Kissimmee ballerina to study in Spain

A 17-year-old Kissimmee ballerina has been selected to study and work in Madrid, Spain. Zoila Tiangco Saakes has been accepted into a coveted position as one of ten girls and ten boys to enter the Nacho Duato Trainee Program.

The one-year trainee program culminates in the summer of 2024 with performances around the world. The dancers are then expected to form the basis for Duato’s junior company and continue to tour and perform throughout Europe for another year. Nacho Duato is a world-renowned choreographer, former artistic director for the Berlin State Ballet and longtime leader of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Originally from Spain, Duarto is looking to create a vibrant new dance presence based in Madrid.

A lifelong resident of Kissimmee, Zoila first began dancing with Orlando Ballet School at age 3, where she continued for the next several years. When she was 11 she switched to the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School.

“I first realized that I really wanted to start dancing seriously when I was 11 or 12 I had just become a part of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet and we took a school trip to Cuba,” Saakes said. “I saw there were kids who were dancing 12 hours a day. It’s the first time I saw anything like that because usually it’s just a one hour or two-hour ballet class and then you leave. After that I become more intense in my training. It became six or seven hours a day.” Training in ballet has meant most of her education has been done through home schooling, but that doesn’t mean her studies have been neglected. She finished her high school studies with the help of First Academy in Orlando when she was 15, after which she entered the University of South Florida where she is presently studying Public Health and Biomedical Sciences, thanks to the ability to study on-line.

“On-line courses are my best friends. COVID made my life amazing, because everybody realized online classes are important. And yes they are.” she said, noting that after her ballet career is over, she hopes to continue on to become a plastic surgeon or dermatologist.

“Ballet is not the longest career. You usually only dance until you’re about 30, if you’re lucky. But for now, it is ballet. This is what I want to do” Her parents have supported her throughout her journey.

“When she was three, she said, ‘I’m going to be a doctor and I’m going to be a professional dancer,’ and I was like ‘she’s so cute,’” her mother, Judith Tiangco, said. “To actually see her on that path and keep it, I’m blown away. It’s almost surreal. This is not easy. I don’t know adults who can do what she does.”

Zoila has spent the last year working 12 hours a day at one of the most demanding ballet programs in Europe, the Conservatorio Internacional de Ballet e Danca de Annarella Sanchez in Portugal. While there she danced in a different show every single month for the year. She has performed in Romania and in Paris as well as in Spain. She and a partner also danced on Spanish television before a live crowd of 15,000 people.

“I think this was another one of those experiences that made me realize. ‘Wow this is what I love’ because even though I got nervous, it was just so exhilarating to be in front of so many people,” Saakes said. “The President of Portugal was sitting in the front row. It was incredible.”

To attend that program, it meant moving to Portugal for the year, which she did, accompanied by her mother, a retired nruse. She has come home to Kissimmee for the summer. Like most teenagers, she hopes to get her drivers’ license — She takes the test this week. She’ll return to Madrid for the new program this fall, where she will be living on her own in an apartment she and her mother have already found for her. She’ll also continue her studies through USF.

“I’m looking forward to sending her off to Spain so she can continue on this journey,” her mother said. “It really has been an awakening.”