Showtime

What: Hansel and Gretel

Who: National Ballet of Cuba and the Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble

Where: Hamilton Place

When: Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: 905-527-7666

Eduardo Blanco loves life. You sense that in the way a broad smile sweeps across his handsome face.

Think Peter Pan crossed with a dancing wizard. That's Blanco, a man who loves making ballets for children. Telling familiar fairy tales through dance brings a twinkle to his eyes.

"I'm 24," he says with a shrug. "Too young to have children of my own. But I love working with other people's kids.

"Some day I'd love to make a ballet of Harry Potter. But I suppose that would take a trunkful of money."

Blanco is in Hamilton to set his ballet Hansel and Gretel on 86 area youngsters.

Though principal roles in the story will be danced by artists from Cuba, the rest will be performed by Hamilton's Canadian Ballet Youth Ensemble.

"In Cuba, we've staged the show with as many as 500 youngsters," Blanco says. "Here, there aren't that many, so we've scaled it back a little."

No matter, the whole story will still be told. And in Blanco's amazing vision, flowers will dance, along with witches and cats. Even ice cream cones.

Born in Santiago, Cuba, Blanco created his first dance at the tender age of seven. "My mother was a piano teacher and my father a dancer. I came to it naturally I suppose.

"I dreamed of dancing on the stage as soon as I was born. When I grew to be a man I discovered I was too short for a dance star. Never mind, choreography was my passion."

Blanco has created a number of works for the National Ballet of Cuba, including the Grand Defile for the big ballet festival in Havana.

Out jogging every morning as the clock strikes six, he keeps his body buff. He likes life in Cuba and has no interest in defecting somewhere else.

"I have my own apartment and friends. For me, life is good. People recognize me on the street in Havana and come up to say hello. I like that a lot."

Blanco finds working in Hamilton isn't much different than in Havana.

"Children are children wherever you go. One day, we're going to do a ballet for Canadian children and take it to Cuba. The idea of that excites me quite a lot."

Blanco's choreography for Hansel and Gretel is classical in style and he says it makes the story easy to follow.

"Fairy tales are popular in Cuba. Most children know the story of Hansel and Gretel. We were surprised to find children here who didn't know it at all. We've gone to schools and done workshops. And before we started rehearsals we talked about it quite a lot."

Blanco is surprised more boys in Canada don't want to dance.

"In Cuba, there's no stigma about ballet school. Here, it's mostly girls who go to dance.

"I have one little boy, very slim and shy. He came up to me at rehearsal. 'You know, every boy and girl in Canada should learn ballet,' he said. 'It's just so much fun. I'm going to be the best ice cream cone in the show.'"

Helping Blanco stage his choreography in Hamilton is Cuban teacher Kenia Garcia.

"I'm Eduardo's extra eyes," she says with a smile. "I do the clean-up of the steps. I make sure every last thing is right."

Blanco nods in agreement.

"There's just so much to do," he says.

"Ballet is my life. There's something about dance that is absolutely universal.

"It doesn't need any basis in politics. Know what I mean?"

Gary Smith has written on theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator for more than 25 years.