LOTS MORE LATIN

• Ballet to a Latin beat • Q&A with ballet's Cuban dancers • Nightclubs pick up beat • Choreographer's cultural inspiration • Kronos Quartet romps on 'Nuevo' • Salsa guitarist's CD picks

Audiences will get their first look next weekend as Adiarys Almeida and Cervilio Amador are showcased in the pas de deux from Don Quixote, which Cincinnati Ballet resident choreographer Kirk Peterson based on the original by Marium Petipa.

We asked them these five questions to get acquainted:

What was the first thing you needed to find in Cincinnati?

Amador: We needed to find any place that plays good music. In Cuba, music is everywhere. On the streets, in the homes, at work. Here you have to seek it out.

So where do you hang out?

Almeida: Jack Quinn's in Covington on Wednesdays. They have great dancing.

How did you become a dancer?

Almeida: I was 6. My aunt enrolled me in dance school.

Amador: My sister was attending the arts school and my family wanted me to attend this school because it was a great academic school as well.

Are you romantically involved?

Almeida: Cervilio is dating Gema Diaz, a dancer who fled Cuba with us. I am dating someone here in Cincinnati.

What do you like most about Cincinnati so far?

Amador: I like everything because it's new. The people are very nice. When we auditioned with the company, we got to see snow for the first time. I liked that.

Almeida: I would like to say that I'm very happy now, because I feel like I can do things by myself. ... I have (done many) wonderful things, and the most important is to join Cincinnati Ballet. I feel like it is more than my work, (it) is like my home, my family. I'm really happy.

Jackie Demaline