Lorna Burdsall

Lorna Burdsall (1928–2010) was an American dancer and choreographer who was a founding member and director of the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba. From 1955 to 1975, she was married to Cuban intelligence official Manuel Piñeiro.

Following her divorce from Piñeiro, Burdsall became the National Director of Dance and Modern Dance in Cuba, and was an advisor on modern dance to Cuba's Minister of Culture.

Biography Lorna Burdsall was born in 1928, in Preston, Connecticut. She was interested in dance as a child, and as a young adult she studied at the American Dance Festival in New London, Connecticut, training with dancers such as Martha Graham and José Limón, whom she drew influence from later in life. After attaining a master's degree in psychology but being unable to find work in the field, Burdsall began teaching dance at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. This was short-lived, however, and she quit after being unable to take her students to perform at a Black high school.

In 1953, while studying dance at the Juilliard School in New York City, Burdsall met Manuel Piñeiro, the son of a Cuban alcohol distributor who was studying business administration at Columbia University. She married Piñeiro in 1955, one year after graduating from Juilliard.

Marriage to Manuel Piñeiro After marrying Piñiero in 1955, Burdsall moved with him to Cuba. At first, she was not fully aware of his involvement with the Cuban Revolution, but eventually she began to help her husband and his fellow revolutionaries. While pregnant with their child, she hid guns and ammunition in their Havana apartment, most of which were sent to arm guerrillas training with her husband in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

Career Burdsall was a founding member of the Conjunto Nacional de Danza Moderna, now the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba. Medal for 25 Years of Artistic Movement (1985)