International Dance
Festival

Maray Gutierrez Ramis is a native of Havana, Cuba where she trained at Escuela Nacional de Arte – the prestigious National School of Dance. For 10 years, her strength and powerful expression were revealed as a principal dancer for the internationally acclaimed Danza Contemporánea de Cuba. While in Cuba, she worked with many renowned contemporary and classical choreographers. As an international artist, Maray has performed professionally throughout Europe, the U.S., and the Caribbean. She has presented work at many festivals worldwide, including the American Dance Festival; The International Dance Festival in Berlin, Germany; The Holland Dance Festival; and the International Ballet Festival in Genoa, Italy. 
 
Since relocating to Chicago, Maray has shared her unique energy and movement vocabulary on stage and in film. Luna Negra Dance Theater, CDI/Concert Dance Inc., the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Hedwig Dances, where she was an Artistic Associate for 14 years. She was a featured performer in the dance film, “Arch of Repose” produced by Hedwig Dances in 2009. Maray was also awarded an Emmy-nomination in 2008 for her performance in the PBS documentary of Ruth Page’s 1947 groundbreaking ballet cartoon, “Billy Sunday”, presented by CDI/Concert Dance Inc. Maray was awarded in 2021 with the 3Arts Make a Wave grant, and in 2022 received a Dance Leadership Award from Hedwig Dances. 
 
In 2023, she was nominated Co-Chair of Dance for Life, a one-of-a-kind annual benefit event that has showcased more than 50 Chicago-based dance companies for the past 32 years.  
 
As an inspired mover, teacher, and choreographer, Maray was selected by “See Chicago Dance” as one of the 10 Top Women in 2006 for her choreography of, “Eterno Despertar”, for Luna Negra Dance Theater. Other choreographic credits include three new pieces she created for Hedwig Dances and works for Ballet Hispanico of New York (2010) and Milwaukee Ballet II (2013). Maray shares her skills and creativity as an instructor and mentor for the Ruth Page School of Dance and Professional Dance Training Program in Chicago, Hedwig Dances summer program and workshops; Faubourg School of Ballet, Hanover Park, IL; DanceWest Ballet, Naperville, IL; and as a guest instructor for Towson University, Baltimore Center for the Arts, Maryland, Per Lei Dance Academy, Mérida, Mexico, Southeast Missouri State University; Kansas State University; and the Milwaukee Ballet School. Her ability to personally connect with dancers on both a technical and emotional level has been invaluable to hundreds of dancers worldwide.

Victor Alexander joined the artistic and administrative team of the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the summer of 2013. As both the Director of the Ruth Page School of Dance and of the Ruth Page Civic Ballet, he continues a nearly 50-year tradition of exceptional training and mentoring of the next generation of the nation’s best young dancers.  Through the development of international partnerships and networks, Alexander has also expanded the School’s reach with important collaborations and exchanges with other leading dance institutions through the development of the Ruth Page School of Dance's International Sister Schools program. Significant among these is the historic relationship with Cuba’s National School of Ballet (Escuela Nacional de Ballet) begun in 2015, and the placement of a Ruth Page School of Dance student, Catherine Conley, in the prestigious Cuban training program – the first American student to be invited since the normalization of relations between the two countries. She consequently was invited to dance with the National Ballet School of Cuba, another first for an American ballerina.
 
Our International Sister School partners include Escuela Nacional de Ballet de Cuba (Havana, Cuba since 2015); Profesion Dance & Mandala Dance Company (Rome, Italy since 2015);  Conservatorio Profesional de Danza A Coruña (Coruña, Spain since 2016); Ironi Aleph High School of Arts (Tel Aviv, Israel since 2016);  Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico since 2018); Instituto Colubiano de Ballet Clásico (IncolBallet) (Cali, Colombia since 2018).
 
Alexander’s keen insight, experience, and dedication to the craft come from an international dancing, choreographic and teaching career. A native of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, he was trained at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in Havana, graduating in 1992 with a degree in Modern and Cuban folkloric dance. As a student, his exceptional talents were recognized in 1992 when he won first place for dance in the 4th National Union of Writers and Artists in Havana. He went on to be a principal dancer for the prominent Danza Contemporánea de Cuba from 1992 to 2002, where both his technical talent and expressive dance style gained national prominence. Alexander has studied with distinguished teachers such as Donald McKayle, Chuck Davis, and Jeffrey Bullock and has performed throughout Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and the United States. Since relocating from Cuba to Chicago in 2002, Alexander has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Hedwig Dances, CDI/Concert Dance Inc, and Luna Negra Dance Theater. While with CDI, Alexander was a featured artist in the 2008 Emmy Award-nominated production of the re-envisioned Ruth Page’s Billy Sunday on PBS. While with Hedwig, Alexander was a dance artist in the 2016 Emmy-nominated film Arch of Repose.
 
His teaching experience is extensive, encompassing local, national, and international dance institutions. Of particular importance to Alexander is teaching in outreach programs that bring dance to youth. Recent outreach programs include Dance Art (2007–2010) and the Elementary Dance Scholarship Program (2010–2011) within the Chicago Public Schools. Included in Dance Magazine’s prestigious “25 to Watch in 2013” list, Alexander is known for his riveting stage presence as he mixes formidable techniques he gained in the rigorous training ground of Cuban dance schools with facility at theatrical interpretation. In 2012, he was one of four choreographers selected for the Lab Artists Program, a one-year program of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum that focuses on the development of new choreography. In addition to the Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant, he has also received a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council for his work, Line of Sighs, and was selected as one of the 2013 Novel Affair Artists selected by The Ragdale Curatorial Board. In December of 2013, Line of Sighs was highlighted in the Chicago Tribune’s “Top 10 Best Dance Performances of 2013.”

Alexander was one of the choreographers chosen to participate in Chicago’s Afro-Latino Festival 2014 with his work Among Us. Additionally, in 2014, he was selected to participate in Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s choreographic initiative, The International Commissioning Project, which provides residencies to choreographers, offering them the opportunity to create original works for HS2’s dancers and to conduct master classes. In 2022  Alexander received a Dance Leadership Hedwig Dance Award. In 2023, he was nominated Co-Chair of Dance for Life, a one-of-a-kind annual benefit event that has showcased more than 50 Chicago-based dance companies for the past 32 years.

Marite Fuentes is a classically trained ballerina who started her education at the Alejo Carpentier Elementary School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba, in 2006. In 2001, she was invited by the Cuban National Ballet to participate in the reposition of Sleeping Beauty. In January 2010 she danced Nutcracker with the Cuban National Ballet and Hamilton youth ballet, from Canada. In November 2010 she danced Amor Brujo by a Spanish ballet dancer Antonio "el Pipa", playing the principal role of Candela in her childhood, then characterized by Viengsay Valdez as an adult. Winner of the bronze medal in the III Competition of Classical Ballet in Cuba in 2011. The same year she graduated with honors and she continued her studies at the Cuban National Ballet School Fernando Alonso. In 2014 she finished her education with a Professor-Dancer title. 

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The same year, she was selected to become part of the world-renowned company, the National Ballet of Cuba, under the artistic-technical direction of the founder and absolute prima ballerina Alicia Alonso. She worked as a professional dancer for this company for 8 years. She has danced classical and contemporary roles with the company in Cuba and other countries like Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador, the USA, Spain, Italy, France, and China. Some of the most important ballets played by her are ( Alicia Alonso's version) Giselle, Swan Lake, DQ, Les Silfides, Nutcracker, La Fille Mal Gardeé, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Concerto DSCH by Alexei Ratmansky, Beethoven’s 7h Symphony by Uwe Scholz, Prospera by Cathy Marston, La hora novena by Gemma Bond, and many others ballets of the BNC repertory. Doing mostly corp of ballet and roles like pas de six in Swan Lake, Friends of Swanilda in Coppelia, and the Spanish dance in Nutcracker. In November of 2022, She was invited by the Ruth Page Center of Arts to dance as Snow Queen in their 2022 version of Nutcracker. 

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She is a thoughtful critic and teacher, encouraging and enlightening dancers of all ages and abilities. Marite is currently the ballet professor at Saint Augustine Ballet.
 

An Indian woman born and raised in South Florida is earning her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences with a love for health, physical medicine, and movement. She has danced her whole life and has participated in, choreographed, and performed a variety of dance forms, Bollywood/Hip-hop being her favorites. Bollywood dancing is a colorful, dynamic, and highly theatrical dance style seen in Indian films. It combines classical forms of dance including traditional Indian, folk, salsa, and belly dance while also incorporating more contemporary Western forms such as hip-hop, jazz, and funk. It is unique in its ability to tell a story through bodily movements. Bollywood dance is full of color, showing a perfect amalgamation between music, dance, storytelling, and costumes.