Ballet teacher breaking class barriers with dance in Peru
LIMA, Peru — In a Peruvian neighbourhood where families consider running water a luxury, young girls are learning the delicate art of ballet dancing.
In the classroom at a public school near the South American nation’s Pacific coast, girls line up at wooden ballet barres, point toes and curve arms.
“When I dance I forget about everything,” 16-year-old Maria Cielo Cardenas said on a recent afternoon. “It’s as if I were flying.”
The class led by Maria del Carmen Silva, a former professional dancer, is bringing classical ballet dancing to children from impoverished communities where leotards and shiny pink pointe shoes are seldom, if ever, seen.