81-year-old in assisted living was once a professional ballet dancer in New York

Rosa “Tutti” Cordero was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016 and lives at Homestead Assisted Living in Rexburg. She and some of the residents did a dance routine, which you can watch in the video above. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com

REXBURG – Tutti Cordero is a beautiful ballerina who lights up the room with her smile and personality.

That’s how Rosa Lavelle describes her 81-year-old mother, who is now a full-time resident at Homestead Assisted Living in Rexburg.

The Puerto Rican native was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, but was once a professional dancer in New York City and her home country.

Cecilia Fisher, a classical ballet master and professional ballerina who teaches classes at the Rexburg Arts Center with Lavelle, organized a dance routine with Cordero and some of the other Homestead residents Monday afternoon. Cordero seemed delighted to use her ballerina legs again and gave Fisher a big hug at the end. Take a look in the video above.

Cordero’s memory may not be as clear as it used to be, but she tells EastIdahoNews.com she misses being able to dance like she used to and how it makes her feel.

“You express with the music what you feel to the people,” she says. “And you make them (happy).”

Lavelle says her mom started dancing in Puerto Rico when she was 4 years old under the tutelage of her dance instructor, Nellie Garcia. At age 8, Cordero was part of an intermediate ballet company.

Three years later, she was invited to audition for a part in a stage production of the “Madame Butterfly” opera in France. Lavelle says Cordero’s father wouldn’t allow her to do it because he felt she was too young.

Tutti as a young girl. | Courtesy Rosa Lavelle

Cordero was 15 when she went to New York to attend The School of American Ballet.

“One of her teachers was a famous teacher from Cuba and she got to be in his ballet company,” Lavelle says.

A member of the company became her future husband. The two were married when Cordero was 18 or 19.

Over the years, Cordero was a dancer in shows like “Swan Lake,” “Poppelia,” and “The Nutcracker.”

Lavelle says it was sometime before 1960, the year she was born, that her mom stopped dancing professionally and went back to Puerto Rico to be a ballet instructor.

“I was just a child and never saw her perform. I have only seen her teaching,” Lavelle recalls.

Photos of Tutti Cordero in her younger days. | Courtesy Rosa Lavelle

Tutti’s love of ballet was instilled in her daughter, who also went on to become a professional dancer. She studied at a ballet conservatory in Spain for a time before going to Philadelphia to attend college. Philadelphia is where Lavelle attended high school and met her husband.

She and her family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997 and that led them to Rexburg, where Lavelle graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2009 with a minor in dance.

She brought her mother to come and live with her in Rexburg in 2021 after Cordero’s husband passed away. She’s been a full-time resident of Homestead since May.

Though Cordero’s diagnosis is now 7 years old, Lavelle says her mom is doing amazingly well. Still, she says her mom is not the same person and it makes her sad to see her gradually decline.

Lavelle is grateful for the skills her mother taught her and she’s proud to be Tutti’s daughter.

“She is an inspiration to me,” Lavelle says, tearing up. “I’m so happy to be the daughter of a beautiful ballerina. I’m so blessed she gave me that talent.”