Rolando
Sarabia

Benois de la Danse laureate

Born to Cuban ballet dancer Rolando Sarabia and Midalis Oquendo. He entered the world of ballet in 1990 as a student at the Alejo Carpentier Elementary Ballet School in Havana, Cuba. Was trained by Rolando Sarabia (his father), Magaly Suarez, Alicia Alonso, and Lázaro Carreño at the National Ballet School in Havana. Early in his career, Sarabia's explosive performance style garnered comparisons to Nijinsky and Baryshnikov.

In 1994 he was awarded with the Gold Medal and Revelation in the Competition at Mercosur in Brazil.
In 1998, Sarabia joined the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, where he was quickly promoted to principal dancer. His repertoire includes leading roles from the classical tradition as well as contemporary works by Cuban and foreign choreographers. In addition to his USA IBC Gold Medal in Jackson, Mississippi, Rolando won the Grand Prix at the International Encounter of Academies, Cuba (1995 and 1998); the Grand Prix at the 1998International Ballet Competition in Paris, Gold Medal at the International Competition in Nagoya, Japan and the Grand Prix at the 1998International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria.

Rolando left Cuba in 2003 when BNC refused to allow him to join the Boston Ballet. Sarabia defected via Mexico, where he had been teaching with permission from the Cuban government.

He joined Houston Ballet as principal dancer and in 2007 he joined the Miami City Ballet, where he remains as a principal dancer.

Rolando has performed in Galas with renowned dancers as Maya Plisetskaya, Patrick Dupont, Farouk Ruzimatov, Alicia Alonso, Tamara Rojo, among others and recently with Mary Carmen Catoya at the Fire Island Festival 2009 in New York City.

In 2010 Rolando Sarabia has perform the full ballet version of Don Quixote with Lorena Feijoo for the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, In September 2010 Rolando returned to Brazil after few years to delight his public with two pas de deux; La Fille Mal Gardee and Don Quixote, and more recently Sarabia performed with Xiomara Reyes in the Closing Night Gala of the 15th Anniversary of the International Ballet Festival of Miami and in Singapore at the Esplanade Dance Festival.

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