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Renato Penteado

 

He likes the sun. In a questionnaire on the Miami City Ballet’s website, Renato Penteado describes his perfect day as “a sunny day.” That description of perfection, however, is not keeping him from coming all the way north to Toledo during the early stages of another midwestern winter to dance the lead in the Toledo Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. He’s excited to do it, since he’s living a lifelong dream. 

He’s come a lot further than that, after all. Renato grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and dance was not far from his own family. “I saw a friend of my aunt’s,” he recalls, “dancing with a male dancer. It was more modern dance, not even classical ballet.” But something about the movement of the dancers, their grace and power, and their privileged relationship with ordinary space, spoke to the young boy. He was only five years old. 

“I liked it very much,” he says. “At the end of the performance, I dragged my mother into the dressing room and asked the male dancer how I could become a ballet dancer.” He was disappointed to learn that he’d have to go to a special school, and that his parents thought he was still too young. It wasn’t a passing fancy, though, and by the age of 8 he was enrolled in a Sao Paolo ballet school. He kept studying through his teens. Handicapped by the lack of male instructors, Renato got a late start to what he calls the “real male stuff” in the ballet world. His talent was undeniable; he just needed a proper stage to show it on. 

The way forward lay to the north, as it has for so many. In Penteado’s case, it was in the form of an international ballet competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1998, when he was 18 years old. “At that time,” he recalls, “Brazil didn’t have many ballet companies, so I went more for the opportunity, not just to compete.” It worked. His performance caught the eye of the then-director of the Miami City Ballet, and within a year, he had a job. 

The Miami company was the gateway to a whole world, literally. Penteado has toured the globe with the MBC, from Venezuela to Canada to Italy and France. “We see different cultural stuff in the countries that we visit,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s actually nice to travel with a bunch of dancers, you know? We go to parties together, and we’re pretty much a big family.” 

This isn’t his first stop in the Midwest, either. In fact, he’s performed with the Toledo Ballet before, and is thrilled to be back. He loves pieces spanning the ballet canon, from Romeo & Juliet to Don Quixote to Giselle, but he admits that The Nutcracker is special, for its broad appeal and its connection with a joy-filled holiday. He’s deeply impressed by the Toledo Ballet’s take on a yearly institution. “It’s a different version,” he says, “but it’s pretty similar to one we’ve done in Miami.” And his experience with his Toledo hosts has him spouting superlatives, whether the weather here is really to his liking or not. “They’re good people,” he says, “and I love them to death.” 

 

He likes the sun. In a questionnaire on the Miami City Ballet’s website, Renato Penteado describes his perfect day as “a sunny day.” That description of perfection, however, is not keeping him from coming all the way north to Toledo during the early stages of another midwestern winter to dance the lead in the Toledo Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. He’s excited to do it, since he’s living a lifelong dream. 

He’s come a lot further than that, after all. Renato grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and dance was not far from his own family. “I saw a friend of my aunt’s,” he recalls, “dancing with a male dancer. It was more modern dance, not even classical ballet.” But something about the movement of the dancers, their grace and power, and their privileged relationship with ordinary space, spoke to the young boy. He was only five years old. 

“I liked it very much,” he says. “At the end of the performance, I dragged my mother into the dressing room and asked the male dancer how I could become a ballet dancer.” He was disappointed to learn that he’d have to go to a special school, and that his parents thought he was still too young. It wasn’t a passing fancy, though, and by the age of 8 he was enrolled in a Sao Paolo ballet school. He kept studying through his teens. Handicapped by the lack of male instructors, Renato got a late start to what he calls the “real male stuff” in the ballet world. His talent was undeniable; he just needed a proper stage to show it on. 

The way forward lay to the north, as it has for so many. In Penteado’s case, it was in the form of an international ballet competition in Jackson, Mississippi in 1998, when he was 18 years old. “At that time,” he recalls, “Brazil didn’t have many ballet companies, so I went more for the opportunity, not just to compete.” It worked. His performance caught the eye of the then-director of the Miami City Ballet, and within a year, he had a job. 

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The Miami company was the gateway to a whole world, literally. Penteado has toured the globe with the MBC, from Venezuela to Canada to Italy and France. “We see different cultural stuff in the countries that we visit,” he says enthusiastically. “It’s actually nice to travel with a bunch of dancers, you know? We go to parties together, and we’re pretty much a big family.” 

This isn’t his first stop in the Midwest, either. In fact, he’s performed with the Toledo Ballet before, and is thrilled to be back. He loves pieces spanning the ballet canon, from Romeo & Juliet to Don Quixote to Giselle, but he admits that The Nutcracker is special, for its broad appeal and its connection with a joy-filled holiday. He’s deeply impressed by the Toledo Ballet’s take on a yearly institution. “It’s a different version,” he says, “but it’s pretty similar to one we’ve done in Miami.” And his experience with his Toledo hosts has him spouting superlatives, whether the weather here is really to his liking or not. “They’re good people,” he says, “and I love them to death.” 

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