Ramona de Saa
RAMONA DE SAA
Master Ballet Teacher
Director of Cuban National Ballet School
Ramona de Saá began studying classical ballet after having received a scholarship at the age of eleven along with her sister, Margarita de Saá. She was a student with Fernando and Alicia Alonso, Magda González, Mary Skeaping, Ana Ivanova and Jose Parés at the Alicia Alonso Academy.
She was one of the first ballerinas of the National Ballet of Cuba. With the Cuban National Ballet Company de Saá toured Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, Mongolia and the former Soviet Union. An injury saw her retire as a ballerina in 1966, after 12 successful years as a dancer.
In 1962 she founded the National School of Arts directed by Fernando Alonso. In 1965 she was named directress of the National Ballet School and in 1977 was promoted as a National Adviser with the Arts Teaching Division, currently known as National Arts Schools Center, CNEART.
De Saá is an outstanding ballet mistress, one of the most renowned experts in dance teaching in today’s world, she is internationally acknowledged as the designer of today’s classical dance teaching system in Cuba. She is a professor with the Cuban National Ballet School, an assistant professor with the Higher Institute for the Arts and a methodologist at the National Arts School Center in Cuba, and the current Director of the Cuban National Ballet School.
She has been the professor and mentor of most of the main male dancers and ballerinas with the Cuban National Ballet company, including, among many others, former principal with American Ballet Theater- and Carlos Acosta –guest principal dancer with the Royal Ballet of the London based in Royal Opera House.
At present she is a promoter and organizer of national and international dance competitions and festivals for ballet students; she has also participated in international events as ballet mistress, jury member and professor in technical assistance programs in different countries.
She has received important awards and recognitions, including Cuba’s highest cultural distinction –the “Felix Varela” Order- granted by the Cuban Council of State; a Diploma from the Nina Novak Ballet, Caracas, Venezuela; the Citizen of Honor Title by the City of Torino, Italy; the Vignale Danza Award in Italy; the Jeonville Festival Best Mistress Award in Brazil; the Grand Prix as Best International Ballet Mistress at the Regio Danza Festival held in Calabria, Italy.
In 2006 Ramona de Sáa Bello received Cuba’s National Dance Award for her entire life’s work.