Categories: Dancers

Cassandra Lea-Saxton

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Q&A with Apprentice Luca Anaya

What are you most looking forward to for the 50th Anniversary season?

What I look forward to the most are the opportunities in which I’ll be able to have to perform, especially alongside some of the most amazing artists I’m proud to call my colleagues.

How does your identity and background inform who you are as an artist?

My identity as a Latin American man means everything to me. Often in my work, when certain roles allow for it, I try to find a way to add a little extra spice and character to the roles I’m dancing. My grandparents were also ballet dancers at the Ballet Nacional de Guatemala.

What is the most rewarding part of being a dancer?

The most rewarding part, hands down, has to be the high you get when taking your bows- there’s no feeling like it. After all of the hard work and weeks spent rehearsing, the bows make it all worth it every time.

If you could replay one special performance, what would it be?

If I could replay one performance, it would have to be the first time I performed Twyla Tharp‘s Waiting at the Station last season. I felt so much joy after performing, but I felt even greater joy performing onstage. Everything seemed to fall in place the right way, as if I wasn’t actually dancing, but I was transported to New Orleans.

Photos by Angela Sterling & Lindsay Thomas