Tampa City Ballet’s ‘La Septima’ is a huge accomplishment, and it takes over the Cuban Club this weekend

Bailey Lord (center) as Charlie Wall in Tampa City Ballet s La Séptima. Credit: Courtesy / Tampa City Ballet At the Cuban Club this weekend, Tampa City Ballet opens another chapter in “La Septima,” the dance theater project it has been developing for the last six years. If you attend a performance—and you should—you’ll find yourself immersed in a saga that has been unfolding for more than 100 years: the passionate, richly multi-cultural history of Ybor City. “How many places have the history that Ybor has?” muses Paula Nuñez, who conceived and directed. “Just on Seventh Avenue you have so many stories.” La Septima is, of course, the Spanish moniker for Ybor City’s main drag, AKA E Seventh Avenue. Nuñez founded America’s Ballet School in 2002 before launching Tampa City Ballet in 2012 and transitioning it into a nonprofit in 2018. She first found herself captivated by the district’s unique character while rehearsing her dancers for a piece about Frida Kahlo at HCC in 2019.