Indianapolis Ballet supports international dancers with food and community
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Raul Gonzalez, of Latin Arepa, and dancer Gabriela Gutierrez (left) and a group of dancers with Indianapolis Ballet board member Jackie Nytes. Photos: Courtesy of Indianapolis Ballet
When the Indianapolis Ballet puts on Swan Lake next weekend, several of the stars gracing the stage will be international dancers the company recruited from around the world.
Why it matters: As the Trump administration makes almost daily headlines with changes to and rhetoric about the nation's immigration policy, it's a time of great uncertainty for many foreign-born residents.
Driving the news: To make the international dancers feel more at home, Jackie Nytes, vice president of the Indianapolis Ballet board of directors, recently hosted a dinner with local chefs preparing food from the dancers' home countries.
What they're saying: "I think it's really important to really celebrate the wonderful international community that has developed here in Indianapolis and to call attention to it, to shout from the rooftops that there are talented people in our community who are bringing such value to our lives here," Nytes said.
How it worked: Youssef Boudarine and Ariel Hendrickson, business partners at J'Adore Pastry who created the Epicurean Indy food festival, sourced chefs from each of the international dancers' home countries, bringing foods like Cuban tostones, Venezuelan arepas and Japanese sushi.
- "We like to bring emerging chefs," Boudarine told Axios, "chefs doing pop-ups and farmers markets. That's how we started."
Zoom in: Jose Plasencia is reimagining Cuban food by working with local ingredients and fine dining techniques at his pop-up shop Átame. For last week's dinner, he brought fried plantains stuffed with a shrimp mousse.
- For Venezuelan dancer Gabriela Gutierrez, it was Latin Arepa — a fixture at the Broad Ripple Farmers Market — that brought the taste of home.
- "It brought me back home, back to my childhood, having them every morning," said Gutierrez, who joined the company last year after graduating from Butler University.
Marlon Frómeta is in his first year with the Indianapolis Ballet. He left his home in Cuba looking for a better future.
- Since he came alone, Frómeta was glad to find an adopted family in the local residents who sponsor the dancers and in Camilo Santiesteban — a Cuban dancer in his second year with the company — and Santiesteban's mom and sister, who came with him to Indianapolis.
"The only thing that's, eh, is the winter is pretty cold," said Santiesteban, who had spent his life dancing in Cuba and Miami before joining the Indianapolis Ballet. Both dancers miss the rice and beans.
- "Is there a way to say chicharrones in English?" Santiesteban responded, when asked what food he misses from home.
The latest: One of the company's newest dancers is principal Luzemberg Santana, who will make his debut in the upcoming Swan Lake, which the company will perform March 28 and 29 at Clowes Memorial Hall with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
- After dancing in Canada, Tulsa and Houston, Santana returned to Brazil. All that time, Indianapolis Ballet's artistic director Victoria Lyras had been in touch with Santana, trying to find a way to get him to Indy.
- "We'd been talking for…maybe three years, and then we figured out a way to get me to Indianapolis," he said. "All the work that Indianapolis Ballet did for me, I will not forget that. So I hope everybody will show up for Swan Lake, because I put all my energy into it."