Professional Training Division Head
Professional Training Division Faculty, School Administration, School Leadership, The Washington School of Ballet - Northwest Campus, Upper Division Faculty, Washington School of Ballet
Xiomara Reyes, Head of the Professional Training Division at TWSB, had a successful and long international career. Performing with The National Ballet of Cuba, Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium and American Ballet Theatre in NY where she danced as a Principal Dancer for 14 years before retiring from the stage in 2015. She was born in Cuba, studied at Cuba’s National Ballet School and was a recipient of awards as well as a guest artist with companies around the world. Scroll to the bottom for more information on her performance career.
From 2013-2018 she co-directed IBStage, a summer intensive in Barcelona, Spain which aimed to connect renowned professionals of the dance field with young talented dancers. In 2015 she directed From Studio to Stage in Hartford where she staged Giselle. Reyes has been a jury and guest teacher with YAGP, ADC, as well as other national and international competitions. In 2018 she was part of the Jury in the XI USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. She continues to give master classes all around the world.
Reyes was also a part of Voices and Visions: The Altria/ABT Women’s Choreography Project that nurtured her love of choreographing which has been a big part of her contribution to TWSB and TWB.
In 2016, she was invited by Julie Kent to Head The Washington School of Ballet, bringing her experience to support the vision of excellence of the institution. After three years of hard work and dedication in support of students and faculty, she took part in the restructuring of the School as the next step of growth for the organization and became the Professional Division Head, the role she exercises till now. During this time, she and husband and Senior Faculty member, Rinat Imaev, have successfully adapted many classical pieces to maximize performance opportunities and growth for the students. Their co-adaptation includes a suite of “La Bayadere”, “Corsaire”, “Don Quixote”, “Raymonda”,”Carnival of Venice”, “Diana and Acteon”, the “Grand Pas of Paquita”,” Talisman”, “La Gioconda”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” and pas de six of “Esmeralda“ as well as short excerpts from “Coppelia”.
Ms. Reyes has choreographed classical and neoclassical ballets as “Afternoon at Villa St Agatha”, “Awakening of Flora”, “Ebb and Flow”, “ Sunlit Dust Dance”, “In the Labyrinth of Mind and Soul”, “ Arbor Ardor” for the School and “Chronos” for Company, Created in 2020 during the pandemic, “Chronos” was chosen to be a part of the Library of Congress Performing Arts Covid-19 Response Collection.
In 2019, Reyes added Mime classes to the curriculum to support the artistic development of the students. In January 2021 during the stress of the pandemic she recognized the need of supporting the students mentally and incorporated Mindfulness into the curriculum. The Program also kept performing through Zoom and showcased Class Concerts, The Waltz of The Flowers of Nutcracker, The Pas de Trois of Swan Lake as well as a special repertoire project, where students were guided through the process of creating and filming their own dance.
Reyes is passionate about teaching and inspiring the new generation of dancers and takes great pride in seeing the students succeed in living their dreams.
She’s also passionate about the power of Dance and Art in general, to better Humankind as well as very curious about soulful living and human potential. She hopes to instill this curiosity in her students as she relates to the quote attributed to Einstein “ Dancers are the athletes of God”
Performance Bio
Born in Cuba, Xiomara Reyes studied at Cuba’s National Ballet School. Upon her graduation, she joined The National Ballet of Cuba were she performed as a corp de ballet and soloist in the most important works of the Classical repertory. At the same time she had the opportunity of performing many principal roles with the Joven Guardia de Cuba, a smaller company under the direction of Laura Alonso that allowed young talented dancers to perform those roles. Two years later she was invited to join the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium as a Soloist. She danced leading roles with this company for seven years expanding her Classical and Modern repertory. In 2001 she joined American Ballet Theater as a Soloist and after two years was promoted to the rank of Principal Dancer. ABT’s repertory allowed her to develop and grow as an artist with works of her favorite choreographers like MacMillan, Ashton, Tudor or Killian, Neumeier, Wheeldom, Ratmansky, Welch, Kudelka among others.
She has danced as a Guest Artist in companies such as The National Theatre of Tokyo, Ochi International Ballet in Osaka, and Hakucho Ballet Japan. In France with the Jeune Ballet de France, and Ballet the Limoges. In Italy with Balletto Del Sud. In Greece with the Nafsika Dance Theater. In Chicago with Georgia State Ballet and in Russia with the Bashkirian State Ballet. She has also appeared in prestigious events and Galas as the World Festival in Japan, in Korea at the International Dance Festival, at The International Ballet Gala In Taipei, El Festival Internacional de Ballet de la Habana, Las Galas de Los Gigantes de la Danza y el Festival de Córdoba en Mexico, The Festival Dance Open in Saint Petersburg, The Nureyev Festival en Oufa, Russia. Gala of Stars of XXI Century in Toronto and NY, YAGP Stars of Today meet Stars of Tomorrow, and Galas Danza IBStage among others. In 2015 she danced the role of Katherine in the premiere of Septime Webre’s “Sleepy Hollow ” with The Washington Ballet, and performed Giselle with Oklahoma Ballet.
Her repertory include roles like Giselle, Manon,, Swanilda in Coppélia, Kitri in Don Quixote, Titania in The Dream, Lise in La Fille mal gardée, Caroline in Jardin aux Lilas, Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country, Desdemona in Othello, Raymonda, the Cowgirl in Rodeo, Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Sylvia.Zina in The Bright Stream, Cinderella in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, Cinderella in James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Sibyl in Dorian, Anne in Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII, Le Grand Pas de Deux, Prudence in Lady of the Camellias, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, His Wife in The Moor’s Pavane, Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy in Kevin McKenzie’s The Nutcracker, Clara, the Princess in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Olga in Onegin. The leading role in Allegro Brillante, the first and fourth movements in Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, a leading role in Désir, Who Was She? in Dim Lustre, the Debutante in Offenbach in the Underworld, the Ballerina in Petrouchka, the Youngest Sister in Pillar of Fire, Juliet in McMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and Ashton’s Romeo’s Farewell to Juliet, Celestial in Shadowplay, the Young Girl in Le Spectre de la Rose, the third movement in Symphony in C, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, and leading roles in Birthday Offering,The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Brief Fling, Clear, Duets, Études, The Garden of Villandry, Glow – Stop, The Leaves Are Fading, Majisimo, Overgrown Path, Petite Mort, Piano Concerto #1 and Without Words.
Her awards include: the Gold Medal for the Best Soloist at the International Ballet Competition of Chiclayo, Peru (1988), Best Couple Prize at the XIV International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria (1990), Silver Medal at the Cinquienne Concours International de Danse de Paris (1992), and Second Prize at the International Ballet Competition in Luxembourg (1995).
In June 2015 she retired with American Ballet Theatre in the title role of Giselle and danced it again with Oklahoma Ballet after a few months. She did perform in galas while also being a teacher and judge in competitions before accepting the position of Head of the School at TWSB.
