From Kitchen-Table Origins to New Leadership: Miami City Ballet Enters a New Era

The 2026-27 season for Miami City Ballet marks the first season programmed by new artistic director Gonzalo Garica. Picture is Miami City Ballet Principal Dancer Hannah Fischer. Celebrated photographer Pari Dukovic shot a series of images of Miami City Ballet dancers that were revealed at the 40th Anniversary Gala. (Photo by Pari Dukovic, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Miami City Ballet is completing its 40th anniversary season and is now undergoing a rare dual transition in leadership, with Gonzalo Garcia, only the third artistic director in the company’s history, preparing to launch his first fully programmed season. 

At the same time, MCB has hired a new executive director. Scott Altman who was appointed in mid-April, arrives to MCB with a background as president and CEO of the Cincinnati Ballet and most recently president and CEO of Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Inside the Miami Beach studios where the company’s identity has been shaped and molded for decades, Toby Lerner Ansin, founder of the Miami City Ballet, longtime dancer Ashley Knox, and newer arrival Hannah Fischer represent different points along the timeline as the organization adjusts to change at both the artistic and administrative level.

Toby Lerner Ansin with MCB Dancers Kaelah Poulos-Hopkins, Ilona Halloran-Rojas, and Andrew Larose at the 40th anniversary gala for Miami City Ballet. (Photo courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Garcia says one of the things that has stayed with him most since arriving is Ansin’s account of the company’s earliest days.

“She shared how everything started, and how in her kitchen, she was with some of her friends, and they were like, ‘Let’s call this person, and let’s call her, and let’s call him…’ and then a year later, you know, the curtain went up… They had 17 dancers, and then 21 at the end of the season,” he says, recalling how quickly the idea turned into an institution.

Ansin situates the origin story in personal terms.

“I’m the longest person there in the building. I’m the abuela that’s been there since the very beginning. There’s some people that have been there 30 years, but I’m the only one that’s been there for all 40 years, plus the year before it started,” she says.

For Garcia, that sense of something built by instinct and fortitude is part of what makes the next chapter feel so charged.

“This is a transitional moment for the institution,” he says.

Garcia has a five-year contract as artistic director with MCB, which began on Aug. 11, 2025. When asked, the company would not disclose salary terms at this time.

For the new artistic director, the central tension is how to move forward without losing what already defines the company. 

The 2026-27 season for Miami City Ballet will be Gonzalo Garcia’s first fully programmed season since his appointment as artistic director on Aug. 11, 2025. (Photo by Rodrigo Díaz Wichman, courtesy of Miami City Ballet )

“How do we not throw any of the good stuff away that has been built here,” he says, “and completely pay homage to the past and understand it, but then completely move forward?”

It is a question that lands differently depending on where someone stands in the company’s legacy.

Knox, a dancer with 25-plus years with MCB, describes those shifts as an internal continuity rather than a disruption—each artistic director adding another layer rather than replacing what preceded it.

“From Edward, I feel I gained an understanding of musicality and attack. With Lourdes, it was technique and intention, and now with Gonzalo, I’m excited to see what he brings for me to explore.”

Fischer, a dancer hired in the final phase of Lourdes López’s tenure, is stepping into Garcia’s programming as something lived in real time rather than remembered history. Much of her familiarity with the repertory already aligns with what is now coming to the stage under his direction, including Christopher Wheeldon’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” which she says she is keenly familiar with from her time performing the co-production with The Royal Ballet and National Ballet of Canada.

“I’ve done almost every role in that ballet,” she says.

Hannah Fischer in “Roses from the South, Three Waltzes for Toby,” choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky to celebrate Toby Lerner Ansin. (Photo by REN Media, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

She also danced the role of Odette in the MCB premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s version of “Swan Lake,” which Garcia is bringing to his season, the third time the company will perform the contemporary interpretation.

Gonzalo’s arrival isn’t just a change in leadership; it’s the right move in many ways.

“I think it’s the right time in his life for this position,” says Ansin. “If you look at where he started in Spain, and how his career has grown, it’s the right step.” Garcia trained in Spain and joined the Zurich Ballet before moving to the New York City Ballet in 2022, where he became a principal dancer. 

New executive director Altman says he’s joining at a time when MCB is “on a trajectory of growth and new artistic heights” and that there’s an “opportunity to build on MCB’s legacy.”

Scott Altman is Miami City Ballet’s new executive director. (Photo by Aaron M. Conway)

After 40 years, Ansin is deeply aware that the company’s future depends not only on artistic excellence, but on building and sustaining audiences in a rapidly changing and growing city.

“We have to thank the community for supporting the ballet over 40 years, and we’re now a major institution, and we just have to keep on expanding and getting people, more people in the door. And because when you look at all the condominiums going up, you could fill the Arsht a million times. We need to figure out how to get more people in,” she says, adding ‘You’d be surprised how many people don’t even know we exist.”

Fischer, 31, comes from a ballet family—both of her parents danced with and later taught at the National Ballet of Canada, which she joined in 2015 before leaving to dance with Miami City Ballet. She notes that MCB isn’t a company with a centuries-old European tradition or the automatic cultural recognition of the New York City Ballet.

“I think Miami gets kind of a rap for being a party town, and perhaps a little bit uncultured. And I think it is difficult because it’s not like New York or European (cities) where dance is government funded or it’s been in their history for so many years and everyone goes to the ballet.  Not everyone goes to the ballet in Miami.”

That reality, she believes, has made the company both “scrappy” and inventive —qualities shared by Garcia and Ansin.

Miami City Ballet Principal Dancer Hannah Fischer. Celebrated photographer Pari Dukovic shot a series of images of Miami City Ballet dancers that were revealed at the 40th Anniversary Gala. (Photo by Pari Dukovic)

“They both have that mindset where they’re like, ‘Okay, this is a different kind of culture here. How can we tap into what they need, what they want to see, while still honoring, you know, Balanchine roots, Jerome Robbins roots. I think they have tapped into ‘Miami, what makes us special’ and so they’re finding really interesting ways to get that attention.”

Garcia is opening the season in October with a mixed repertory program that includes a world premiere by Tony Award-winner Patricia Delgado, a former Miami City Ballet principal dancer, in collaboration with composer, producer, musician, and songwriter, Emily Estefan, the daughter of Gloria and Emilio Estefan.

“Patricia is developing a voice in the dance world and this is her home. This is her artistic home, for sure, and she grew up in Miami. “ Delgado is working with Gloria and Emily Estefan on their new production of “Basura,” which is making its debut at the end of May at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre with plans for it to play Broadway.

Garcia adds that the programming reflects the kind of artistry he wants to bring to the company. “I told Patricia, this is what I want the beginning of my chapter to be: I want it to be jazz and I want it to be Tchaikovsky. I think these types of collaborations can go a long way.”

Knox, who joined Miami City Ballet under founding artistic director Edward Villella, says she has seen the company evolve through every leadership era. 

Ashley Knox in Miami City Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. (Photo by Juliet Hay, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

“The first 10 years of my career were with Edward,” says the now 42-year-old dancer, who joined the company in 2002 as an apprentice and has been a principal dancer since 2021.  She says by the time she arrived, MCB was “pretty well established and had a reputation of being a strong Balanchine ballet company. . . I feel like he was at a time where he felt he had finally built a company that he wanted.”

With López, she found a mentorship. “She had a focus on technique and how you approach a role, like the intention behind it, whether it was a story ballet or not. That really helped me grow through those years.”

She sees Garcia’s leadership as continuing the throughline. “He creates a positive environment to work, and he has such a passion for ballet as an art form.  I’m happy that I’m able to be a part of this transition for the company, because . . .  I am seeing already the direction it is going in and know that it’s in good hands.”

Garcia is looking beyond what’s presented on stage and has ideas for bringing MCB into the future. Renovations were already planned for the Miami Beach studios, which are a few blocks north of Lincoln Road.

 “The building is going to be more practical.” He wants to utilize the black box theater and create livestreaming events that are performed in front of a Miami audience. “It will be free. People can sign up and watch a preview rehearsal of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or of Emily and Patricia’s piece.”

As principal dancer at New York City Ballet, Gonzalo Garcia in George Balanchine’s “Apollo.” © The George Balanchine Trust. (Photo by Paul Kolnick, courtesy New York City Ballet )

Another source of excitement for Garcia is having the ability to reposition the visual and cultural footprint. “One of the things I’m passionate about is changing a bit of the way visually we think of Miami City Ballet and for people in Miami for how they see us. We have more freedom than many other companies do because of where we are. You can be sexy, you can be elegant, you can be glamorous, you can be beachy. We represent literally so much and that’s visually exciting – that’s cool.” 

WHAT :  Miami City Ballet in “¡Vamos! to the Beach”

WHEN:  7:30 pm on Friday, May 1, 2 pm and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2, and 2 p.m., Sunday, May 3.

WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami).

ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES:  7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 9 and 1 and 6:30 p.m., Sunday, May 10, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale

PRICE : $45-$265

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  (305) 929-7010 and www.miamicityballet.org 

For the complete schedule of MCB’s upcoming season, click here.

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