Did you see this? He’s so adorable here:

But don’t get me wrong—I LOVED Villella.

I grew up on Miami Beach, and I remember when he was signed to be Director. It’s actually the Miami Beach Ballet but serves the Miami Arts community so often goes by moniker of Miami Ballet. I remember when they built the ballet’s building — right around corner from my high school and next to the Miami Beach Public Library. The building was designed such that people could view dancers rehearsing through windows designed for just that purpose.

And it was thrilling to get Mr. Vallella to take the leadership of the troupe. Not sure what’s going on now. My Dad was at the Ballet on Fri. Nite. He NEVER in his life went to the ballet — until the whole new Center for the Arts in Miami was built in downtown Miami and it was a huge deal and many of his friends — heck most people who cared about the arts donated to get the thing done. And then when Miami (Beach) acquired its own corps de ballet, headed by Edward Vallella — who has done a wonderful job, it’s become a staple of the arts scene.

I grew up with no arts, no museums, no nothing! I’ve always attributed a great deal of expansion in the arts to the influx of Cubans who supported the arts in a big way — Now Miami has its own Ballet, it has it’s own museums, it’s own symphony, and even Art Basel which is as huge art exibition and market — maybe the largest in the world except for the original Art Basel at of Switzerland. People come from all over the world to see artists and dealers, representatives, and personal buyers of art. Miami has turned into a happening place!

My almost 90-yr. old father has season tickets and loves it — he went last Fri night and he has actually learned enough to give quite fair critiques for someone who had never seen a performance before some 8, maybe 10 yrs. ago. I’ll have to check with him and see if there isn’t more local gossip about this early Vallella retirement. I am shocked, and obviously many others are too. I’ll let Neo now if I hear anything and she can deside if it merits space on the blog for follow-up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ9wSmHvlx8

Corrected.