Claudia Suárez, Apprentice, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida

Claudia Suárez, photo by Gene Schiavone

Claudia Suárez was born in Los Teques, Venezuela. She began her ballet studies when she was 5 in EFPDanza, a local ballet school in her hometown and also had additional training in Central School of Ballet, London. She continued her training at Fundación Ballet de Las Américas in Caracas and Vladimir Issaev School of Classical Ballet in North Miami Beach, Florida, where she graduated in 2015.

She has participated in numerous festivals in her country and twice at an International Festival in Escuela Nacional de Ballet in La Habana, Cuba. Claudia has also taken different workshops at the English National Ballet School and The Royal Ballet School in London.

In 2010, Claudia won the Silver Medal at the Caracas National Ballet Competition. In 2011, she was a finalist in the same competition. She was also awarded as Top Ten Dancer at Universal Ballet Competition, Florida, in 2015. At the age of 15, she won a scholarship to attend Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida’s Summer Intensive. She later repeated it in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

After graduating, Claudia was appointed as a Trainee in Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida and after one year, she was promoted to an Apprentice position for the 2016-2017 season.

Claudia created her blog “Claudia’s Journal” in 2016. Before that, her writing started with a simple translation of the book “The Ballet Companion” by Eliza Gaynor Minden. Giving full credits to the book, Claudia translated ballet tips from English to Spanish, creating a community for young Spanish speaking ballet students.

After moving to the United States, Claudia decided to dedicate the blog to herself and share her experiences. “With my young experience in the Ballet world, I want to inspire my readers just as ballet inspires me”. In the future, apart from her dancing career, she wishes to pursue a writing career, or journalism, in order to write for the arts and ballet.

Her repertoire so far in Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida include Corp de Ballet and Soloist roles on Issaev´s choreographies: The Nutcracker, The Rite of Spring, Shostakovich Suites, Suite of Waltzes, Fuga con Pajarillo, Coppelia, Taiko, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. Also excerpts from Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadére, and Swan Lake in the Summer Programs. Roles as a ballet student in school productions include The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Don Quixote, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Chopiniana and excerpts of Paquita and Sleeping Beauty; as well as many choreographies created by the school directors.