Amalia ah-mah-lee-ah Hernández was born in Mexico City in 1917 and everyone assumed she would grow up to be a schoolteacher like her mother and her grandmother Even Ami ah-me as everyone called her expected that But one afternoon while her family was on vacation Ami saw a pair of dancers in a town square They stomped and swayed to the live music The danzas that they performed had been danced by people of that area for generations Ami was hooked She made a decision she was going to become a dancer herself 2
Ami twirled in the living room and whirled in the kitchen Amalia scolded her father a stern military man But her mother encouraged Ami’s interest in the arts and one day her father gave in He had a studio built in their home and hired the best dance teachers he could find 4
After school Ami studied ballet with Madame Dambré who had danced with the Paris Opera and with Professor Zybin who had danced with Pavlova’s world-renowned Russian ballet 5
