COURTESY BALLET HAWAII
Husband and wife team Luis Serrano and Katia Garranza star in Ballet Hawaii's "Nutcracker."
‘Nutcracker’ has Young male ballet dancers seem to be relatively scarce in Honolulu these days. How else to explain local productions in which some of the little ballerinas must play boys' roles?
Cuban flavor
A Cuban couple will make
the production twice as sweetJohn Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comLuis Serrano, who makes his Hawaii debut tonight as the Cavalier Prince in Ballet Hawaii's production of "Nutcracker," said that's not a problem in his native Cuba.
"Cuba right now has too many male dancers, and they have good positions in other companies (outside Cuba)," Serrano said from his home in Miami.
His wife, Mexican-born ballerina Katia Carranza, clarified that what Luis really meant is that there are enough young men going into ballet in Cuba -- and not necessarily that there's a shortage of partners for them.
Luis Serrano continued that "Cuba has strong ballet schools, and right now there are many good male students. In other countries (there may be a shortage of men), I don't know why. In Cuba there are many boys doing ballet."
Serrano said, "It's difficult to learn to speak English because in Miami everybody speaks Spanish," but there was no problem understanding him as he shared the story of how a young Cuban boy came to devote his life to ballet, joined the Miami City Ballet, and is now coming to Hawaii to star in the holiday perennial.
The fact that his wife will be joining him to make her debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy makes the engagement twice as sweet.
Serrano, 30, started training at the age of 9. Someone in his hometown of Pinar del Rio asked if he'd like to dance. The young Luis knew he liked to dance but didn't know anything about ballet.
Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall Ballet Hawaii's "Nutcracker"
When: 8 p.m. today, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and 2 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $25 to $55, available at the Blaisdell Box Office and all Ticket Plus outlets
Call: 526-4400"I never see before ballet, but I said OK. ... Then when the teacher put me in first position, open the legs and everything, I said, 'What is that?' But I decided to stay and learn ballet, and I liked it after that. The government paid for everything."
AFTER five years studying in Pinar del Rio, Serrano went to the national ballet school, the Escuela Nacional de Ballet, in Havana. He graduated in 1991 and joined Alica Alonso's Ballet Nacional de Cuba for several years while also dancing in Venezuela with the Ballet Clasico de Camara, Ballet Nacional Juvenile and the Ballet Nacional de Caracas Teatro Teresas Carreo.
A knowledgeable friend of mine had previously filled me in on how Alonso and Cuban leader Fidel Castro had developed the Ballet Nacional de Cuba with the same thoroughness and attention to detail that the Russians use in maintaining the legendary perfection of the Bolshoi. Promising children like Serrano were recruited and trained with all expenses paid, and within a relatively short time, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba became a world-class company.
Serrano's career brought him to the United States in 1998 when he received a bronze medal at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss., and was offered a position as a principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet. He met Carranza during the competition, and she was also offered a contract in Miami. It was there that their romance blossomed.
"We started to talk and go out, and now we're married," he said as Carranza giggled in the background.
They returned to Jackson in 2002 with Serrano as Carranza's coach. She received a bronze medal, and they were invited to come to Hawaii.
And despite the prickly political relationship between Cuba and the United States, Serrano is living in Miami with the permission of the Cuban government.
"The Cuban company travels a lot, and if an artistic director (outside Cuba) likes you, he can offer you contract, and if Alicia Alonso gives you permission to go to the other company, you can go. I don't have any connections with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba right now."
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