From museums to theater companies, Tampa Bay is a hub for the arts. But for years, aspiring professional dancers in the area faced a familiar choice: leave Tampa to find a company or leave professional dance behind. Paula Nuñez wanted another option.

A Venezuela native, Nuñez began dancing at age 5 and, by 9, had earned a scholarship to train professionally. Her career took her around the world with the International Ballet of Caracas and other companies before she stepped away from the stage to teach. She eventually co-founded Fundación Ballet de las Americas in Venezuela, continuing her work to create opportunities for young dancers.

When Nuñez moved to Tampa 25 years ago, she started again. She founded Tampa City Ballet School in 2002, providing ballet training and scholarships to young dancers who might not otherwise have access to professional dance education. As a professor at the University of South Florida, she soon noticed another gap: Talented dancers were graduating with few opportunities to continue developing and working professionally in Tampa. Rather than watch them leave, Nuñez created a place for them to stay.

Paula Nuñez founded Tampa City Ballet’s professional dance company in 2018.

That vision became Tampa City Ballet’s professional company, which fully launched in 2018. Today, the company brings together professional dancers, emerging artists and choreographers while continuing the educational and community work that helped shape its beginnings.

Carissa Smith is one example of that progression. After dancing since childhood, Smith chose to follow both of her passions, studying biomedical sciences at USF while continuing to dance. She joined Tampa City Ballet as a trainee in 2021. Two years later, she became a paid dancer with the company.

For Smith, dance is about more than the opportunity to perform. It has given her a way to continue discovering what she can do as an artist.

Tampa City Ballet dancer Carissa Smith began her training at America’s Ballet School in 2009 and has since performed in classical, contemporary and modern productions.

“We live in such a busy world,” she says. “Sometimes we forget to stop and smell the roses, and I feel like that’s what dance is. It’s really a beautiful thing that can bring people together and can really communicate things that words can’t.”

Shelby Russ also got her start in dance at a young age, training at Blake High School and USF before joining Tampa City Ballet in 2023. This year, she stepped into a rehearsal director role while continuing to dance, adding another layer to her work with the company.

The position means wearing multiple hats: teaching movement, maintaining the intent and quality of the original choreography, staging formations and helping guide a production from rehearsal to opening night.

That attention to detail comes through in Tampa City Ballet’s approach to storytelling, including La Séptima, a work inspired by historical archives, personal diaries and oral histories surrounding early Tampa and Ybor City. This year, the company presented the work in three formats: a traditional stage production, a more intimate experience featuring excerpts and insight into the research and creative process, and an immersive experience that brought the work to all four floors of The Cuban Club.

For the dancers who perform and create that work, the company offers something Nuñez saw missing when her students graduated from USF: a place to keep growing without leaving Tampa. What began as an effort to give local dancers a professional home has become a place where they can perform, develop their voices and create work rooted in the community they call home.

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