📍San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1982 – 1997“Marianela Núñez was born in March 1982 in San Martín, a busy working-class city on the north-western edge of Buenos Aires, and grew up there with her family. When she was three, her mother took her to a ballet class in a garage studio in San Martín, and by five she had decided that ballet was all she wanted to do. She moved on to a teacher who had trained at the Teatro Colón, who saw her talent and encouraged her to audition for the Colón's school. She was accepted at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón, the school of Buenos Aires's magnificent opera house, as a small girl, and trained there with the great Argentine teacher Olga Ferri, travelling into the city centre for classes. She was joyful, musical and astonishingly quick to learn, with a warmth that lit up the stage. At fourteen, halfway through her training, the star dancer Maximiliano Guerra chose her as his partner, and she joined the Colón's ballet company, touring Japan and other countries with him the following year. In 1997, at fifteen, she auditioned for the Royal Ballet when it was on tour in Los Angeles, although she spoke no English, and was offered a contract; she had to wait until she was sixteen to join. She moved to London in 1998, and in 2002, at twenty, became a principal dancer, one of the most loved ballerinas in the company's history. She has been appointed OBE, and has returned often to dance at the Teatro Colón, where Buenos Aires welcomes her home as one of its own.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today