Díaz-Canel mourns death of renowned ballerina

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 17 (ACN) In a post on X, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel lamented the death early Wednesday morning of the Cuban ballet dancer Ramona de Saá Bello at the age of 84 and offered his condolences to her family, friends, colleagues and disciples.

Born in Havana in July 1939, Ramona de Saá was recognized as one of the most outstanding figures of dance pedagogy in the contemporary world, along with her sister Margarita and the so-called four jewels of Cuban ballet—Mirta Pla, Josefina Méndez, Loipa Araujo and Aurora Bosch—who contributed to the rebirth of the National Ballet of Cuba following the triumph of the Revolution.

For a long time, the grand maître of Cuban ballet was director of the Fernando Alonso National Ballet School, assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), and methodologist at the National Center of Art Schools.

Winner of an honorary doctorate in Arts in 2000 and of the National Artistic Education Award in 2002, Ramona de Saá trained several generations of great dancers during 45 years as a teacher with the Cuban School of Ballet.