Zanety Dance Academy, a Cuban dance studio, opens Oct. 31 at 16650 Champion Forest Drive in Spring with a two-day grand opening workshop featuring live drumming.

Director and instructor Alexis Zanety leads the new studio, which will offer classes in Cuban contemporary dance, Afro-Cuban technique, and salsa fusion and musicality, Community Impact Newspaper reported. Regular classes begin Nov. 2.

The grand opening workshop runs Saturday, Oct. 31, and Sunday, Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day. Each day features three 60-minute sessions, all accompanied by live drumming. The workshop is open to all levels, ages 15 and up.

Three instructors will teach the sessions. Zanety leads the Afro-Cuban Technique class at 11 a.m. each day, focused on traditional movement dynamics and polyrhythmic coordination. Lídice Núñez teaches a session called Awaken Movement at 10 a.m. Karla Blanco leads Salsa Fusion & Musicality at noon, covering body isolations and partner dynamics.

Passes are available through the academy's website.

Zanety is a former first soloist for Cuba's National Contemporary Dance Company, where he performed from 1995 to 2002, according to the Feijoo Ballet School. He graduated from Escuela Profesional de Instructores de Arte in Villa Clara, Cuba, in 1989 with a Diploma de Oro, or Gold Award, for best student. He toured in Holland, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Aruba and Martinique.

After relocating to Mexico in 2002, where he choreographed for Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, Zanety moved permanently to the Houston area. He has taught master classes at Cornish College of the Arts, the University of Washington and the University of Houston. He also participated as a guest teacher at the 2018 and 2019 International Association of Blacks in Dance Congress.

Zanety developed his own technique called Dibujo Circular de Movimiento (Circular Drawing Movement), which combines classical ballet, Afro-Cuban modern dance and folkloric Yoruba dance movement. Then-Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed Nov. 9, 2019, as "Alexis Zanety Day," calling him "truly a source of inspiration to his students, his colleagues and the Houston community," according to Zanety's personal website.

Upcoming community dates:

  • Oct. 31–Nov. 1: Zanety Dance Academy grand opening workshop, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., 16650 Champion Forest Drive, Spring
  • Nov. 2: Regular classes begin at Zanety Dance Academy