Arts & culture is something that can follow us throughout our entire lives and build new communities for generations to come. At the Latin Ballet of Virginia, you will find this to be true, as a dance company that embraces what it means to be family and to preserve cultural storytelling by all means accessible in Richmond and the surrounding region. We spoke with Director of Operations, Zaira Pulido, and Artistic Director & life-long LBV dancer, Marisol Betancourt-Sotolongo about their meaningful experiences with the Latin Ballet in this week’s Spotlight.

Read Zaira & Marisol’s words below:

CultureWorks: Who are you and what's your story?

Zaira Pulido: My name is Zaira Pulido. I am the Director of Operations at the Latin Ballet of Virginia. I have been working with the Latin Ballet since last year, so I am new here. I am from Colombia, the same place our founder, Ana Ines King, was born! I am a dancer and an attorney, and here I can mix all of my skills. As a lawyer, I plan and work with communications, and as a dancer, I bring an artist perspective. I have been living in the United States since 2021, so again, I am very new, but I understand the challenges that Latino and Spanish people can face when they move away from their original country.

Marisol Betancourt-Sotolongo: My name is Marisol Betancourt-Sotolongo. I was born in Richmond, Virginia and my family is Cuban. I am the Artistic Director of the Latin Ballet of Virginia. I started taking classes at the Latin Ballet when I was 3 years old.

CW: When was the Latin Ballet of Virginia founded and what initially brought you to become involved with it?

ZP: The Latin Ballet of Virginia was founded in Richmond in 1997 under the direction of Ana Ines King. She has been working on this project for all these years, and she has done amazing work. She began with a small group of people who wanted to learn how to dance salsa and other Latin American rhythms. Since then, the Latin Ballet of Virginia has grown and grown and today, after 25 years, we are here.

When I talked to Ana Ines a year ago, she needed someone to oversee the strategic plan and operation of the Latin Ballet of Virginia. I went to research the Latin Ballet and I remember very vividly, the first time that I opened the webpage of the Latin Ballet, I was amazed at all the work that you can see behind the photos. I said to her, "I really want to do this." I really wanted to do this because it's something that connects me in all aspects of my life.

The thing that I learned about the Latin Ballet is that in every single step, there is something underneath that you can't see, but you can feel. You can feel the love. You can find it in every single class, in the performances, the after-school programs, the workshops, and all the other things that we do with the libraries and schools. The beautiful thing about this project is, for example, Marisol was a student of Ana Ines since she was a child; she grew up with the Latin Ballet and now has a child of her own. That's magic! Here, everyone is like familia, like family.  

CW: Tell me a bit about your relationship to your work at the Latin Ballet. How do you connect your dance background to your role at the ballet?

ZP: Since I was a child, I have been dancing. I have a bachelor’s degree in dance, and I began to work with children maybe 15 years ago. I am very interested in childhood and the things that we can do with dance and the arts. For that reason, I got my Master’s degree in dance research in Mexico. My focus of work has been dance and children with ADHD. So, these reflections and studies give me a wide perspective of the function of dance and the things that can be done with dance at the Latin Ballet. That's important in my background because I am not only Latino, a woman, immigrant, but also a researcher in the dance field.

MBS: Since I grew up and trained at The Latin Ballet, I have performed in most of the choreography either as a child or as an adult. As the Artistic Director, this has given me a unique and helpful perspective.

CW: What makes the Latin Ballet a unique cultural performance space in our region?

ZP: As far as I know, nobody is doing the things that we do. Of course, there is a lot of work around Latin American and Hispanic teachings in our region, and now we have so much movement for equity and that's great! In the middle of that, Latin Ballet of Virginia is always thinking about how to create education and experiences around being Latino or Hispanic, and we have a specific way to do that. We use storytelling, and that is very helpful because sometimes I find people saying, "I like dance, but when I watch dance, I don't understand anything." I think that with our storytelling way of doing things, even the language, like Spanish or English, is not so important. We are always telling a story that is behind our culture, a story that is in front of our dances, or a story that is with the music. We are creating educational experiences for all the community. In Richmond and in our region, this movement is so important, because we are in a region that is so diverse, sometimes people can be a little confused or lost, especially when you are immigrating from abroad and begin to live here.

For example, the Day of the Dead can be understood through dance, or, we have had a Macondo presentation at the VMFA, which helps educate about Gabriel García Márquez and "One Hundred Years of Solitude." The specific music that Latino people listen to can be used to teach because there is a story behind it. And, for the Latinos and Spanish people, that can feel like, I am part of this culture, I am part of Richmond and I am part of this region because so many are speaking the same language, and not necessarily the Spanish language but language through stories, backgrounds, and roots. I translate that into building a home everywhere we go for all the Latino and Hispanic people, and having a lot of guests to visit us and understand us. So, I think that we are unique in that way.

MBS: Our diversity and our performances which showcase authentic Latin Culture make us unique.

CW: Earlier this year you worked with a few books like Aguas and Amy's Travels. How does the Latin Ballet choose stories like these that they want to present through dance?

ZP: That's an important question. I want to begin with Amy's Travels, because we had our summer camp about Amy's Travels. Amy's Travels is a book written by a Virginian author, Kathryn Starke. This year we were brainstorming what we wanted to share with our children, and we were very interested in working with schools and different organizations through the program that we named "Everybody Reads!" which is about literacy. For that reason, we thought that Amy's Travels was going to be a beautiful opening to those things that we are planning to do during this new school year. We used the book during the summer camp as an inspiration tool and then the children performed with it, co-creating their own personal dreams of traveling through dance with us. By the end of the of the week, we had our final performance with Kathryn Starke as our guest. You can use literacy to dance, to create movement and then use dance and movement to share other expressions. At the end of all of that is the person, and in this case a child.

Aguas, a story about the James River, was used because Ana Ines is a friend of John Bryan (former founding President of CultureWorks), the author of the book, “The James River in Richmond.” Ana Ines knew that he was going to have this book, and she was thinking about our final performance of the year almost at the same time that the book was coming out. So, she thought why don’t we use the book and create a performance about the James River, because we are here, in Richmond, in the region, but we are also a part of history and this environment right now. We talked to John Bryan and we began to work around the ideas of the book with the dancers. That's a way that we can speak through our bodies. I think you can see a lot of our influences with literacy. Even our main performance of the year is the Legend of the Poinsettia which we perform in January every single year, is a story about a Mexican girl who discovers the power of giving without expecting anything.

MBS: The majority of The Latin Ballet's choreography is comprised of Story Ballets. Our Director Emeritus Ana Ines King created our Ballets with a focus on the SOLs for the State of Virginia.

CW: Since you've been at the Latin Ballet, how have you felt yourself connect to the community around you or have you discovered anything new?

ZP: I think that the most important thing that I have discovered through this experience with community, is that I can feel complete. I didn't know that feeling in my professional life. I have been doing very well as a lawyer, and I have been doing very well as a dancer, choreographer and dance researcher, but to have these things at the same point within me, in my daily role in the work that I do every single day, it's a new feeling of being complete that I have never experienced before as a professional.

MBS: Since I grew up at the LBV most of the Hispanic and dance community leaders have watched me perform and grow up over the years. Therefore, whatever venue I go to with LBV to teach or perform I feel welcome and at home.

CW: Do you have a favorite memory or performance so far of that that you were involved with at The Latin Ballet?

ZP: I am going to choose the first time that I traveled to Virginia. I was living in New York, and then I came down here to Ana Ines, the company, and Richmond, of course. I remember that the professional company was having a rehearsal. I went into the studio, and I sat down on the wood floor, and I felt that I belonged there. It wasn't one thing, it was all the things. The dancers around the room, the music, the wood smell, the feeling in my body that was in contact with the floor, the view that I had because they were dancing all around, and Ana was in the front with her back to the mirrors. It was everything that invited me to be there. I thought to myself, they are amazing, and not just their technique or their performance; I was feeling everything that was emerging from that.

I think it's memorable because it was my first time here, my first time with the company, my first time knowing Ana Ines in the work field, but also at that moment, I decided to work with the Latin Ballet of Virginia and I felt like I can live here. I have a husband, and I didn't ask him at that time [laughs], but I was thinking, "Oh my God, I want to do this. I'm going to do this. I love to do this." It was like love at first sight. For that reason, it is memorable.

MBS: Touring and performing in the US as well as Colombia and Mexico, are my favorite memories.

CW: What has been inspiring you lately?

ZP: That's difficult! Everything! I have a balcony in my apartment. So, the balcony.

MBS: As I watch The Latin Ballet grow and bloom with my son and the other young dancers, I feel inspired as my dance experience has come full circle.

CW: What do arts and culture mean to you and why does it matter?

MBS: Arts and culture are extremely important for children. Growing up in the city, being a part of The Latin Ballet, gave me an outlet for expression and opportunities that I might not have had.

ZP: For me, arts and culture mean- our floor, like the human floor. We move across the floor, we can use the floor, and we are always connected with the floor. Arts and culture is there even if you don't notice it. The gravity's always giving you the chance to use this floor however you want. But, you need to be aware of that in a powerful way. It matters because we are born in our culture, but we are building a new one. Every single step that every human being around the world is taking in this moment, is building a new culture. We can build it and not be aware of it at all, or we can be aware and we can be responsible of it. We can use it to the purpose of what we think is good. And, I think it matters because it contains everything. The way you move, the way you act, the way you relate with others.

CW: I like the floor analogy. I feel like that is a very dancer-like analogy!

ZP: [Laughs] Yeah, I know! The dancer is like screaming all around me.

CW: Where can someone could see the Latin Ballet next?

ZP: We have a very special opportunity now, at the beginning of the new school year. This year we have decided to work at the Perkinson Center of the Arts, south of Richmond, and we are promoting all our programming there, especially the after-school classes taking place on Wednesdays. This is something new and it's important to highlight the opportunity that people have in Chesterfield to attend our classes and our performances. You can find all of our information at www.latinballet.com and it's going to be wonderful. Registration is open for our after-school program and we are very open to working with the schools, libraries, and organizations south of Richmond. We are dreaming about having more workshops about Amy's Travels and other books. That's our main goal this year, to have a lot of impact on the schools and the families.

MBS: Follow us on all our social media pages. Hispanic Heritage Month is coming up and we will be performing all over the state of Virginia.

Learn more about the Latin Ballet of Virginia: https://www.latinballet.com/