Embodied Ballet - About Xiomara Reyes and Rinat Imaev

Xiomara Reyes

Xiomara Reyes is a Cuban-born dancer, teacher, and choreographer whose work bridges the rigor of classical ballet with an evolving inquiry into embodied presence, artistic consciousness, and human potential.

She danced internationally for over two decades, beginning at the National Ballet of Cuba, continuing with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and spending 14 years as a Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Her repertoire spans the great classical canon—Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Manon, and Romeo and Juliet—as well as works by MacMillan, Ashton, Tudor, Neumeier, Wheeldon, and Ratmansky. She has appeared as a guest artist with companies and international galas across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

After retiring from the stage in 2015, Reyes transitioned into teaching and artistic leadership, bringing her performance experience into the training of the next generation of dancers. She served as Head of School and later Professional Division Head at The Washington School of Ballet, where she expanded the curriculum to include mime, mindfulness, and a deeper integration of artistic awareness within technical training.

Her choreographic work includes Chronos (2020), created during the pandemic and later included in the Library of Congress Performing Arts COVID-19 Collection, along with other works for students and company settings. She has co-adapted major classical ballets with her husband, Rinat Imaev, including La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Paquita, and Raymonda, expanding performance opportunities for young artists.

Reyes continues to teach internationally as a freelance artist, choreographer, and mentor. Her current work focuses on bridging technique with presence, encouraging dancers to access not only form, but awareness, imagination, and inner life within movement.

She is deeply committed to dance as a transformative practice—one that refines attention, expands perception, and cultivates a more conscious relationship between body, mind, and spirit.

Rinat Imaev

Rinat Imaev is an internationally respected ballet teacher, choreographer, and former Principal Dancer whose artistic lineage is rooted in the Vaganova tradition and shaped by decades of global performance and pedagogy.

Originally from Oufa, Russia, he trained at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg and began his career with the Kirov Theatre (now Mariinsky Ballet). He went on to perform as a Principal Dancer with Sofia National Ballet in Bulgaria and the Royal Ballet of Flanders, dancing a broad classical repertoire including Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, and La Bayadère.

In 1986, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, a recognition of his early artistic excellence and technical mastery.

For 15 years, Imaev served as Company Teacher at American Ballet Theatre, shaping generations of dancers through a deeply embodied understanding of classical technique rooted in stage experience. From 2016 to 2024, he was Senior Faculty, Company Teacher and Head of the Men’s Program at The Washington School of Ballet, where he continued to transmit this lineage within professional training.

Alongside his teaching, Imaev has maintained an active international presence as a guest teacher, rehearsal director, and choreographer, working with companies and institutions across the United States, Europe, and Asia. His recent stagings include Swan Lake for Hakucho Ballet in Japan, Giselle for The Hartt School, and Don Quixote and Paquita for major international projects.

He is a long-standing jury member of Youth America Grand Prix and serves as artistic advisor for IBStage in Barcelona. Currently working as a freelance teacher and choreographer, Imaev continues to transmit a living classical tradition—one grounded in rigor, clarity, and the deep intelligence of the dancing body.