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First live performance set for Colorado Ballet since pandemic began

Two principal dancers, Dana Benton and Yosvani Ramos, have one more challenge to overcome before they can perform – COVID.

COLORADO, USA — They were so careful all season. 

Yosvani Ramos didn't visit his partner in Chicago. 

He and Dana Benton wore masks during challenging dance numbers. 

They were so careful, but a few weeks ago Dana's little girl Poppy came home from school sick. Slowly, each family member got sick too. 

“We were supposed to perform Saturday night, but my whole family has COVID now," said Dana Benton, a Colorado Ballet principal dancer in her 20th season. "So we’re in a quarantine and just to be sure that I don’t infect anybody else at the theater."

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Benton and her dance partner, Ramos, have both battled injuries that kept them off the stage along with the pandemic. This is just one more hurdle. 

“I was feeling pretty defeated and like the world was against Yosvani and I trying to get back to do this was a little disheartening," said Benton. 

Still, the two continued dancing and working out at home to try to make it on stage at least once this ballet season. 

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“She should be able to get out of the quarantine by Wednesday next week so we’re hoping that we are going to be doing the closing performance on the 18th so that's Sunday next week," said Ramos. 

April 18 will be the Colorado Ballet's last performance of the season, and hopefully Ramos and Benton's first. 

“We’re just extremely grateful and excited," said Ramos. 

This weekend at the Lonetree Arts Center, the show will go on with Ramos and Benton's program, and a small crowd of just over 100 will be in the audience. 

The public can also livestream the performance, and that's the silver lining to all of this for Ramos and Benton. 

“It’s gonna be really special," said Benton, whose family lives in Canada and hasn't been able to see her dance this past year. 

If the pair is cleared to dance on the April 18, Ramos' partner will watch from Chicago and his mom from Cuba. 

“It’s going to be emotional between us," said Benton.

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