Lorena Feijóo (born ) is a Cuban former ballet dancer. Her dance career started in 1988 at the Cuban National Ballet, but left Cuba two years later for more opportunities. After stints at Ballet de Monterrey, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Joffrey Ballet, she joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1999 as a principal dancer, and retired in 2017. She then became an associate artistic director of Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre. Her sister, Lorna Feijóo, was also a ballet dancer. Early life and training Lorena Feijóo was born in Havana. Her mother was a member of Cuban National Ballet before becoming a ballet teacher, while her father was an actor. Her younger sister, Lorna, would later be a principal dancer with Boston Ballet. Lorena became interested in ballet after watching her mother. However, her mother initially discouraged her to pursue ballet because ballet training in Cuba is "very competitive, the hours are grueling." At age nine, when she was old enough, Feijóo entered the Cuban National Ballet School, which she described as "excruciatingly good." At the school, she received her ballet training under Alicia Alonso, the co-founder of the Cuban National Ballet, in Russian, French, American and Cuban styles, and also studied folk dance, acting, piano, arts, Spanish and French. One of her frequent partner at the school was José Manuel Carreño, who became a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. She graduated at eighteen, having trained as both a dancer and a teacher. Career In 1988, at age eighteen, Feijóo joined the Cuban National Ballet. After spending a year in the corps de ballet, she was cast in solo and principal roles, but less often than she expected, though she was a favourite of Fernando Alonso, a co-founder of the company, who called her his "Tropical Beauty." In 1990, at age 20, she left the company and Cuba as Alicia Alonso restricted Feijóo's opportunities to perform abroad. She recalled Alonso telling her, "Lorena, either you're in or you're out. You choose." She chose to leave Cuba, and was granted a visa by the Ministry of Culture to leave the country without defecting. Despite other dancers' efforts, she had not perform in Cuba since, even though several other Cuban dancers who went abroad were able to return. She added Alonso's preference of classical ballets is also a reason for her departure, but not politics. In 1991, she