This is how the dancer is made: the passion and the duende of Irene Estévez

After a year in which his professional career was, in his own words, "stalled" by Covid, Estévez, 19, was able to resume his apprenticeship at the Belgian Brussels International Ballet school with a new scholarship from the Málaga Foundation, an institution that has given him financial support all these years. This course is dedicated to preparing auditions for ballet companies, because as she relates, "the life of a ballerina is very short."

The start of the quarantine cut short her plans in Russia, where she remained confined to her school's boarding school from March to May with online classes that did little to help her improve. It was then that she found a flight to Tenerife, where her uncle lives, and she returned to Spain: "My mother did not think about it, on top of that the student visa was valid until June 30."

The Russian ballet school ended the school year with no plans to return to face-to-face classes in September. That is why Irene could not return: "The following course cost the same, 20,000 euros, but it was not going to be at school, it was going to be online." That was why the dancer was forced to stay in Malaga practicing on her own.

Irene Estévez, from Malaga, in a theater in Brussels.L. EITHER.

Covid slowed down his career

At first he couldn't train. "A dancer needs a room, space, a special floor, mirrors, a person to correct you," she says. At least he celebrates that after a few months the City Council left him a class in which he could rehearse on his own. However, it was no longer the same as at the Bolshoi: "My level had dropped a lot, I was in a terrible mood," he recalls.

In a matter of a few months, her life had completely changed, not only because she was unable to attend classes and perfect her technique, but also because she lost a potential job contract at the Moscow State Ballet Company. The malagueña narrates that "just the weekend before the quarantine" she auditioned to enter it: "They gave me a small contract, they paid me a little, I began to have experience in what the world of companies is ( ...). They told me yes, that next year I would be there. And, of course, in Russia closed borders. They couldn't make me a contract if I wasn't there."

However, the ballerina did not lose her enthusiasm for classical dance despite the difficulties and in the summer she decided to return, as is her custom on vacation, to the Russian Masters Ballet Camp, an intensive course organized by the Russian Vaganova Academy open to scouts from the most prestigious academies in Europe. They usually offer study scholarships to the dancers, and the woman from Malaga said to herself: "Let's see if I'm lucky and they give me something." So it was. Only the director of the Brussels International Ballet school attended, who eventually invited her to be a student at his center.

Her new school

Irene has lived in Brussels since autumn, where she says she is very happy: "I am improving a lot, before I was stuck and now I am back to being me." She assures that one of her favorite classes is Interpretation, since she defends that expressiveness in a dancer is essential. "It's just that you have to convey to the public the story you're telling through dance," he reasons.

That is why she is passionate about the ballet Giselle, a work from the year 1841. This story tells the life of a young peasant girl who falls in love with a prince, who pretends to love her too. When the girl realizes that her love is false, she suffers a fit of madness that leads her to stab herself with a sword and die. That is why the prince, feeling guilty, decides to go to the cemetery where she is buried. Estévez maintains: "Acting is very important, if you are Giselle you have to convey that you have really died."

Irene Estévez, a malagueña in the Bolshoi balletLa Opinion de Málaga

But a ballet dancer needs more. As in flamenco, she says, "you have to have duende" to stand out, because "technique alone is not enough".

Although Irene Estévez is an elite dancer, she shares the concerns of any student who lives outside her city: "That if you have to cook yourself, then have to pick up your things", she recounts her experience living in an apartment in the Belgian capital, a very different lifestyle from the boarding school in Moscow. But what she hasn't changed is her dedication: her training lasts from nine in the morning until after six in the evening, a schedule that gets longer when she has auditions like the one last weekend. Good luck.