Osiel gounod biography channels

Just 33 years old, Osiel Gouneo, a principal with the Bayerisches Staatsballett, has recently published his biography. The book’s full title is Black Romeo, Mein Weg in der weißen Welt des Balletts.

(Black Romeo, my way into the white world of ballet), and this well summarises his story.

Osiel gounod biography channels

He made it to the top and became the first black person to dance Romeo in Nureyev’s Romeo and Juliet with the Paris Opera Ballet in 2021. But elsewhere before that, he was excluded from performances because of his skin colour.

Gouneo refers to himself Afro-Cuban because his ancestors were slaves from Africa who were brought to Cuba, where he was born and lived until he left to embark on a successful career in Europe in 2013.

He grew up in a poor family but, early on, his mother decided he was to become a dancer. She sent him to a boarding school teaching dance and music, when he was nine-years-old.

At first, he hated the ballet lessons and felt ill at ease among the predominantly white stu