Growing up in León, Mexico, about five hours north of Mexico City, Adalhí Aranda’s entire childhood was infused with a love for the arts.
“My parents are very educated culturally and artistically, so I grew up with that,” she said.
As a result, she developed an early love for dance, specifically ballet. Now she spends her days translating that love to children here in Lexington as owner and operator of Bluegrass Youth Ballet.
From the beginning, Aranda’s emphasis at Bluegrass Youth Ballet has been on the children and their experience.
“I know that 99 percent of these kids will not make it professionally, and maybe that’s not even their goal,” she said. “But throughout the years and through this process, I want them to have a positive experience about the arts.”
Although Aranda danced professionally before opening Bluegrass Youth Ballet, her success did not come easily. As the fourth child of five, in a city where there weren’t a lot of options for ballet instruction, Aranda did not receive formal training until she enrolled in a school at age 12.
“I started very late and I didn’t really learn very much technique until I was even older,” she explained.
In her free time, she watched videotapes of The Royal Ballet and The American Ballet.
“I watched them so many times and I knew that I needed further training,” she said. “So when I was 16, I moved to a school with a lot of structure and I had to start from scratch. I don’t know why I didn’t give up at that point, but I didn’t.”
Her determination and drive are what continued to push her forward toward her dream. She moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, when she was 19 to train more intensively and eventually took a job at a ballet company in Evansville, Indiana, before coming to dance with the Lexington Ballet in 1999. She also danced with Kentucky Ballet Theatre.
“The dance world is very funny — a lot of it is luck, a lot is talent and a lot is drive,” Aranda said. “I was very driven. I never danced in a big place — and because I danced in smaller places I had better chances to evolve faster as a dancer.”
But Aranda always knew there was more to her dream.
“I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to dance until I was 30 and then I wanted to have a baby,” she said.
Having her daughter was the catalyst she needed to make an even bigger change. She saw an opportunity to create something positive in the community and she used her innate drive and passion, honed from years of dancing, to make it a reality.
“I had a very strong idea of what my school would look like and be like,” she said. “I wanted a place just for children, where they would have an outlet and train well and have a positive experience that was colorful and artistic and creative.”
At Bluegrass Youth Ballet she has created all that and more.
A main component that sets the school apart from others in the area is its emphasis on culture, gained through participation in original performances, written and directed by Aranda.
“The thing I love about our ballets is all the folk dancing and cultural ethnicity that is presented — there is no way these children would ever see or perform something like that otherwise,” she said.
They get more than just dance at Bluegrass Youth Ballet.
One example is the upcoming performance of “Arabella’s Journey,” at the Opera House May 6-7. This original story by Aranda follows a 1920s actress as she travels the world, a hired sailor toting her luggage always one country behind on the journey. A comedy, the ballet features dances from all over the world, performed by Bluegrass Youth Ballet students.
“It’s pretty authentic,” Aranda said. “We try to make sure that they get that sense of culture.”
This same infusion of culture is found at Bluegrass Youth Ballet’s annual Dia de los Muertos performance, where cast and audience alike are immersed in the Mexican tradition.
“What our students get through the process at Bluegrass Youth Ballet is so rich,” Aranda said. “They get all this culture, and it just makes you overall a better person when you are able to understand other cultures. It makes you more tolerant.”
Bluegrass Youth Ballet offers high quality training, as evidenced by students who have gone on to dance professionally at companies including the San Francisco Ballet School and the Pittsburgh Ballet.
But Aranda stresses: “If families are looking for a competitive studio, they aren’t going to come to ours. Our emphasis is the children and their experience. I don’t think the kids really realize that and they don’t have to, but they know if they go somewhere else that it’s missing.
“Sometimes we have families that move away from Lexington and they ask me, ‘Where do you recommend we go in this other town is like Bluegrass Youth Ballet?’ And these are in larger cities than Lexington. But there isn’t another place like Bluegrass Youth Ballet,” Aranda said.
Although the school opened in 2003, Aranda is still amazed at its success and how well her concept has been embraced by the community.
“I don’t know why I thought it could be possible. However, a lot of people felt that my mission was very right for the moment; it just kind of took off ,” she said.
As for the future of Bluegrass Youth Ballet, Aranda is very clear.
“My goal is for Bluegrass Youth Ballet to be recognized for our awesome training facility at a national level,” she said.
But the most important aspect remains focused on her students.
“I want them to have a positive experience with the arts, because they will be the ones who are one day supporting the arts,” she said. “And they will understand quality because they will have all this knowledge and this experience.”
Aranda also hopes to continue fostering the self-esteem and healthy physical, social and emotional rewards her students receive through their dance experience. She doesn’t necessarily want the school to grow bigger, either.
“I don’t want it to get the to point where I don’t know the kids,” she said.