Nora Esteves

The most distance recollection that Nora Esteves has about Dance was when she was about 3 or 4 years old and her grandmother Ophelia took her to watch a presentation of Ballet School at Teatro São Pedro de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, which fascinated her. Later, she moved to São Paulo, and, then, to Rio de Janeiro. In one carnival, Nora decided to wear a ballerina costume. 

In the first school she attended, the gym teacher praised her highly and, considering the special talent for the dance she showed, the teacher suggested her mother should take her to ballet classes, as she seemed quite skilled for it. When she was 8 years old, she enrolled with the Ballet Academy Tatiana Leskova. Some months later, concomitantly with this, she enrolled with the Classic Dance School of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, currently Maria Olenewa School. The curriculum would take 7 years to be completed, but Nora did it in 5 years, as she exceeded the grades required to pass. Those who had an average grade above such grade, skipped one year.

When she was 14, she made an examination to the Corps de Ballet of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, and was qualified in the 1st place in a examining board presided by Igor Mosseiev. She joined the Corps de Ballet, where she stayed for 3 years in the group.

Invited by Tatiana Leskova, who directed the Municipal Theatre’s Corps of Ballet at that time, William Dollar, a choreographer of the American Ballet Theatre of New York, came to Brazil and developed 3 programs:

In the first one, he gave to Nora a solo dance, “Bolero” and a pas-de-deux in ballet “Divertissement”, with songs by Britten. In the second program, in the ballet “Constance”, with music from Chopin’s 1st Concert for piano and orchestra, Nora had George Sand’s role. In the third program, Dollar called Nora to play Clorinda’s role, in the Ballet “The Combat”, with music by Banfield.

At the end of that season, the Director of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro at that time, Dr. Murilo Miranda, granted to Nora Esteves the title of Prima Ballerina, thanks to William Dollar’s initiative, who upon highlighting her from the Corps of Ballet group, disclosed her talent to the general public.

One year later, Murilo Miranda went to the National Culture Council and travelled to the United States. In New York, he contacted the Joffrey Ballet, where he requested and got a scholarship to Nora Esteves.