Students will begin learning about Evelyn Cisneros in Spanish next week. For nearly a quarter of a century she captivated audiences as the prima ballerina of the prestigious San Francisco Ballet. She gained worldwide acclaim for her dancing which was both dramatically expressive and technically precise. Born in 1959, she was raised in Huntington Beach, California. As children she and her brother attended a Spanish-speaking church and were taught to be proud of their heritage (Her grandparents were migrant workers from Mexico.)
Cisneros was crippled by shyness. It plagued her until, at the age of seven, her mother Esther took action. She took Evelyn to buy a pair of tights, a leotard and ballet slippers. Next, she enrolled Evelyn in a ballet class. At first she was so frightened she would pretend to have stomach aches and any other illness to try to get out of going to class. Her mother made a deal with her. She said that if Evelyn would stick with it for one year, if she still didn't want to go, she could quit. Instead, she fell in love with ballet. The rest is history!!!!
.jpg)
