On stage, Cornelio Aguilera plays Winslow, a lector in the cigar factories of Ybor City. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lectors read newspapers and novels aloud to workers as they rolled cigars.
Offstage, the company he performs with wants something more lasting.
Tampa Ballet founder Paula Núñez wants the City Council to commit at least $1 million a year to the company. She says the money would let it become a fully professional troupe that can pay its dancers and plan its seasons ahead of time. Mayor Jane Castor saw the company perform “La Séptima.” She has voiced support for permanent public funding, but the decision belongs to the council.
“It’s incredible,” Castor said of the performance.
She praised the dancers’ athleticism and artistry and the choreography. Above all, she praised their ability to tell a story through movement.
Aguilera’s narration carries the production. It tells the story of people who came to Tampa from around the world to start new lives, a story of hard work, sacrifice and hope. For Castor, that is part of the point. The ballet offers more than entertainment, she said. It is a way to understand the history of the city, and of the country, through the immigrants who helped build it.
“We need art in all its forms,” she said. She added that “La Séptima” goes beyond traditional ballet because it also keeps Tampa’s history alive.
Castor said she wants Tampa to have a well-established ballet company. She credited former City Council member Luis Viera, who has backed the project for years. But she noted that any more money would have to come from the council, whose members must weigh the scope of the request.
She said she hopes council members see what she saw that night: a company that can move an audience, tell stories and enrich the cultural life of the Tampa Bay area.
Behind every leap are hours of training and discipline. For many dancers there is also a lingering question: Can they make a living at it without leaving the city where they trained?
For Núñez, the answer depends largely on whether the company can put its finances on solid ground.
“I am happy. I truly feel that the work of so many years — the effort — is reaching a point that is well worth seeing,” she said after the performance.
She sees a long-held goal getting closer: a Tampa where dancers can build professional careers, with steady jobs and a more secure future.
The city has already supported the company through grants and contributions, Núñez said. But she said that help needs to become an annual budget commitment, one that would allow for long-term planning, hiring staff and producing performances on a regular schedule.
A professional company, she said, needs a stable administrative staff and at least 12 dancers who can earn a living from their art.
“A ballet company cannot be firmly established with just $100,000 or $200,000 a month,” she said.
She pointed to the Sarasota Ballet, Miami City Ballet and Orlando Ballet as models. Each built a professional operation on a budget that combines public money, sponsorships and ticket sales. Those budgets range from $8 million to $14 million a year, Núñez said.
She does not expect the city to carry the load alone. Courting sponsors and donors and selling tickets will remain a central part of her job, she said. The goal is for city money to give the company a stable foundation to build on.
“We are stronger, more organized — and that is important,” she said.
Núñez believes the Tampa Ballet has the artistic quality and creativity to take the next step. What it needs now, she said, is for the city to make that commitment official.