Lydia Diaz Cruz de Leon

Lydia Diaz Cruz de Leon, beloved mother and grandmother, and a former Prima Ballerina of renown in the Cuban community, passed away on January 27, 2025 in Miami, Florida. A woman of inimitable style, grace, and elegance, she was born on January 14, 1937 in Havana, Cuba, where she began dancing in her youth. She eventually joined the Ballet Alicia Alonso, where she was heralded as a child prodigy. She retired from the ballet after her marriage to Leon J. de Leon in 1956, later to restart her career after exile to Miami in 1960 and the birth of her three children.



She collaborated with a local dance company, Ballet Concerto, and from the mid-1960s on, her career led to a trajectory that included appearances as a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Washington (D.C.), and performances in principal guest roles with the Washington Ballet, National Ballet of Venezuela, and Ballet Spectacular. She was partnered by some of the greatest male dancers of the time -- Rudolph Nureyev, Peter Martins, Edward Villella, and Fernando Bujones among them.

Her signature solo piece, as "The Dying Swan," led to critical accolades, with many proclaiming her interpretation as perhaps even more memorable than her legendary predecessors in the role, the Russian ballerinas Maya Plisetskaya and Anna Pavlova.

In later years, she was a founding board member of the Miami City Ballet, which honored her with a full-length performance of "The Nutcracker" in 1991. After retirement, she reveled in home, family, and friends, and delighted in travels around the world with her husband of 58 years. She will be so very deeply missed, most of all for her warmth, kindness to others, and generosity of spirit.

She is survived by her children Lidia Maria, Leon Mario, and John de Leon, and granddaughters Jacqueline and Lauren de Leon.