she wanted to be a ballerina, Lupe Family Collection.

Lorna after her, was watched over by stagehands tried to steer her away—she was afraid the sisters
and costume assistants offstage as their mother would compete too much with each other. She
danced. Soon, as she realized her calling as a sang the praises of Cuba’s budding modern dance
dance teacher, Lupe spread her wings and helped scene, and she suggested acting—after all, it was
found the Ballet del Teatro Lírico de La Habana, her husband’s calling. But Lorna, always quieter
the troupe that performed with the opera and also than her sister but no less determined, simply
explored crossover Cuban dances following the sneaked off on her own, auditioned, and earned
trailblazing steps of Alberto Alonso. Her dance a place in the Escuela Nacional de Ballet. Lorena
partner at the Lírico was a religious young man won her first ballet competition at the age of thir-
named Pedro Pablo Peña, whose life in exile years teen, and later Lorna would do the same. “Mami
later would again intersect with the Feijóos. never wanted to take sides,” Lorna told me. “She
The Feijóo-Calzadilla family lived in La Víb- didn’t want us to compete.” Lupe needn’t have
ora, a Southern working-class suburb of Havana, worried. The sisters loved and love each other
where the future actor and filmmaker Andy at least as much as they love to dance. “My sister
García also was raised. Their house on 555 Calle is one of my models,” Lorna has said more than
Saco, between Acosta and O’Farrill, was roomy, once. “She is my inspiration, along with Alicia.”
and its patio an ideal playground for the girls— Both were accepted into the ranks of the Ballet
though their evenings were often spent backstage. Nacional de Cuba and both precociously took on
Dressing up and dancing was second nature to the leading roles in their teens. It is worth remember-
girls, who after all saw their parents wearing stage ing that these were children who spent their days
make-up more often that not. It came as no sur- not only in ballet, but also in a folk dance class,
prise when the toddler Lorena, one of those chil- in acting and history lessons, and in music and
dren who simply could not sit still, announced that mime workshops—a curriculum that prepares a
she would be a ballerina. Lupe would become her complete dancer. Complete Cuban dancers are
first teacher. what they became.

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 137

 Yet there was a glut of dancers at this time in as a principal with San Francisco Ballet, the old-
Cuba. Miraculously, Alicia Alonso was still danc- est ballet company in the United States. Her
ing, and the younger generation of ballerinas— career, there and beyond, has been nothing short
everything is relative—consisted of forty-something of miraculous.
stars including Aurora Bosch, Loipa Araújo, Mirta In 2000, she famously danced a historic
Plá, María Elena Lorente, and Josefina Méndez, Giselle in a Helgi Tomasson San Francisco Ballet
all of them gorgeous and very much still active. It production that managed to be even more musi-
would take a lot for an actual youngster to land a cally complete than Alonso’s own, partnered by
plum role. The example of Amparo Brito was a liv- the elegant Roman Rykine. Also in 2000, coached
ing warning. Brito, the wife of Jorge Esquivel, was by Natalia Makarova, Lorena danced a staging of
an exquisite young ballerina and was the young- La Bayadère, partnered by her fellow Cuban exile
est and best Myrtha in the company. She had to Joan Boada, that let both explore and nurture the
Always the shy one, Lorna be content watching her husband partner Alicia Cuban way with the Russian classic. I will never
nevertheless managed to Alonso in Giselle, but she herself was never given forget a rehearsal for La Bayadère in the San Fran-
go around her mother and the same chance. As Lorna joked years later, about cisco Ballet where Makarova was stopped short by
audition. Courtesy of the her own rise to the role of the Wilis Moina and Lorena’s speed; the Cuban ballerina simply did
Feijóo Family Collection.
Zulma but never Giselle in Cuba, “I think you had not mark the transition between steps and—this,
to be at least thirty-nine to be Giselle then. That incidentally, is part of what makes Cubans such
was the minimum age requirement.” It was hard- natural Balanchine dancers—seemed to finish
est of all for Lorena, who decided to leave Cuba in her duet with Boada in triumph with no visible
1990 while Lorna was still a student. At this time preparation or break anywhere in her long phrases.
Lorena was a favorite of Fernando Alonso, who “That is a little too patriotic, dear,” Makarova told
nicknamed her his “Tropical Beauty,” and a bud- Feijóo. “Too communist.”1 For Makarova’s style,
ding ballerina of choice for Alicia Alonso’s own a dancer’s preparation is a moment of freedom to
future plans, even if those plans didn’t yet include be savored by herself and her audience, a break
the role of Giselle. Alicia was not pleased by Lore- from classical strictures. Lorena gave the Russian
na’s departure. While she allowed other dancers a withering look, but she took the note to heart
who left Cuba, including José Manuel Carreño and softened the phrasing even more. She never
and Carlos Acosta, both the freedom to return and did show her preparation, though, and neither did
an open invitation to dance with their home com- her partner. In performance, Feijóo and Boada
pany, Lorena would never again be asked to dance created a vision of what classical ballet might have
with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. been like before the Soviets. “Lorena has soul,”
It wouldn’t matter. Lorena carried her Cuban Makarova told me, won over. Once, in one-on-
style to the Ballet de Monterrey and to the Royal one La Bayadère rehearsal, Natasha announced,
Ballet of Flanders. She went to California in “Lorenishka, let’s do something else—already I
1995, under contract with the Los Angeles Bal- am bored with Bayadère. Let’s do Giselle—show
let—which went bankrupt and disbanded before me.” Makarova sang to Feijóo a passage from
Lorena stepped on stage. The Joffrey Ballet Act One, and the two ballerinas then worked on
offered her a ballerina spot, and she stayed in scenes from Giselle together.
Chicago four years, until “I got restless, repeat- The Kingdom of the Shades scene in La Bay-
ing the same repertory,” she told me. “It was just adère brings such classical purity that it is easy,
time to move on.” She did that in 1999, landing when the piece is danced well, to look simply

138 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

ABOVE AND RIGHT: Lorna’s
extension and sexy épaule-
ment were there from
the start. Courtesy of the
Feijóo Family Collection.
BELOW LEFT: José Manuel at the sublime symmetries and forget the very
Carreño, a stalwart of the human dancers creating them. With Joan Boada
American Ballet Theatre. as her ideal partner, however, Lorena Feijóo made
Courtesy of Fabrizio Ferri. sure the humanity of the dance was as inescapable
as their virtuosity was thrilling. “Dancers with this
BELOW RIGHT: Carlos
much panache are rare,” I reported in the San
Acosta, leading dancer of
Francisco Chronicle.
the Royal Ballet, Covent
Garden. These two are
among Cuba’s most impres- Feijóo is a prima ballerina of the old school.
sive dance exports, male Her musicality is sensual, her upper body
division. Courtesy of Illume expressive and her footwork fresh. It is frankly
productions/Candela, photo tough sometimes for Nikiya’s role to stand out
by Cynthia Newport. well amid the kaleidoscope of twenty-seven

FAR RIGHT: The sisters in other women who represent her image in
exile, Lorna and Lorena Solor’s mind. It was impossible not to notice
Feijóo. Courtesy Robb Feijóo. If the Shades represent the aspects of
Aaron Gordon.
perfection, Feijóo was perfection itself in all
its innocence. As for Boada, the daring pyro-
technics and gentle landings, the superhuman
jumps and tender partnering added up to danc-
ing that drew the matinee audience to frenzy.
Makarova originally set La Bayadère in 1980
for herself and Anthony Dowell, a performance

140
 I will always treasure. I expect that years from for the Left Hand, his classically spare and spe-
now Feijóo and Boada will be remembered cific choreography let Lorena tap into her vast
with no less affection and wonder.2 dramatic forces and create a monumental charac-
ter not unlike what Alicia Alonso brought forth in
After Lorena’s Giselle and Bayadère, she made Jorge Lefebvre’s Oedipus Rex a generation earlier.
her debut in a Don Quixote opposite Joan Boada Lorena was monumentally tragic, her supple line
that set a new company standard and etched their distorted by her character’s desire for vengeance.
names alongside Baryshnikov and Kirkland and Her Medea was a trapped animal, surprised to find
Dowell and Makarova as the great Basils and Kitris her children in the same cage. Possokhov’s Study
of our time. in Motion, this one created for Lorena, pushed the
frontiers of dancer and dancemaker alike—both
Feijóo was in her element as Kitri, sublime in sympathy with the natural dialectic of tradition
in her musicality, breathtaking in her foot- and radical change in dance. Lorena Feijóo has
work and impossibly sexy in her upper body’s excelled in the Balanchine and Robbins reper-
every gesture. She flirted with her fan, paused tory that is vital to the San Francisco Ballet, albeit
and teased with endless balances, and tossed in a style that tells of her Cuban roots. Certainly
triple turns in fouettés with an aplomb Ali- her intense way with Symphony in Three Move-
cia Alonso would have recognized. Boada, ments, Emeralds, and even Serenade is miles away
returning from a serious knee injury and sur- from what the naughty French once derided as
gery, was miraculous. The pyrotechnics of old Balanchine’s “style frigidaire.” In Tudor’s Gala
are there, and the virtuosity of the Act Three Performance, Lorena seemed to have a ball in a
grand pas was ravishing. But a new authority role Alonso herself famously enjoyed. “This is one
informed his dancing, from his quicksilver wild woman,” the San Francisco Chronicle review
phrasing and gentle landings to his tender ran, “and her turn at Tudor’s take-no-prisoners
partnering of Feijóo. Here was a couple the Russian ballerina is a comic creation ranking with
likes of which few dance companies in the Barbara Streisand’s Swan Queen in Funny Girl or
world can boast.3 Carol Burnett’s bonkers Norma Desmond.”4 In
Miami, for Pedro Pablo Peña’s Cuban Classical
OPPOSITE: Lorena Feijóo as It has been a pity that San Francisco Ballet is not Ballet of Miami in 2009, Lorena took on a ballet
the fiery Kitri in Don Quix- the kind of company that lets partnerships such as that was beyond her reach in Cuba, Alberto Alon-
ote. Courtesy R. J. Muna. this bloom—Feijóo and Boada have been paired so’s Carmen, coached by Alberto’s widow Sonia
beautifully and variedly with other company danc- Calero. It was a resounding success, not least for
ers, but after Don Quixote they have not been the ways in which it departed from Alicia Alonso’s
paired up again in their home company. iconic model.
Val Caniparoli, an underrated American Never shy with the press, Lorena gave The
choreographer who knows how to bring out the Miami Herald’s Lydia Martin some especially
unexpected in his dancers, gave Lorena—and choice observations at the time of her Miami
also later Lorna—one of her most enjoyable roles Carmen. “In Cuba, we were never taught that
in his exhilarating Lambarena, a ballerina role everybody is entitled to a difference of opinion.
originally made for San Francisco’s own Evelyn . . . To this day,” Feijóo continued, “my main
Cisneros. In Damned, Yuri Possokhov’s rethinking discussion with every Cuban I know is that you
of the Medea myth set to Ravel’s Piano Concerto don’t have to win every argument. You can have

142 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 143
The Cuban premiere of
Alberto Alonso’s Carmen
with Alicia Alonso and
Azari Plisetsky in Havana.
Courtesy of the Alicia
Alonso Collection.

an interesting discussion without anyone being I left Cuba, Carmen was not open to the public
right. You can play a song more than one way. yet.”6 And it is true that the role was, as Connor
You can dance a ballet more than one way. And put it, forbidden territory, because Lorena could
as an audience, you can be open to receive what not dance it as long as Alicia Alonso and Maya
each artist has to offer and not expect them to be Plisetskaya were the only women alive allowed to
copycats of one another.”5 take the role.
Carmen is telling. The ballet is something that By the time Lorna joined the Ballet Nacio-
Cubans tend to feel proprietary about, even if it nal de Cuba after Lorena left, Alicia herself had
OPPOSITE: Lorena Feijóo in was created by Alberto Alonso for the Bolshoi. It is stopped dancing it and other women were given
what she calls her “Audrey also, like Roland Petit’s more interesting version, the chance. Lorna took it. She took, in fact, every
Hepburn pose.” Courtesy a ballet that gives critics license to sharpen their leading role in the Cuban repertory and, along
David Martinez. banderillas. Carmen is delicious to dance and with her husband Nelson Madrigal, was show-
audiences respond to the dancer’s delight. That ered with honors in Cuba. This was the 1990s, a
it was forbidden fruit as long as Alonso danced it time when defections increased, and the company
only adds to its worth among Cuban ballerinas. briefly tried a more relaxed attitude in the hopes
In Lorena Feijóo’s Miami Carmen, the striking both of keeping its dancers and also earning hard
grands battements devant recalled Alonso’s saucy currency from some of their jobs abroad. “I was
virtuosity in the first variation; but Feijóo’s way so sad when Lorena left,” Lorna recalled, “but it
of almost laughing as she struck a balance en was also a better time for dancing, a time of more
pointe and grabbed her ankles with both hands opportunities for me and Nelson.”
was a teasing moment very much her own. Lorena Lorna and Nelson were friends in ballet school
told Olga Connor of The Miami Herald, “When and, before they became a couple, it was Nelson

144 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

Lorna Feijóo and Nelson who first got a taste of dancing outside Cuba. Carla
Madrigal on the roof of the Fracci spotted him in Havana and took him along
Gran Teatro de La Havana, with another youngster, José Manuel Carreño, to
2001, shortly before becom- La Scala as guest dancers for a new production of
ing exiles. Courtesy David
Rossini’s epic opera William Tell, choreographed
R. Garten.
by Heinz Spoerli. “I think the public liked us bet-
ter than they liked the singers,” recalled Madrigal,
who was eighteen when he danced in the opera.
Spoerli offered him a contract on the spot with the
Dusseldorf Ballet, which he directed at the time.
“I didn’t want to be classified as a defector, and
I still had to finish my obligatory social service,”
said Madrigal, “so I decided to go back to Cuba
then.” Spoerli confided in the young dancer that
he would be in charge of the adventurous Zurich
Opera Ballet in two years and would welcome him
there when he was ready. On his return, Nelson
fell in love with his school friend Lorna Feijóo and
the couple moved in together. A critic sent word
of Lorna to Spoerli—by this time Lorna was very
much on the rise in the company—and the couple
jointly was offered a guest contract in Zurich. To
their surprise, Alicia let them go.
“I was beginning to get tired of doing only the
classical roles, always the same roles in Cuba,” said
Madrigal, “Giselle and Swan Lake, then Giselle
and Swan Lake, again and again.” He continued,

Cuba doesn’t have the good fortune of hav-

ing new choreographers in the company. Of
course Alicia makes her own choreography, but
her idea of movement stayed fixed in her time
dancing forty years ago, when she could see.
Now she makes the steps, but it is one thing
what she imagines and another what happens
on stage. Another choreographer, a mâitre,
sees for her and changes her steps depending
on what happens in the studio. Alicia can’t
change them as she makes the dance because
she can’t see. Imagine trying to write a book
and not be able to read what you write.

146 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 147
The stellar Spaniards, “Heinz Spoerli was different, and Zurich gave us the chance to do a lot
Oscar Torrado and Laura of neoclassical and modern works, to try new things. We had a wonder-
Hormigón, rehearsing in ful time.” When it was time for them to return to Havana, the seed of
the Ballet Nacional de freedom had been planted, and this time Lorena would help Lorna and
Cuba studio, 2002. Cour-
Nelson make a more decisive move.
tesy David R. Garten.
In a sweet aside that reminds us what a small world ballet is, Nelson
remembered that the driver who came to the airport in Zurich to pick
him up with Lorna and take them to their Swiss home was an affable,
instantly likable dancer master named Mikko Nissinen, who at the time
was exploring the surprises of retirement from a stellar dancing career
with San Francisco Ballet. That Nissinen one day would give the exiled
Lorna and Nelson an American home in Boston was not something any
of them could imagine. The couple returned to Havana and they were
named principals of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. They usually did not
dance with each other in the company, but often partnered instead with
the members of another charismatic married couple, Laura Hormigón
and Oscar Torrado. The entire repertory open to Cubans was theirs for
the taking, and both especially enjoyed the Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s
Balanchine as much as the definitive Alonso Giselle and other standards
of the canon.
Merrill Ashley would end up coaching both Lorena Feijóo and
Lorna Feijóo in Ballo della Regina, teaching one sister in Havana in
2000, the other in San Francisco in 2002. “Their Cuban training was a
fantastic foundation,” Ashley told Suki Johns for The New York Times.
Balanchine’s all-American muse added about Lorna that “I’ve watched
her transform from Ballo to Giselle, Ms. Alonso’s signature role and the
litmus test for a Cuban ballerina. Lorna looked like she didn’t have a
bone in her body, so ultra stylized.” Ashley continued, “If I was reduced
to one ballerina in the world, Lorna would be the one I’d want to see
in anything.”7
Reviewing Lorna in Balanchine’s Ballo, which she danced oppo-
site Gonzalo García at the New York State Theatre, Anna Kisselgoff in
The New York Times was straightforward; “Like her sister, Lorna is an
astonishingly strong dancer. Her air turns, landing on toe in fifth posi-
tion, were only some of the marvels on view, not to speak of the force-
ful fouettés. In her hand-to-hip solo she evoked a leisurely folk dancer,
but when it came to hard-core Balanchine speed she was able to shoot
her leg out in arabesque after every piqué turn well within the musical
phrasing provided by Hugh Fiorato.”8
Victoria Morgan, artistic director of Cincinnati Ballet, saw Lorna
and Nelson in Cuba when she joined Washington Ballet’s Septime
Webre in a trip to the island that was caught in the documentary

148
Merrill Ashley teaching
Lorna Feijóo at the Ballet
Nacional de Cuba studio,
2000. “If I was reduced to
one ballerina in the world,”
said Ashley, “Lorna would
be the one I’d want to see
in anything.” Courtesy
David R. Garten.

150
Dance Cuba: Dreams of Flight. “It began with but that didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether Lorna midflight, in Act
that trip,” said Morgan. “I was so inspired by the her current crop of Cuban exiles remains in Cin- Two of Swan Lake in
whole company, by company class, by everything, cinnati either. At this writing, the extraordinary Havana. Courtesy of Illume

and Nelson, who’s gotten even better—what a Camagüeyan Cervilio Amador, as well as Adiarys productions/Candela,
image from Dance Cuba.
lovely, caring partner that man is. But Lorna! I Almeida and Gema Díaz—all Cuban exiles more
saw her in Ballo della Regina and in Swan Lake. recent than Lorna Feijóo and Nelson Madrigal—
I had never seen anyone with her speed, with her bring a touch of Cuban sabor to the Cincinnati
artistry. I had never seen faster piqué turns in my dance banquet. They do feel at home in the
life. I knew her sister Lorena, of course, and I had American company, and “I am thrilled to have
seen her dance with Boada—he is amazing. But held onto them,” says Morgan. Still, she adds, “of
the idea that Lorna and Nelson might dance in course I wish they all could stay, and I know some
the United States began that trip.” By this time, of them move on. It is a delicate balancing act for
the Cincinnati Ballet had become the American an artistic director; it’s not always about groom-
version of Great Britain’s English National Bal- ing and growing, it’s also about what’s on stage
let, a company that under both Ivan Nagy and tonight.” A good artistic director is ever conscious
Peter Schaufuss facilitated visas or work permits of variety and balance in her troupe, and Morgan
and secured jobs for more than a few Cuban is very good at her job.
dancers in exile. Morgan suspected that Nelson On a 2001 Ballet Nacional de Cuba United
and Lorna would not remain long in Cincinnati, States tour, Lorna and Nelson made their decision

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 151

ABOVE: The Swan Queen, and were ready to join Lorna’ sister in exile. I first Lorna in Swan Lake in Cuba, but we had a char-
Lorna Feijóo’s last role in heard about the Cincinnati offer a few days after acter with no voice. When Lorna and Nelson
Havana before joining her I reviewed Lorna’s Giselle in Berkeley, and the came to Boston—and I also have a lot of footage
sister in exile. Courtesy
Cold War cloak-and-dagger details of the defec- of Nelson that didn’t make it to the film—she
of Illume productions/
tion seem to matter a lot less now than the fact was brave and gracious. What she had to say in
Candela, image from
that both Feijóo sisters have left, and that they have those interviews, what impressed me most pow-
Dance Cuba.
become a fascinating living chapter in the annals erfully, was the deep sense of longing. That was
OPPOSITE: Boston Ballet’s of both Cuban and American ballet. there for each and every one of those people, even
Lorna Feijóo and Nelson That chapter is still being written, and many those who are still there in Cuba.” Newport’s gem
Madrigal performing at the dances are still to be danced. It was an accident of a dance film revealed something real, and it
Citi Performing Arts Center that Cynthia Newport’s documentary Dance emerges as a poignant snapshot of a culture. They
(SM) Wang Theatre. Cour- Cuba happened to catch Cuba’s leading ballerina shot in Havana with five cameras, and the results
tesy of Boston Ballet, photo as she became Cuba’s latest dance exile during are spectacular. But the most dramatic scenes in
by Marty Sohl. the film’s production. “We didn’t choose Lorna, Dance Cuba were filmed in Boston, where none
she just happened to be dancing when we were of the principals had expected to be. The director
there. We have a lot of footage of Lorna and also herself was deeply moved by “the human story, by
of Alihaydée Carreño,” said the filmmaker. Car- how much these Cubans love Cuba. I don’t mean
reño would leave Cuba in 2009, but Feijóo’s politically, I mean Cuba the country, how much
defection in 2001 certainly made for high drama all these dancers love it. What Lorna misses the
as the film was in production. “Lorna was very most is the sea.”
brave to be as forthright as she was on camera,” One of Dance Cuba’s loveliest and most dev-
said Newport. “We were fortunate to have filmed astating images is of Lorna and Nelson in a snowy

152 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 153
 Swan Lake—the hunter and his enchanted prey. Courtesy of Illume productions/Candela, image from Dance Cuba.

Lorena Feijóo, beautiful

even while stretching.
Courtesy of David
Martínez.

154 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

 The incomparable Lorena
Feijóo. Courtesy R. J.
Muna.

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 155

Lorena and Lorna Feijóo Boston park in 2003, far from home but happy,
on television with the together through everything, dancing whatever
Muppets. Courtesy of they want to dance. We really can never predict
Sesame Street. where life will take us. For these dancers, the
opportunities and surprises have not stopped.
Lorna and Nelson’s spectacular success in Cin-
cinnati with their debut there in Balanchine’s
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux surprised only those
who did not remember that the couple had been
raised on the piece since ballet school in Cuba.
Lorna made her Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
debut in Anthony Dowell’s Swan Lake opposite
her compatriot Carlos Acosta, a dancer who has
made history of his own in London. It was a lovely
experience to be sure, and it was followed by sev-
eral invitations to join that company. But having
left the Ballet Nacional de Cuba for Cincinnati
Ballet, and having left that company together for
Boston Ballet in 2003, the prospect of being sepa-
rated, even only for a promised season or two until
two contracts turn up at the same time, was not for
Lorna and Nelson.
Besides, their art is being lovingly nourished
in Boston Ballet, and the Cubans have especially
enjoyed dancing together in Val Caniparoli’s
intense Lady of the Camellias and Peter Martins’
eerie neoclassical Distant Light. Boston Bal-
let’s 2009–2010 Opening Night Gala unveiled a right angle in relation to the line etched by the
an insouciantly sexy Lorna in The Afternoon of a foot and bended knee, unlike the Soviet fashion
Faun. Lorna and Nelson both continue to grow in that still influences performance practice in many
Nissinen’s own Swan Lake, “a very different pro- companies. Such details matter, and in this case
duction from Alicia’s,” Lorna said, though happy they are one more indication of how the Cuban
to be keeping at least one Cuban touch: the serene School is influencing American ballet. That is but
double ronds-de-jambes in the Act Two solo varia- one example of the Feijóo effect. On a wider scale,
tion, something so difficult virtually no ballerinas it is exhilarating to notice how two of the finest
outside Cuba dance it these days. “Mikko lets me Cuban ballerinas before the public today, neither
keep them,” said Lorna. “He gives his dancers a any longer anywhere near the Ballet Nacional
lot of freedom.” In San Francisco, Lorena also de Cuba, are revitalizing and changing the way
keeps that detail in Tomasson’s 2009 version of American ballet is danced.
Swan Lake. Coast to coast, each sister’s arabesques Lorena, a single woman but seldom alone,
a cambré in Swan Lake are akin to sighs. For both remains a principal in her prime with San Fran-
sisters, each simple attitude held is formed from cisco Ballet. Like Lorna, Lorena loves to cook

156 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

and is wonderfully at home in a Cuban kitchen. National Ballet, with an enthusiastic following in
There are worse places to live than San Fran- both companies—joined the Boston Ballet at the
cisco, and when Lorena’s love life coincides with invitation of Mikko Nissinen.
her dance, the results have been fascinating; her For Lorena and Lorna, moonlighting together
long affair with the danseur noble Roman Rykine, has been rewarding, as the unique sister act has
with whom she bought a house in Twin Peaks, come to the attention of the press. Magazine cov-
resulted in a dance partnership that brought out ers and two guest appearances on Sesame Street,
the best in both in Giselle and challenged Lorena where the pair genuinely had a giddy good time
to sensual heights that later would served her dancing with Muppets, represent a publicity blitz
well in Don Quixote and Carmen. “We learn to dancers haven’t experienced since the heyday of
bring out the best in each partner,” said Lorena, Russian defectors. In one of many firsts, the two
echoing Alicia Alonso’s teachings. And the dance starred in Swan Lake in Boston, with Nelson part-
world keeps getting smaller. After his breakup nering both sisters who took turns as Odile and
with Lorena, Rykine—a young veteran not only Odette. Lorena and Lorna, as well as Nelson, have
of San Francisco Ballet but also of the English heavy touring schedules, and the chance to dance

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 157

158 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT
 alongside other Cubans is seldom passed up. Both Lorena Feijóo with Andy
return to Miami, to their Cuban public, as often García in his melancholy
as they can. love letter of a film, The
Lorena had a featured role in Andy García’s Lost City. Courtesy Andy
García, photo by Fernando
2006 The Lost City, a melancholy love letter of a
Calzada.
film co-written with García by Guillermo Cabrera
Infante, in what would be the great Cuban writ-
er’s posthumous work. The filmmaker, it is worth
remembering, grew up in the same working-class
Havana neighborhood as Lorena and Lorna Fei-
jóo. The motion picture is an ineffably sad look
back at Cuba’s tragic history, and in particular at
Havana. Lorena plays a dancer called Leonela
(very much an inside joke on the part of Cabrera
Infante), and her sensual dances recalling the
glory days of Havana’s Cabaret Tropicana were
choreographed by Lupe Calzadilla. An especially
lovely solo, and this is no accident, is danced to
Ernesto Lecuona and carries echoes of Alberto
Méndez’s unmistakably Cuban ballet Tarde en la
siesta. Almost no one commented on how Lorena
held her own in the dramatic scenes, in a cast that
included Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert
Duvall. “Lorena is a born actress,” said García.
Of course she is as good an actress as she is a
dancer—it seems only natural.
“Lorena reminds me a lot of her mother
Lupe,” said Pedro Pablo Peña. “My first perfor-
mances in Havana were with Lupe, you know. She
wasn’t as technically great as Lorena, but she was
illuminated, she had this brilliance and light the
moment she came on stage. Lorena is luminous
like that. She has this light from within, and she
is very strong—a lot like Alicia that way too. . . .
I am a fanático of Lorena,” confessed Peña. “She
has such abundant energy, such spontaneous tal-
ent, musicality—but also this peace. And she has
an audacity very few ballerinas can match.
I think her sister Lorna is easy to underesti-
mate, she is more measured, more probing than
Lorena. But I tell you she may be even better,
frankly. I think she is the more natural Giselle, for

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 159

Lorena Feijóo and Rolando
Sarabia in Don Quixote.
Courtesy of the Cuban
Classical Ballet of Miami.

OPPOSITE: Lorna Feijóo on example. But in truth Lorna and Lorena are more me, because they know ballet. He and I rehearsed
the roof of the Gran Teatro alike than they are different.” in San Francisco, and then we flew to Miami.
de La Habana, 2001. Cour- They are probably most alike in Miami, both Lorna tells me she herself, too, gets nervous in
tesy David R. Garten. nervous before their public but expecting that pub- Miami—and my sister is never nervous. I think
lic to welcome them home. Lorena has nerves of part of the nerves is how they will see it in Cuba.”
steel, at least on the surface, and she never experi- It is true that dancing with the exile troupe carries
ences stage fright—except in Miami. “I broke the a definite stigma with the communist intelligen-
ice,” she remembers of her first appearance with tsia inside Cuba. Lorna and Nelson, who have not
the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, opposite an given up hope of dancing with the Ballet Nacio-
incandescent Rolando Sarabia in Don Quixote. nal de Cuba again some day, have limited their
“People in Miami will judge you, Sarabia warned Miami appearances to guest spots in the Miami

160 LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT

Lorena Feijóo. Courtesy
R. J. Muna.

162
International Ballet Festival that is produced and
presented in Miami Beach by the Cuban Classi-
cal Ballet of Miami but is not part of its season.
Lorena, exiled earlier than her sister, throws that
caution to the wind. “I left for freedom, and I am
free. I know things like this, and like being in Andy
García’s movie, matter in Cuba. I know they will
make it more difficult not just to dance again in
Cuba but even just to go there and see my family.
I know these things.” But she is a dancer, and she
dances wherever she wants. Besides, there is some-
thing about Miami.
“I feel Cuban in San Francisco, and I feel
Cuban in Miami,” said Lorena, who enjoys consid-
erable critical acclaim not only with San Francisco
Ballet but also, like her sister, around the world.
“There is no difference. I feel the warmth of the
public in San Francisco, and I feel it in Miami—
but that is different. So many people who see me
in Miami saw me when I was in school, remember
my debuts, they tell me things about my career
that I’d forgotten. I feel a little bit like I am back
home in Cuba when I dance in Miami.”
Still, Lorena knows, “I want to dance for our
people again, for an audience that knows us a lit-
tle better. And I am optimistic. I want our Cuban
people someday to have the art they deserve,
without all the hardships and oppression they ballerina who has willed herself into the romantic Lorna Feijóo. Courtesy
have suffered. Someday we will have that.” Lorna, mold. Romance, the soft lines and ethereal phras- David R. Garten.
embracing a global perspective, points out, “We ing at the heart of, say, Act Two of Giselle, seem
are everywhere, and we learn a lot from every- to come more easily to Lorna Feijóo, whose upper
where. But the Cuban style is inside us all, inside body seems of a piece with an evanescent roman-
every Cuban dancer no matter where. It is alive as tic line. Both Lorena and Lorna make Giselle their
long as we dance.” own, one most often in Helgi Tomasson’s staging,
The Feijóos are both Cuban to a fault, and the other in Maina Gielgud’s. Both make Giselle
both boast the elegant épaulement, sensual back, seem Cuban.
disconcertingly slow turns and endless balances That, too, seems just right somehow.
that are their birthright. Both own a mercurial clas-
sical technique, perfect passés and entrechats, and
crystalline-clear articulation with their feet. And it
is true that in many significant ways Lorena Feijóo
is, like Alicia Alonso before her, a perfect classical

LORENA, LORNA, AND THE FEIJÓO EFFECT 163