Dec. 26, 1933 to July 13, 2026
Dulce Anaya, beloved teacher, mentor, gifted internationally acclaimed prima ballerina, and cherished friend to so many in the Jacksonville Community and worldwide, has grand-jetéd into heaven.
Dulce Esperanza Wohner de Vega was born in Cuba to an Austrian/Hungarian father and a Cuban mother. Dulce performed internationally with the National Ballet of Cuba and throughout Europe with the Stuttgart Ballet, Hamburg Opera Ballet, and Munich Opera Ballet, and boasted of having partnered with 37 world-famous premiere danseurs, including Rudolf Nureyev, Ivan Nagy, Ted Kivet, and Erik Bruhn.
Her name underwent several configurations during her professional career. When performing with the National Ballet of Cuba, she was known as Dolly Wohner, but the Munich Opera Ballet wanted her to change her name, so she looked up the “A’s” in the phone book and picked out “Anaya.” And that is what she has been ever since!
Every encounter with Dulce was filled with entertaining and often hilarious incidents – and one of her charming stories, shared in her lilting Spanish accent, revolved around performing “Don Quixote” with Bruhn.
“We had to repeat the pas de deux three times because the audience would not stop clapping. They clapped and clapped,” Dulce would recount. “I danced my first full-length ballet, ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ with Flemming Flindt in Stuttgart and the audience screamed and stamped- we bowed and bowed for twenty minutes. It was incredible.”
At age 15, her father brought her to New York to audition for George Balanchine, one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th Century.
She related, “Mr. Balanchine admired my technique and extensions but thought I was too short. I thought his dancers looked like ostriches.”
Just under five feet tall and weighing 94 pounds, Dulce was indeed diminutive, although she reflected haughtily, “Mentally, I am very tall.”
Balanchine cast her in “Ondine,” which she later said made her career, although she was acclaimed internationally for her performances in the demanding ballet “Giselle” – her favorite to perform.
She arrived in Jacksonville in the 196O’s to set “Giselle” for Marta Jackson’s students. By 1969, she formed her own company, co-founded and directed the first Jacksonville Community Nutcracker at the Alhambra Dinner Theater, and so much more. Although a demanding teacher and choreographer, she dedicated her life to her dancers; she pushed them to be the best they could be, and many went on to professional performing careers. Her students and friends, faithful to the end, visited her, celebrated her birthdays, danced for her, shared videos of her former performances, and expressed their love and admiration with presents – especially chocolates (and an occasional mimosa).
A true inspiration and beautiful person, she will be missed for her kindness, sharp wit, grace, and passion. She leaves a glittering legacy. As a former student said, “There are regular people – and then there is DULCE!”