Two Cuban sisters, principal dancers at two U.S. companies

Two Cuban sisters, principal dancers at two U.S. companies
By Kim Curtis, Associated Press Writer | December 4, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO --Lorena Feijoo, bold and dramatic, dances on the West Coast.
Lorna Feijoo, graceful and elegant, dances on the East Coast.
Somehow, despite their artistic differences, both sisters typify the style
and training of the National Ballet of Cuba, which has become known for
producing some of today's most talented and highly sought dancers. And in
the rarefied world of ballet, it's uncommon, if not remarkable, to find two
siblings performing as principal dancers with major companies at the same
time. But Lorena and Lorna Feijoo are anything but average.
Trained by Alicia Alonso, the longtime legendary artistic director of the
National Ballet of Cuba, the sisters are regarded as two of the finest
ballerinas among an abundance of Cuban-trained talent. And as Russian
dancers such as Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov have defined ballet
since the 1970s, Spanish-speaking countries now dominate, particularly Cuba.
The Feijoos aren't the only dancing siblings to star in the ballet world.
Maria and Marjorie Tallchief performed in the 1940s and 1950s; Gelsey and
Johnna Kirkland and fellow Americans Lew, Harold and William Christensen, in
the 1970s; Daniel and Joseph Duell in the 1980s; and Czech-born brothers
Otto and Jiri Bubenicek are currently dancing in Hamburg, Germany.
Lorena, 35, joined San Francisco Ballet in 1999 and is considered the more
fiery, dramatic, passionate performer. Lorna, 31, joined Boston Ballet in
2003. She's generally thought of as more lyrical, dainty, soft.
However, both women are reluctant to make such generalizations about each
other and both insist that they don't compete with each other.
"My sister is my inspiration," says Lorna in an interview from Boston where
her season recently opened with "Cinderella."
"We don't try to do the same things. I love how she does and she loves how I
do. ... We are really different and similar at the same time."
While it's impressive that both sisters became accomplished dancers, it's
not surprising they were drawn to the stage. Their mother, Lupe Calzadilla,
danced in the National Ballet corps, while the wardrobe mistress baby-sat
her daughters backstage. Their father, Jose Lorenzo Feijoo, is an actor who
lives in Mexico.
Lorena believes dancing is in her DNA.
"It's a little bit in your cells," she says during a break in a San
Francisco rehearsal room. She's tiny, much smaller than she appears on
stage, with a heart-shaped face and dark, wide-set eyes. "Our country was a
mixture of Spanish with the flamenco dancing, then they brought the African
slaves. ... We are the product of the mix of two great cultures that love
music and dancing."
Both women are quick to credit their world-renowned training in Havana.
Lorena says she knew when she was 2 that she wanted to dance and she entered
the National Ballet school at 9. Calzadilla tried to steer the younger
sister away from ballet and toward modern dance, reluctant to put the girls
in direct competition. But Lorna didn't listen. She sneaked off to an
audition at 10 and was quickly accepted into the national school.
Under Alonso's strict tutelage, both girls received a mixture of Russian,
French, American and Cuban ballet training. And they learned more than dance
steps: They took lessons in piano, French, choreography, painting and folk
dancing.
"We are fortunate because we get this very complete education that, at the
time, is overwhelming," Lorena says. "Imagine a kid that's 9 years old
carrying all the books from regular school like literature and math and
Spanish and then doing all the extra from the ballet school."
Lorena, always a perfectionist, won her first ballet competition at 13. In
1988, she joined the National Ballet and started doing solo and principal
roles after about a year in the corps. At the time, the company's
co-founder, Alonso, was still dancing, along with a generation of older
ballerinas who made it tough for Lorena to snag the more challenging,
meatier roles.
So, at 20, she left Cuba. While she didn't defect, Alonso wasn't pleased and
has since prevented her from dancing with the company. Lorena performed for
a time in Mexico and Belgium. In 1995, she came to the United States,
planning to dance with the Los Angeles Ballet, which disbanded before it
ever took to the stage because of financial problems. When the Joffrey
Ballet offered Lorena a slot, she took it and stayed in Chicago four years.
The first time Chicago Tribune dance writer Sid Smith saw Lorena, she was
dancing the Nutcracker's Sugar Plum Fairy.
"She just blew me away," he says. "She did the whole time she was here. I
could never say enough about her. My take on her? She's just got it all --
strength, form, perfect positioning, terrific acrobatic strength. ... She
charms the audience without overkill. She just hits all the ballet buttons."
Lorena left the Joffrey because she missed performing the classics such as
"Romeo and Juliet" and "Giselle."
With the much-beloved Evelyn Cisneros and Sabina Allemann both retiring that
year, San Francisco's artistic director, Helgi Tomasson, was quick to snatch
up Lorena, who had offered to accept a soloist's contract until he had room
for her.
"She has the quality of when she enters a stage, she takes charge. Eyes go
to her," Tomasson says. "She's very energetic. She has a charisma about her.
She moves very fluidly in a big way. ... She's a hard worker whose
exuberance transcends on stage."
Lorna took a much different path. She was accepted into Cuba's National
Ballet at 18, rising through the ranks after her sister had left. She didn't
move abroad until 2002. With much of her homegrown talent scattered across
the globe, Alonso offered Lorna and her husband and fellow dancer, Nelson
Madrigal, an open invitation to perform in Cuba anytime.
"Cuba had many, many dancers," Lorna explains, her English not as smooth as
her sister's, but her voice, nearly identical. "My sister was young. She was
a great dancer. When she left, it was better for us. ... In Cuba now, it's
more open."
But because the couple hasn't yet been issued their green cards, the U.S.
government prohibits them from traveling abroad.
Los Angeles Times dance critic Lewis Segal first saw Lorna perform in Havana
in 1978. He also saw her on several U.S. tours of "Cinderella" and "Giselle"
before she joined Boston Ballet; he sees Lorena frequently. He calls the
sisters very "well-rounded, accomplished women."
"Lorna is more naturally the dainty, classical, delicate flower. Lorena is
the hot-blooded, tempestuous, dramatic firebrand," he says, noting that
those generalizations may be based more on their companies and how they're
cast, rather than their talents. San Francisco has a lot of woman who can be
delicate and refined. They don't need Lorena for that. They can release her
to other challenges."
Boston's Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen says he's thrilled to have Lorna
dancing with his company. Alonso has a knack for turning out many extremely
talented men, but fewer women, and he considers Lorna and her sister among
the finest.
Four of Boston's nine principal dancers are Cuban-trained.
"Cuban style is ... the top of the heap," Segal says. "For excitement and
technical flash, it's the epitome."
The Tribune's Smith has heard rumors about a ballet being developed for both
sisters to perform together, which he and many others would enjoy seeing.
Lorna says she knows of no such ballet.
The sisters performed publicly together for the first time last year in
"Swan Lake." It was a sold-out, one-night-only performance in which Lorna
danced Odette -- a princess who is human at night, but turned into a swan
during the day by an evil sorcerer -- and Lorena danced the role of Odile,
the sorcerer's daughter. One dancer usually dances both roles. Madrigal, a
principal for Boston Ballet, partnered both.
They were set to dance together again in October at the Hispanic Heritage
Awards in Washington, D.C., but were sidelined by Lorna's pulled hamstring.
Lorena says she considers herself lucky that she hasn't been plagued by
serious injuries, but says it's unfair that a dancer's body begins failing
as she learns more about her art.
"I'm not going to die when I stop dancing," she says. "I love dancing and I
am sure I will greatly miss some aspects of it, like performing for an
audience or getting the last applause or getting people at the end of the
show telling you you were magnificent and we'll remember this performance
for the rest of our lives."

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