Latin Voices take center stage in Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s Program 1

Miranda Montes de Oca, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami company member, in “Latin Voices.” (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Daniel White spins his partner, Chloe Freytag, and she strikes an attitude and leans back in his arms.  White slides her across the floor into a lift and then backpedals as her legs scissor in front of her.  She pivots to face him and he press lifts her overhead then sets her down and snaps out a final jetée of his own.

The couple are rehearsing “Hold My Hand,” the latest work by DDTM Choreographer and Dancer Yanis Eric Pikieris set to premiere Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center Main Stage (formerly the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center).

In a purple hoody, Pikieris calls out instructions to the couple from the side.  He then begins to mirror and model the movements he intends as Freytag and White pay close attention.

“It (‘Hold My Hand’) was commissioned by Sharon Asbell, a big supporter of Dimensions Dance, and she wanted to commission something in the memory of her late sister,” says Pikieris.

Asbell wanted it set to “Avinu Malkeinu” (a Jewish prayer sung during services from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur); Pikieris located an instrumental version of it.

“Her earliest memory of that prayer put her back in synagogue with her father holding her hand, added Pikieris.  “The words of the prayer are about the guidance and protection a father-like figure can give.”

For the choreographer, creating this work was timely given the climate of anti-Semitism, especially prevalent on social media, he says.

“I don’t have a lot of Jewish friends personally, but there are a lot of things being shared by prominent people with huge followings that I find incredibly concerning.  Any person in power can incite violence toward a group of people, and I find this terrifying.”

With support from a three-year South Arts grant, the company has been touring aggressively over the last six months with dates in New Orleans and Alexandria, La., as well as Gainesville, Florida.

“We’re still feeling the aftereffects of the pandemic,” says Jennifer Kronenberg, former Miami City Ballet principal dancer and co-Artistic Director of DDTM with husband, Carlos Guerra (also a former MCB principal).   “The dance touring model in the United States is not sustainable without subsidies and without grant help.  There is still a lot of the dance sector that is stuck in the digital world (that developed to stream dance performances during the pandemic) and a lot of the audience that’s also still stuck there,” she says.

Freytag and White finish up as the rest of the company enter the sunny studio to rehearse a favorite DDTM ballet, “Juanita y Alicia.”.

DDTM last staged the work in Miami for the company’s debut performance in November 2016, but the ballet originated when DDTM was still just an idea in the minds of Guerra and Kronenberg.

“We only said we were thinking of forming a company, and former Washington Ballet Artistic Director and Choreographer Septime Webre immediately offered us a ballet for the program,” says Kronenberg.

The company then took the 25-minute ballet on tour and performed it in June 2018 at New York’s storied Joyce Theater.

Webre based “Juanita y Alicia” on traditional Cuban folk boleros.  It is an homage to the essence of Cuban culture using the vocabulary of classical ballet.  Romantic love is a recurrent theme of the work.

For instance, one movement begins with dancer Chloe Freytag standing with her hands crossed over her heart as dancer Alexey Minkin walks across the floor and kisses her on the neck.

He then spins her as the singer croons, “Las gardenias para ti – Te quiero” (“The Gardenias are for you – I love you”), from the Cuban ballad, “Dos Gardenias,” which will be performed live during the Saturday performance by Alain Garcia and his Latin Power band.

Minkin lifts Freytag in splits and carries her across the floor, and when Minkin lifts her in a seated position overhead the other dancers in the rehearsal cheer.

The piece ends with Minkin kissing her neck before walking off the floor.

When asked about the story of the pas de deux, Freytag explains, “The character is someone who never married, and she had a wild love affair with a man from a rural area that the family would never approve.”

Freytag adds: “Septime based this on his family. He told us about his aunt who had the experience that he relates through the choreography.  All of the characters in the ballet are based on Webre’s family.”

Freytag says this is the third time she is dancing the role.  “Erin Du (Webre’s Répétiteur) was also an original cast member of the ballet.  She keeps keep filling in the spots and giving us more details of the stories Septime tells in the work.”

In later movements, the women wear their hair unbound – unusual in classical dance.  The look makes their spins and quick pivots especially dramatic.

“It changes the whole ballet because all of a sudden we go from being uncontrolled,” says Selah Jane Oliver, a dancer and company veteran.

“We all start with our hair in a French twist  and our costumes start all tied up and buttoned up like school outfits.  At the end we end up with our costumes relaxed with our hair . . . down,” she says.

The company’s movements are crisp, assured and missteps are quickly shaken off.  The company moves with energy and unity of technique, as a genuine ensemble.

“The challenging part of this piece is that it changes from soft to hard,” explains DDTM dancer Kevin Hernandez. “You have to be soft during many sequences but then you have to change back and be hard for the other (classical) movements.”

The Saturday, Nov. 12 program also includes two additional South Florida premieres – “Balanced” by  choreographer and former BalletMet dancer Jimmy Orrante and “Lecuona” – a traditional classical ballet for five couples, named in honor of Cuba’s own “Gershwin,” pianist Ernesto Lecuona – contributed by DDTM Choreographer in Residence Yanis Pikieris and the father of Yanis Eric Pikieris.

“Part of DDTM’s mission is to celebrate the diverse Latin voices within the Miami community.  This evening of dance encapsulates how and why Latinx artists are an important facet of the dance world,” says Kronenberg.

WHAT: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s “Latin Voices”

WHERE: Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center (formerly South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center) 10950 SW 211 Street, Cutler Bay

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12.

COST: $25-$45, VIP, $75.

INFORMATION: 786-573-5300 or mosscenter.org

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Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ captures splendor of Miami City Ballet

The famous balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet” with Katia Carranza (Juliet) and Renan Cerdeiro (Romeo) in the Miami City Ballet production. (Photo courtesy of  Alexander Iziliaev)

For ballet lovers and knowledgeable audiences (including critics, who are nothing more than specialized spectators), attending all performances provides true enjoyment in any season of a repertory ballet with a plot performed by a big company.

You already know what the play is about. But the key is discovering how the cast transforms it into something personal. Although in some countries, it’s common to say, “a ballet by Tchaikovsky,” and in others, you will be using the expression “a ballet by Balanchine,” the truth is that once the composer and the choreographer have created the work, the staging of it belongs entirely to the performers. Dance is also theater, and it is the performances of the dancers that make the difference.

The first three performances of the Miami City Ballet (MCB) season at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami with “Romeo and Juliet” (music by Sergei Prokofiev and choreography by John Cranko) turned out to be an excellent offer. It was a tremendous success on a recent Sunday when centralized by the charismatic couple of Isadora Valero and Brooks Lendegger.

Katia Carranza is a star and an elegant dancer whose expressive authority allows her to conceive and project a very youthful Juliet but one that illustrates how women mature emotionally before men. In the original play, Juliet is only 13, and Romeo is about 16. But, of course, being 13 or 16 then is nothing like being 13 or 16 today.

Renan Cerdeiro is a sensitive interpreter and an ideal partner for a figure of Katia’s artistic stature. They opened the season on Friday night and did it in style, offering a couple’s work of impeccable texture.

On Saturday night, the freshness of Nina Fernandes’ almost childlike Juliet and the joviality of Cameron Catazaro’s Romeo was captivating. Their debut developed into a pleasant experience and a very worthy achievement. When they dance or act together, the pair stand out for their honesty, and when interacting with other characters, they draw attention to their ineffable naturalness.

The third and final performance shows that history often repeats itself.

In February 2003, a Sunday performance at the Jackie Gleason in Miami Beach with a classic (“Coppelia”) was a “star is born” event for Carranza (“a luxury milestone for a soloist,” we called it then) and her Swanilda remains vivid in our memory.

Now, Isadora Valero’s exquisite Juliet – her debut in the role – seems destined to be indelible, too. Her performance threads the character’s story with unusual candor as she dances with dazzling poise. This is undoubtedly the appearance of a rare talent.

Landegger – also in his debut – is a real discovery playing Romeo. He is as close as you can get to a movie matinée idol of yesteryear. His smile -reminiscent of Baryshnikov’s in his younger years- appeals to the complicity of the spectators, and the applause he receives in response to the slightest of his provocations is absolutely deserved.

But it’s not just the dancers in charge of the leading roles who offer outstanding performances in MCB’s “Romeo and Juliet.” All dancers in secondary or incidental roles equally deserve recognition, members of the corps de ballet included.

The excellence of Damian Zamorano as Tybalt, Chase Swatosh as Count Paris, Andrew Larose as Benvolio, and Tricia Albertson as Juliet’s nurse is worth mentioning. Without forgetting Alexander Peters, Alexander Kaden, and Shimon Ito, who alternated the role of Mercury, Luiz Silva as the King of Carnival, and Jordan-Elizabeth Long as Rosalinda.

To finish, we must celebrate the return of Gary Sheldon as the head of the orchestra. Live music adds an enormous charm to MCB performances. And the audience recognizes it when Sheldon appears onstage at the end of each performance and is rewarded with the approbatory exclamations reserved for exceptional artists.

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Brigid Baker Wholeproject conjures good vibrations with ‘Abracadabra’

Dancer Meredith Barton in brigid baker wholeproject’s “Abracadabra.” (Photo courtesy of Julien Hyvrard)

A noisy wet greeting from pitbull chihuahua, Finny, ushers me into the Little Havana studio of choreographer Brigid Baker, artistic director of brigid baker wholeproject. Company dancers Amy Trieger, Meredith Barton and Isaiah Gonzalez warm up in the center of the floor for the afternoon rehearsal of the company’s latest work, “Abracadabra.”

Stage props from earlier installments of the four-part “Return of the Bird Tribes” series frame the practice floor.  On one side is the cardboard tree from the 2022 program, “Numinous Land,” and against the wall the great golden crown from the 2021 pandemic work, “Crown.”

For Baker, the RBT series began with the October 2019 program, “Remain in Light.” She says that program shifted her creative energies.

“It all goes back to “Remain in Light” whose theme was the ocean, but at that point the direction had not really emerged,” says Baker.

“(These four works) are all about pure energy and about what comes from the physical world,” she explains.  ” ‘Crown’ laid down the geometry of these new possibilities for the new beginning we were making then we go through the different physical representations on earth.  First was ‘Operation Birdsong’ where we had to attend to the things of the air and then there was ‘Numinous Land’ where we were attending to things of the earth.”

Baker sees her current project, “Abracadabra,” continuing that trajectory.  For Baker, this latest program, premiering Thursday, Nov. 10 through Sunday, Nov. 13 at Miami Dade County Auditorium On.Stage Black Box Theatre, investigates the energy behind things.

“The stage will be all gold without embellishment.  The idea is to express a vibration,” says Baker.  “We’re becoming aware of the emergence of energetic values that are becoming manifest.”

Baker wearing a loose fitting shirt and sweater engages in the interview as she pins in place a golden collar on Barton.

” ‘Abracadabra’ opens with one of my hack movies with people making gold orbs,” said Baker referring to her crowd-sourced films spliced together from YouTube movies. “And then it transitions to women from the ’50s making globes and then spiders going ’round and ’round making webs.”

Musician and composer Brian Eno’s subdued 2005 composition, “And then so clear” accompanies Baker’s visuals.  The piece starts quietly with chords then an electronic voice breaks in, “In these the world to open/so much to lose to save.”

The three dancers move to the center of the floor sporting full-body tights and gold collars.   Behind them, a tall draped golden figure casts golden shadows on the black studio floor as the dancers center themselves and Baker cues up the music.

The centerpiece of “Abracadabra” is a 24-minute dance piece of the same name set to Eno’s just-released work, “We Let It In.”

The dancers begin and their movements are striking, patterns transforming unexpectedly. In one sequence, Trieger stretches back then steps to Gonzalez’s side before pivoting to face him in a lunge as they both hop forward.  Gonzalez supports her in a quick lift in arabesque before they run the length of the floor. To their right, Barton snaps back in arabesque, hops forward twice then spins.

The choreography shifts rapidly from the flamboyant to the introspective.   In one sequence, dancers leap into the air, arms fully extended, legs snapping out at right angles.  In another, dancers waltz as a trio before shrinking into a sculpture-like twist at the center.

Throughout the choreography, the three dancers exhibit astonishing unity of technique.

The program also includes a gorgeous set of visuals with a film by Justin Trieger, New World Symphony’s multimedia producer and husband of dancer Amy Trieger,  which will be projected on the screen during the main dance number.

The film begins with black and white digitally produced orbs that float like stars in space after the Big Bang.  With a sudden crash, the scene shatters with movement and the color spectrum shifts to shades of gold.

Near the end of the dance number, three dancers form a diagonal, feet in first position, arms at their sides gently curved, gaze intent.

They raise a hand to their shoulders and then extend it out in front as the music closes.

When I ask how the dancers exhibit such unity of technique Baker replies: “It comes from training in a holistic way – notice that there is no one even heavy breathing,” which is true.  “This comes from training in a certain way,” says Baker referring to her own dance technique which she calls, Lightbody.

“(The technique) sophisticates the nervous system and the training aligns the breathing with the natural pulse of the nervous system,” she adds.

Each of the dancers has performed with wholeproject for several seasons.  Gonzalez joined the company in 2019 and Barton in 2014.

For Amy Trieger – who joined the company in 2005 – “Abracadabra” will be her 20^th program danced with the company.

When asked what she hoped the audience would take away from the program, she says:

“There are things about the way that we work that people don’t understand because we are so calm or what appears to be calm.  They don’t know all the back work that goes into it.  I want them to sit there and be there with us because that would open their hearts.  Then after that, I would love to sit there and have a conversation and talk about how we got there.”

WHAT: brigid baker wholeproject,“Abracadabra, Part 4, a Return of the Bird Tribes Interlude”

WHEN: 8  p.m., Thursday, Nov. 10, Friday, Nov. 11, Saturday, Nov. 12 and Sunday, Nov.  13

WHERE: Miami Dade County Auditorium On.Stage Black Box Theatre, 2901 West Flagler Street, Miami

COST: $22 plus fees, general seating only.

INFORMATION: 305-547-5414 or miamidadecountyauditorium.org

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Review: Third time a charm for Miami City Ballet’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’

The company in Miami City Ballet’s “Romeo and Juliet.” (Photo courtesy of Daniel Azoulay)

Miami City Ballet opened its 37th season at the Adrienne Arsht Center with a reprisal of choreographer John Cranko’s ballet, “Romeo and Juliet,” set to music by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. It is the third time MCB has presented Cranko’s ballet, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014.

The ballet tells the story of two warring Veronese noble families – the Montagues and the Capulets.  The ballet tells the story of two warring Veronese noble families – the Montagues and the Capulets.  Two beloved children from each family – Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague – fall passionately in love and then secretly marry.  

Their attempt to pursue happiness ends tragically with their deaths.

The ballet is based on William Shakespeare’s classic love story which first debuted in January 1595 at the Curtain Theater in London.

The Kirov Theater’s choreographer Leonid Lavrosky first presented “Romeo and Juliet” in 1940.   Sergei Prokofiev composed his ballet in 1935 for the Kirov Theater’s adaptation of the classic.   The Kirov ultimately rejected Prokofiev’s score because they considered the ending unsuitable for dancing.

South African ballet dancer and choreographer, John Cranko, was the first to bring Prokofiev’s score to the stage in 1962 when it premiered in Germany with the Stuttgart Ballet.  The first American company to perform Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet” was the Joffrey Ballet in 1985 in New York.

In addition to the score, the ballet showcases gorgeous costuming and memorable sets.

For instance, the masked ball scene (Act 1, scene 4), opens to a stage full of male dancers in grand Venetian masks draped in full-length gold, black and scarlet capes.  The men begin the scene with four ominous stomps and then walk a pattern of four long steps to each side.

The women enter in full gowns and weave between their ranks. The sequence is simple but executed beneath a billboard-sized golden lion head with a flaring mane and bared teeth.  The assemblage exudes courtly power as the Prokofiev score masterfully trades fifths up and down the scale.

Directed by principal conductor Gary Sheldon, the Opus 1 orchestra – especially its horns, percussion and double reeds – made the Prokofiev score a highlight of the weekend.  Flutists Karen Fuller and Elizabeth Lu were oustanding.

Another happy feature of the weekend was the different castings for each of the performances, which allowed audiences to glimpse talented corps dancers tackling leading roles.

On Friday, Katia Carranza and Renan Cerdeiro danced the parts of Juliet and Romeo.  The two principal dancers brought strong technique and theatricality to the roles.

The two were lovely during the balcony scene as Cerdeiro press-lifted Carranza overhead and Carranza melted her suspended body against his.

Cerdeiro’s double tours were the strongest among the weekend’s male leads while Carranza was a gorgeous Juliet who handled well the role’s demanding theatricality. Her dance sequences deepened a sense of the character she performed of a young woman experiencing her first real love.

On Saturday corps dancers Cameron Catazaro and Nina Fernandes took up the title roles.  The physical height difference between the two emphasized the youth of the characters (Romeo’s character is roughly 17-years-old and  Juliet is 13).

Also, Catazaro partnered Fernandes well when flipping her in arabesque and supporting her in lifts. The two were convincing lovers when they nuzzled during the balcony scene.

On Sunday, MCB newcomers and corps dancers Brooks Landegger and Isadora Valero danced the main roles.

During some sequences, Landegger struggled, visibly winded.  However, Valero’s dancing and acting was consistently exquisite.  With careful pantomime and gesture she brought to life the codes of courtly propriety that Juliet uses to distance herself from her betrothed Count Paris – a role performed well by principal soloist Chase Swatosh on Friday and Saturday and corps dancer Francisco Shilereff on Sunday.

The ballet is strong on theater and many of the dance sequences behave as motifs that give body to the characters performed.  For instance, Romeo’s good friend, Mercutio, is witty, playful and wild, and his sequences expressed the character’s restless brilliance with lots of quick turns and sharp pivots ending with arms wagging and head bobs.

Alexander Peters made the sequences look effortless, which emphasized an important feature of Mercutio’s character as a brilliant swordsman.  Alexander Kadan on Saturday and Shimon Ito on Sunday were equally strong in the role.

Also noteworthy was Damian Zamarano as Juliet’s first cousin Tybalt.  With black beard and hair slicked back he made for a powerful and threatening presence onstage.  However, Steven Loch on Saturday strengthened the sense of Tybalt’s villainy through small additions as when he extemporaneously grabbed his sword hilt just as the lights went out as the two families faced off in the opening scene.

Performances of “Romeo and Juliet” continue in November at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

WHAT:  Miami City Ballet ‘s “Romeo and Juliet”

WHEN AND WHERE:  7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Also,  7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12 and 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach

COST:   $39-$199 depending on showtime and venue

INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

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Karen Peterson Dancers to premiere commission at Forward Motion Dance Festival

Empty chairs act as a centerpiece for “Time-Being” by Victoria Marks, created for Karen Peterson Dancers, set to be performed as part of the Forward Motion Dance Festival at Miami-Dade County Auditorium. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Nalvin)

Physically integrated (PI) dance brings together disabled and non-disabled dancers in choreographies bent on challenging notions of who can and can’t dance and what constitutes beautiful movement.

Miami’s Forward Motion Dance Festival showcases the nation’s top PI dance companies. Now in its fourth year,  performances are set for Thursday, Oct. 27 and Friday, Oct. 28 at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium. Workshops and lectures on PI dance technique are Saturday, Oct. 29 at Miami-Dade College’s Koubek Center.

Choreographer Karen Peterson, artistic and executive director of Miami’s physically integrated dance company, Karen Peterson Dancers – organized the first Forward Motion Dance Festival in 2018, bringing to Miami PI dance companies from across the nation.

This year, Peterson’s company premieres a commission by Victoria Marks – Guggenheim Fellow and Alpert Award-winning choreographer, filmmaker, scholar and activist.  She is also a professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and director of the school’s Dancing Disability Lab.

Marks is known for PI choreographies organized around the politics of citizenship and disability and her contribution to the festival is original choreography for Karen Peterson Dancers entitled, “Time Being.”

The work grew out of a three-way collaboration between Marks, KPD dancers and Onikho – an Oakland-based indie electronic artist and producer who wrote her debut EP after becoming paralyzed in a car accident in 2014.

“I thought that setting a piece by Victoria Marks on my group would benefit my group,” said Peterson.   “And then we always wanted to find a composer who also had a disability, and we found someone in San Francisco, Carina Ho, whose artistic name is Onikho.  Victoria and Onikho created the score conjointly.”

Onikho will join dancers onstage during the debut of “Time Being,” performing original music and live vocals alongside KPD dancers Shawn Buller, Marjorie Burnett, Adam Eckstat, Barney Espinal and Sun Young Park.

The words for the score grew from a discussion on Zoom that Marks had with KPD dancers last July. Marks then gave the score to Onikho who set it to music.

“Often a composer will just give us a piece and tell us to create a dance,” says Peterson.  “When there’s a three-way interaction, you have a much deeper relationship between the choreographer, composer and the dancers.”

Marks explained that the goal of her choreographic process is not to impose a dance on the performers but to listen for the dance that is in the room.

“I pay attention to what’s going on and the aspiration in the room.  I aim to make a dance that is a gift, a kind of portrait of the dancers,” explains Marks.  “It’s not a terribly scientific process, but it’s not like I come to the dancers with a dance I want to make.”

Peterson remembers the Zoom call.

“Victoria asked them to close their eyes and think about their favorite day and the sensations that came to mind.  She then asked them about the most difficult thing they do in their wheelchair.  She elicited very personal answers to these questions.  She didn’t know us at all, so she tried to get us much information about as people as she could.”

“Time Being” is organized around the life-enhancing possibilities of wheelchair movement.

“There are five dancers in the dance and three of the dancers perform in wheelchairs and two are non-disabled.  I thought, what is it that wheelchairs can do that’s amazing – how is it an asset and how is there pleasure in a wheelchair?” she recalls asking herself.

Marks will also teach a workshop on the process she calls “Choreo-Portraiture” on Saturday, Oct. 29, at Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center.

“Thinking about dance and disability I work on remaining tuned in to the political and social concerns that circulate with PI dance,” says Marks.   “The experience of dancers with disabilities is an opportunity for everyone to learn about living in a body.  The question that is potentially on the table is what could happen if our way of seeing or apprehending was shifted to grow attuned with how our bodies are constantly in transformation.”

Marks’ passion in the pursuit of her art is the possibility it presents for social and political change.

“Can our physical imaginations elevate equity for all of us?” she asks.

Also at this year’s festival is a first-time participant, Full Radius Dance Company from Atlanta.

FRD was founded by Douglas Scott, artistic and executive director, in 1990 as a traditional dance company, but it quickly shifted focus to include disabled dancers. Peterson says she connected with FRD through a series of workshops organized by Dance/USA, a national service organization for professional dance.

The group will perform two works. The first, “Alice, Peter and Dorothy,” examines the fantasy novels – “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter and Wendy,” and “The Wizard of Oz” – through a disability-centric lens.

Douglas arranged the work for six dancers, two chair dancers, and four able-bodied.  It will be danced by FRD company dancers AK Bayer, Julianna Feracota, Courtney Michelle McClendon, Ashlee Jo Ramsey-Borunov, Matthew Smith, and Peter Trojic.

Also in its program is “Undercurrents,” a 25-minute piece, performed by the same dancers and set to the music of Andrew Choe, the music director and composer for Abilities Dance Boston.  The work investigates relationships, how partnerships form and dissolve and where subtle shifts between people reveal hidden feelings and impulses below the surface.

WHAT: Fourth Annual Forward Motion Physically Integrated Dance Festival and Conference, Performances and Workshops

WHEN: Performances at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 27 and Friday, Oct. 28. Workshop and conference, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29.

WHERE:  Miami Dade County Auditorium, 2901 West Flagler Street, Miami. Workshop and conference at the Koubek Center-Miami Dade College, 2705 SW 3rd Street, Miami

COST: $25, $18 for students with identification, seniors 65 and older and people with disabilities. Workshops and conference, $20, $10.

INFORMATION: karenpetersondancers.org

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Dancers in Miami City Ballet’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ prepare for roles of star-crossed lovers

Isadora Valero and Brooks Landegger rehearse for Miami City Ballet’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” opening on Friday, Oct. 21 at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

With their cloud-nine highs and rock-bottom lows, who or what can rein in the passions of teenagers in love? The question that’s put fizz in pop songs and shudders in drama reverberates throughout John Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a full-evening ballet with a Sergei Prokofiev score. Beginning its run at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center on Friday, Oct. 21, Miami City Ballet will stage this take on Shakespeare’s tragedy about Verona’s star-crossed lovers with dance steps turning into poetry.

In addition to showing how a famed romantic story translates into a storied ballet—its music deftly spectacular—the season-opener from MCB brings a noteworthy casting choice: two corps de ballet dancers, hired just this year, debuting together with their new company in the title roles. Isadora Valero, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, and Brooks Landegger, a 20-year-old New York City-native, have arrived at this auspicious—and out-of-the ordinary—career juncture through different paths, but they share a steady, straight-ahead artistic focus.

“A great opportunity means a great responsibility,” says Valero, appreciative as is Landegger of the support MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez has lent their endeavor. “I’ve got to give this two-hundred percent. Brooks and I have been discovering our parts together, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

(Principals Katia Carranza and Renan Cerderio, with long-established “Romeo and Juliet” credits, and another pair of corps members, Cameron Catazaro and Nina Fernandes, will alternate as the leads in the production.)

After weeks of rehearsals post-summer hiatus, the dancers are putting the final and demandingly fine touches on their interpretations under the watchful eye of a former Romeo and now artistic director of Czech National Ballet, Warsaw-born Filip Barankiewicz. As the répétiteur, it’s his mission to preserve the choreographer’s vision in the 1962 work for Germany’s Stuttgart Ballet, where South-African born dancer and choreographer Cranko was director until his untimely death in a 1973 plane crash. Both Valero and Landegger credit Barankiewicz’s curatorial skills, bolstered by MCB’s ballet masters, as the basis of an artistically transforming experience.

“I just find Cranko’s dramaturgy so amazing,” says the ballerina. “It gives his choreography such a natural feel, letting flesh-and-blood individuals shine through. And it tells me to always ask of my character, ‘What will you do now, and why?’ “  For her, this becomes a search for mental and situational stimuli, fuel and framework for the dance moves.

Landegger remains thankful for a deep dive he took into Shakespeare’s play in middle school under the guidance of a favorite English teacher.  And, for a through-line in the ballet, he relies on the notion that “the music is the dance,” part of a foundation built upon the guidance of Peter Stark (whose own mentor was Cuban-American ballet star Fernando Bujones) and School of American Ballet’s Jock Soto.

But Landegger emphasizes that in a ballet with so much bustle—the ballroom scene in the first act, the hubbub of the marketplace in the second—the most valuable lesson he’s drawn from recent coaching has been “to find the power of stillness.” Sure, the big moments are there for him to charge through, whether cavorting with his Montague cohorts or against Tybalt, his Capulet antagonist, and—strong arms at the ready—raising Juliet heavenward in her swoons. But, as Landegger has learned, double aerial turns and effusive lifts must leave room for quiet moments illuminated by the contained power of love.

To bring this popular ballet a personal voice also requires, according to Valero, “digging through the work’s layers.”  Luckily for her, this has involved incisive conversations with her mother, a specialist in adolescent psychology, about the teenage brain.

“Decision making is so different for teens—more intuitive, intense,” Valero points out. “This is related to hormones, of course—to discovering sexuality, with the personality still in development. It can be wonderful but also over-the-top. You see that in the ballet from the start.  As things get heavy, Juliet feels she can plunge through them. So tragedy develops. But this is a crescendo. There’s also incredible joy here. As an actress, a ballerina, I must play this one step at a time, as if with no knowledge of the ending, making sure the audience feels what Juliet does at every moment.” And rarely as in “Romeo and Juliet” have dopamine surges and perilous choices, based on the amygdala’s emotional hiccups, found such splendid portraiture.

Valero further connects this choreography to her own training and early career at Hamburg Ballet, directed by John Neumeier, once a Cranko protégé and himself a creator of notable narrative ballets. At her former company, Valero even got to perform in Cranko’s Onegin, inspired by Alexander Pushkin’s verses in another thwarted-love story.

For his part, Landegger is no stranger to the stagecraft of storytelling, having toured in the lead of the musical “Billy Elliot” for over a year in his early teens. “That’s a story with great happiness but also great sadness,” he says, linking this to his current role. “And it’s all about the journey.”

Landegger’s experience in musical theater strengthens his bond with Andrei Chagas, a fellow corps member and live-wire friend Mercutio to his Romeo. Chagas, who danced different roles the previous two times MCB has put on this ballet, now brings a fresh perspective returning to the company after a period of dancing on Broadway and appearing as a Shark in Steven Spielberg’s film version of “West Side Story.”

“I am a different artist today,” says Chagas. “I’ve learned to make sure I know a character’s story inside out.”

Not diminishing the physical challenge of staying aloft in Mercutio’s whirlwind—including some tricky sword fighting—Chagas emphasizes, “You really have to hold the narrative, which calls for a lot of emotional stamina. There’s a showy, funny aspect to Mercutio, but he’s not a clown. He sees his friend struggling in love and wants to clear the way by challenging Tybalt’s hostility through teasing. He can’t foresee his own death.” There’s that teen brashness again, and as Valero also indicates, the step-by-step, multi-threaded weaving of the tragedy.

“This is all about a thoughtful partnership,” underscores Chagas, who through his musical-theater stint gained a deeper respect for how all involved in complicated productions—not unlike “Romeo and Juliet”—cultivate their craft. He says, “Every time I step into the studio, I try to figure out ways to better help not just me but the whole collective. Whoever we are, whatever we do, we’re better by working at this together.”

WHAT:  Miami City Ballet ‘s “Romeo and Juliet”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23

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

ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES:  7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Also,  7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12 and 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach

COST:   $39-$199 depending on showtime and venue

INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

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Like flamenco, but not sure about modern? Dance Sampler offers chance to experience it all

Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami is one of the companies in the Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler. Pictured above are Melissa Verdecia and Lyvan Verdecia in  “Smallest-Orbits.” (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

For decades, the Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler has opened the South Florida dance season with a diverse program of Miami dance companies hosted at Miami’s New World School of the Arts.

In 2020, the Sampler expanded to include a virtual program and has also included performances at multiple venues.

Daniel Lewis, the founder and Dance Sampler namesake, has been a guiding force behind the growing event.

Formerly an assistant director of dance and faculty member at the Julliard School, Lewis accepted the position of founding Dean of Dance at the New World School of the Arts in Miami in 1987.

When Lewis took on the new position, Miami’s dance scene was just getting off the ground.

Seeing a number of small companies struggling to fill halls, Lewis had the idea of presenting multiple companies in the same program and combining their audiences.

“I started the Sampler in 1989 mainly as an audience development tool,” says Lewis, “because I was going to dance performances for the local companies that were only 25 percent full.  My hope with the Sampler was that all these different audiences would come to see their company, and they would like the other companies they saw, and then they’d come out for them, too.”

In the decades since, not only have many of those small companies matured but so has the appreciation of dance in the region.  Many South Florida companies enjoy well-attended performances and often fill venues to capacity.

Around 2010, Lewis was ready to retire from his position at New World and he was ready to let go of the considerable task of grant-writing and organizing behind the Dance Sampler’s success.  He wanted to turn his attention to arts education for children through a nonprofit organization he founded, Miami Dance Futures.

“It’s expensive to put this on.  You can’t make money doing this,” explains Lewis. The Sampler receives funding from Miami Dade County as well as the state of Florida, which allows dancers and companies who participate in the event to be paid for their work. “Thank God for the state and the county who gave us the funding that we match with private donations.”

Having fulfilled its original purpose, the Sampler could have faded.   Instead, the event changed and grew.

Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten – co-artistic directors of Dance NOW! Miami – breathed new life into the Sampler.

“The Sampler allowed us to aggregate audiences,” says Salterini, “but, more importantly, also cross-pollinate audiences.  With the Sampler, someone could go to see flamenco and then have a chance to see modern dance as well.”

Baumgarten adds that for audiences, it allows for the chance to experience a range of performers.

“Many people are pretty sure what they’re going to see when they go to classical ballet or flamenco.  But we all have limited time and limited funds.  The Sampler gives audiences a chance to go for one thing they know they are going to like.”

With this mission, Salterini and Baumgarten have evolved the Dance Sampler’s initial mission beyond merely filling a venue to exposing audiences to new dance experiences.

This year’s Sampler features a curated group of eight companies, from ballet to modern, contemporary to flamenco, including Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, Ballet Vero Beach, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, Dance NOW! Miami, Miami Movement Collective, New World Dance Ensemble and a new addition – Zest Collective.

But the Dance Sampler also sets the stage for South Florida choreographers, artistic directors and dancers to network with colleagues during group classes and rehearsals that lead up to the event.

“While it is an opportunity for the audiences it is also an opportunity for the performers,” says Salterini.  “All the dancers are taking classes together and they are all getting to meet and become acquainted often for the first time.  It is one of the most significant moments for the community as a whole during the season.”

And performers will get to head to the other side of the state for an additional performance.

The program opener happens at its traditional East coast location at New World School of the Arts in Miami with a second performance the following week in Naples at the Artis—Naples Hayes Hall. The venue escaped significant damage during the recent Hurricane Ian that devastated Southwest Florida. An online Dance Sampler experience, begun during the pandemic because of live-performance restrictions, is continuing, too. The online Sampler program on a digital platform is composed of works specifically made for film.

“We are trying to expand outside of South Florida.  Last year we went to the Duncan Theatre in (Palm Beach) and now we are going to Naples,” explains Baumgarten.  “Diego and I care about the product for the audience, but we are also community builders.”

Lewis says initially he was not in favor of the traveling performances.

“For me, I love the fact that now local companies are getting the chance to be seen outside of the area, even though I was originally against it,” said Lewis.  “Going viral and streaming the Sampler on video opened it up to people throughout Florida.  And dance right now on film is big all over the world.  All that grew out of the pandemic.”

He remains a dedicated part of the event.

“(Organizing the Sampler) is an act of love and I’m putting money in the pockets of dancers and dance companies, and what else could you ask for in this world?” he says.

WHAT:  Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler featuring eight Florida companies

WHEN:  8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22, also Sunday, Oct. 23 in Naples

WHERE:  New World School of the Arts, 25 NE 2nd Street, 8th floor, Miami; Artis–Naples Hayes Hall, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples

COST:  At New World, $25 general admission, $15 students; at Artis–Naples, $29-$59.

INFORMATION: 305-975-8489 and  dancenowmiami.org; for Naples, 239-597-1900 and artisnaples.org

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Dance Intermingles with Miami Beach’s Public Art For ‘Freeze Frame’

Dancer David Harris in “Bubbles: Humanoids” at Collins Canal Park, part of the site-specific series “Freeze Frame,” taking place at locations throughout Miami Beach on Thursday, Sept. 22 and Thursday, Sept. 29. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

All the world may be a stage, but when performing beyond theaters, dancers still need a good foothold. They’ll certainly get that—plus the spurs of live music and evocative sculptures to interact with—in “Freeze Frame,” a triad of works set to animate public-art spots throughout South Beach.

The events, with choreography from Dance NOW! Miami’s co-director Hannah Baumgarten, music direction from Aleksandar Djuric, and production design by Bruce F. Brown, in cooperation with Miami Arts Charter School, bring the pleasures and particularities of site-specific dance to Collins Canal Park (on the north side of the Convention Center), Pride Park (across from the Center), and 1111 Plaza on Lincoln Road.  On-site performances are Thursday, Sept. 22 and Thursday, Sept. 29.

At each location, whimsical installations by contemporary artists turn the urban scene into a playground for the eyes and—in the case of “Freeze Frame” dancers—for exploratory bodies.

Not just from her choreographer’s perspective but as a longtime South Florida resident, Baumgarten wants the performances to celebrate Miami Beach’s investment in making art accessible in public places, an invitation to turn people’s wandering into wonder.

“These sculptures are really a coup for the city,” says Baumgarten. “When I started seeing them going up, I got very excited and went just to spend time resonating with them.”

To “Freeze Frame,” Baumgarten adds the label, “migrating spaces.” Audiences move from site to site on the trail of three performances, each eight to twelve minutes long and presented twice. To a degree, the set-up allows onlookers, within a two-and-a-half-hour frame, to fashion their own viewing experience. This factors in time for a leisurely progression that may include snack breaks and even a visit to the nearby Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

The Miami Beach OnStage encore presentation of “Freeze Frame,” funded by the State of Florida last year and this year by the City of Miami Beach’s Mayor and the city’s Commission, continues the choreographer’s career-long journey through site-specific creations, saying that she’s been involved with “this kind of work” since she was a student at the Juilliard School in New York.

“Putting performances on anywhere, anytime, supports my belief art can be democratic.”

As a developing dancer and choreographer, Baumgarten rolled out her projects in Manhattan, often in response to natural, architectural and visual-art elements. But she recalls that her interest dates back further.

Growing up in Santa Cruz, Calif., Baumgarten recalls climbing and dancing on a wooden sculpture outside of Stevenson College where her father was a professor.

The structure by northern California sculptor JB Blunk, in the shape of a boat, let her imagination set sail, she recalls, to a place where stories unfold while dancers—stretching, clutching, leaping—yield to or defy surfaces, both prickly and smooth.

Early on at Dance NOW! Miami, Baumgarten found a committed partner for on-site presentations in the company’s co-director, Diego Salterini. They regularly devised dances for the Bass Museum of Art on Miami Beach—among other locations—riffing off its exhibits and front lawns.

“We got turned on to this term, ekphrasis,” explains Baumgarten. “That’s a process through which one medium reacts to—and transforms—another. A site becomes a voice, and without it the dance piece wouldn’t stand.”

Ekphrasis usually refers to poetry that comments on art objects—see John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” or Anne Sexton’s communion with Van Gogh in “The Starry Night.” But choreography can also arise from a similar inspiration.

“This is not just about performing outside, as exciting as that is, to reach new audiences,” emphasizes Baumgarten. “It’s the integration of different art forms and how that synergy makes them more impactful.”  And dance, after all, has had this sort of relationship with music over millennia.

In “Bubbles,” the first dance at Collins Canal Park with performances at 6:30 and 6:55 p.m., audiences will encounter Joep van Lieshout’s sculpture group, Humanoids.  The globular and sinuous formations provide a dreamscape for a young man to come under the spell of three fantastical beings. Light as breath on water, the slinky dance sequences course by on the plink-plunk of steel pan drums.

“To make this choreography, I had to rely on interaction with the dancers, who were being asked to work on tall, slippery objects,” says Baumgarten. “We had to find the right shoes and gloves for traction and over several weeks developed what supported my narrative.”

Next is “The Deep End” at 7:25 and 7:40 p.m. performed to a recording of Claude Debussy’s “Pagodes”—a reflection of Javanese gamelan music in piano ripples, dreamy to pulse-quickening, which plunges viewers into complex emotions at “Bent Pool,” Elmgreen and Dragset’s doubled-over construction in Pride Park.

As Baumgarten explains, “There’s a catch to this, with two dances—one joyous, the other angst-ridden—happening at the same time. On one side of the sculpture, a couple is falling deeply in love, and on the other a person is looking for companionship, not able to find it. My choice to use females honors same-gender love, which is under-represented in dance. And you have to decide how to see this—a challenge I’ve proposed.” Either walk around, watching the women’s actions intermittently, or watch one dance and then the other when it’s repeated minutes later.

“We couldn’t spend a great deal of time to prepare inside this sculpture,” points out Baumgarten. “So I found a confined space at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, where Dance NOW! Miami rehearses, and developed the piece there.” Once an on-site permit came through, the group adapted better to the curved contours, scant depth and slickness of “Bent Pool,” she explains.

“The third piece is enclosed in glass. And I’d definitely suggest people watch it from different angles.”

“Trapped!” at 8:20 and 8:45 p.m. puts a solo, stewing in obsession, inside the reflective and translucent barriers of Dan Graham’s compact funhouse—titled Morris’—at the Alton end of Lincoln Road.  For this, composer Cliff Sutton custom fit his marimba and cajón score, performed onsite by four musicians, to the strenuous physicality that required the dancer to wear kneepads and thick sneakers.

“This is about the walls we build for ourselves and are driven mad by,” Baumgarten says. “But if we just find a moment of clarity, we can walk out and not be in such constant struggle.”

Thus, each installation along this pilgrimage is like a gate, each dancer its key-holder, each dance an inward promenade. Performances bear down on points in the shared cityscape to disclose deep personal reserves.

But why call this “Freeze Frame”?

Baumgarten is playing with words. “In the visual arts there’s a tangible object you can take away or revisit,” she says. “But not in dance. Yet here people can hopefully capture moments and relive them when they go back to the sites.”

WHAT: “Freeze Frame”

WHERE: Collins Canal Park, 2100 Convention Center Drive; Pride Park, 2000 Convention Center Drive; 1111 Plaza, Lincoln Road, all in Miami Beach

WHEN: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22 and Thursday, Sept. 29. Rain dates, Sept. 25 and Oct. 6

COST: Free, no reservation required

INFORMATION: 305-975-8489 or dancenowmiami.org

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Miami creators of Siempre festival at Arsht Center say song and flamenco go hand-in-hand

Dancer Celia Fonta and her husband, guitarist Paco Fonta, are presenting Siempre Flamenco’s 16th annual Festival de Cante Flamenco at the Adrienne Arsht Center beginning Friday, Sept. 16. (Photo by Zizi Zabaneh courtesy of Siempre Flamenco)

The rhythms that a skilled flamenco dancer hammers out are masterful and maybe that’s why the artform has come to be identified with flamenco as a dance.

Miami husband and wife flamenco masters, Celia and Paco Fonta, value what the dancers contribute to the artform, but for the 2016 Florida Department of State Folk Heritage Award winners, flamenco begins with the song.

“Flamenco started with the song and then some people started to dance to it,” said Paco Fonta in a telephone interview.  “Sometimes there was not even a guitar, but (flamenco) started with the song and afterward came the rhythm.  The experts agree that in the beginning there was no rhythm – it was just the song.”

To promote flamenco’s traditions the couple organized the non-profit Siempre Flamenco organization in 2002, and in 2006 presented their first “Siempre Festival de Cante Miami” and ever since have continued to present the best of the artform to Miami audiences.

Even during the pandemic the couple organized “Café Cantante” with performances streamed live on Zoom and in 2021 gave a special live performance on the plaza at the Arsht with United States-based artists from California and Miami.

Now in its 16th year with pandemic restrictions lifting, the couple considers it high time to return to the pre-pandemic formula.  “This is the first time (since the pandemic) that we will go back to the line-up of 3 singers, a guest guitarist, and ourselves,” explains Celia.

And the Fontas have packed the line-up with flamenco luminaries, which include returning singer/dancer, Macarena de Jerez, as well as father and son singing duo Morenito de Illora and José Campos, guest guitarist Paco Fernandez as well as the Fontas themselves – Paco Fonta on guitar and Celia Fonta as dancer.

“Macarena sings and dances in the Bulería style,” Celia says referring to the playful, fast-paced 12-beat flamenco phrase, “and she is both a good singer and dancer,” she adds.

Morenito de Illora has been touring worldwide with the legendary guitarist Tomatito as part of the Joaquin Cortes’ flamenco dance company for 15 years and has recorded several discs, including the 2004, “Alumbra mi vida.”

Son of Morenito de Illora, José Campos has been pursuing the family craft with a U.S. tour after winning first place at the Alcobendas New Talent Cante competition in 2019.

The Fontas also speak excitedly about a new addition to the festival – dancer Juan Jose “El Junco.”

“He is a major star with a very tall profile,” says Celia.  “He has got incredible technique, very fast with great footwork and upper body work – he’s very spontaneous.  His dancing seems very pure – pure flamenco.”

Paco adds, “(El Junco) has the Andalusian, the South of Spain, flavor.  He captures the way those from there move, the way we laugh, the way we live in the South of Spain.  And he is very elegant.”

When asked what makes a flamenco style “pure” Paco pauses, then replies:  “When (the performers) respect the rules of flamenco, then the style is pure. When a singer performs a song with the12-beat “Soleares”  – meaning “loneliness” – rhythm, the audience expects something sad, and when they sing a fast-paced 12-beat “Bulería” rhythm – which means “to joke and have fun” – then the audience expects something light and funny.”

He adds: “You could sing anything to these either of these rhythms – happy or sad – but you must respect the spirit of that rhythm that’s infused with the history of that rhythm.  At a wedding, you wouldn’t sing Soleás but you would be singing Bulerías and Tangos.”

Paco explains that the rhythms are not as much a rhythm as a phrase.

“The musical phrase is what gives you the rhythm.  In the old time flamenco used to be its own alphabet. In the old time they didn’t know how to count,” says Paco. “The 12-beat rhythms only showed up as a measure of the sung phrase.”

Celia chimes in: “You can say the phrase is designated by the words that are being sung – the poetry of the verses were sung and the beats came after that.”

But even the dancer’s part includes elements that go beyond the percussive, rhythm-dominated footwork.  Visual features also exude meaning.  For instance, women during the dance make energetic use of a broad shawl with a thick fringe called the Manila shawl.

“The shawl was a garment that the Andalusian women wore and little by little it became a prop as part of the woman’s costume,” explains Celia.  “The same is true of the bata de cola (the train of the woman’s dress) and her fan but it’s also the same for the man’s hat and jacket.  Each of these props has its own language that accentuates the dance.”

Celia says that the shawl becomes part of the performer’s body. “It gives you something to emphasize your dancing with.  You use the shawl during the singing. We don’t use the shawl to do footwork, but we do use it to accompany the singer’s voice and the lyrical parts,” she explains.

For the Fontas, even the choice of venue – the Arsht Carnival Studio Theater – shows the respect the couple has for the artform as song.

“The small space (of the Carnival Studio Theater) is wonderful and really allows the audience to focus on the singer,” said Celia.

With its 250 seats, the Studio Theater may be one of the best venues for experiencing flamenco in the Magic City – short of a seat at the bar of a tablao (singing club) in Madrid.

WHAT: Siempre Flamenco’s 16th “Festival de Cante Miami”

WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, 3 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 17, and 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 18.

COST: $48-$60.

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or siempreflamenco.com

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A symposium on racial and cultural issues in 21st-century ballet arrives in Miami

Kareen Pauld Camargo of Miami City Ballet School, shown teaching a class, attended the first MoBBallet symposium in Philadelphia. (Photography by Alexander Iziliaev courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Theresa Ruth Howard founded the digital platform MoBBallet (Memories of Blacks in Ballet) in 2015. The former dancer with an impressive resume is today an advocate and a diversity strategist. Her project is dedicated to telling the stories of Black ballet performers in the United States and worldwide.

Beginning Sunday, Aug. 7, Howard heads the fourth edition of the MoBBallet symposium, this year entitled: Symposium M.I.A.: Motivation, Innovation, Activation, and M.I.A. no doubt referencing Miami, too.  It will take place at the Sanctuary of the Arts, Coral Gables, through Saturday, Aug. 13.

While there are no official public performances, on Saturday, Aug. 13 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., there will be a free “sharing,” where anyone interested can see what students and choreographers had created during the almost weeklong event. At noon, a town hall follows in a discussion about what is being done to improve the status of Blacks in ballet.

The art of ballet was born aristocratic, European, and white. The academic ballet was established in France during the reign of Louis XIV, and the highly influential classical style was created in Russia at the end of the 19th century, producing most of the great works that have remained in the repertoire until today.

A repertoire igniting debate today on the inclusion in the casting of dancers very different from those who premiered the works. Different in their physical constitution, culture, and, above all, skin color.

In the 20th century, the United States dance establishment believed it had solved the problem of using black dancers by establishing a segregated model that Katherine Dunham exemplified in the 1940s, Alvin Ailey in the 1960s, and the Dance Theater of Harlem in the 1970s.

Eventually, the outstanding performance of black artists -and other minority groups- in several large companies established according to the European model showed the limitations of that approach. As a result, their presence was no longer considered the exception that confirmed the rule and ended up being recognized as the exception that tests the rule.

According to a news release promoting the event, that’s the primary motivation behind the annual symposium — an event that focuses “on supporting and advocating for Black ballet dancers and choreographers, examining dance education practices, and creating meaningful conversations with dance academics, along with engaging ballet leadership to address the racial and cultural issues in ballet.”

The first MoBBallet symposium was presented by the Pennsylvania Ballet in October 2019 in Philadelphia. For the Miami edition, Miami City Ballet is involved as a sponsor. Also significant in MoBBallet’s symposium coming to Miami is its presence at the Sanctuary of the Arts, according to Lourdes López, artistic director of Miami City Ballet.

“It’s an honor to support and be part of programming at Sanctuary of the Arts. A new convening center for the performing arts right here in the heart of Miami, where artists from different disciplines come together to showcase and discuss their art forms. Their founders, Margaret and Mike Eidson, have been invaluable supporters of Miami City Ballet and strong leaders for arts philanthropy in South Florida,” says López.

And she adds, “. . . it’s important for Miami City Ballet to be inextricably linked to the Sanctuary for the Arts and support Mike and Margaret’s ideals. Such as bringing together these artists and conversations and leading important discussions to show that while ballet as an art form is steeped in tradition, tradition is not limiting but rather a limitless point of departure. Along with Mike and Margaret, we intend to lend our voices to demonstrate what the future of ballet can look like, right here in Miami.”

Monica Stephenson, MCB’s director of community engagement, will facilitate the course for educators along with Margaret Tracey (former director of the Boston Ballet School), Marion Tonner (former director of the Oregon Ballet Theater School), and Ayisha McMillan Cravotta (director of the Charlotte Ballet Academy).

“I feel it is critical to participate in the Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet Conference to create space for addressing the needs of a diverse faculty and student body in 21st Century Dance Education. In addition, it is important to recognize the shifts in ballet pedagogy and methodology necessary to increase accessibility and belonging for all. Quite significantly, the symposium builds a network of teachers, dancers, and scholars that will have lasting relationships and support amongst one another as they continue to serve in the art form,” says Stephenson.

Kareen Pauld Camargo, a faculty member at Miami City Ballet School, comments that she feels honored to have been invited to the symposium for the second time. “For me, it is important to be there to show, as Theresa Ruth Howard says, that ‘we are not unicorns.’ Representation matters, and it is important to show these young dancers that there is a space for them, that they are seen and valued. I look forward to sharing my love of dance and knowledge with them again. MCB sponsored me to attend the original event . . . and I am thrilled that they are supporting the symposium again.”

WHAT: MoBBallet Symposium M.I.A.

WHERE: Sanctuary of the Arts, 410 Andalusia Ave., Coral Gables.

WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 7 through Saturday, Aug. 13. On Saturday, Aug. 13 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., “sharing” performance, followed by town hall discussion.

COST: Public “sharing” is free.

INFORMATION: mobballet.org.

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Stilt walkers elevate this year’s DanceAfrica Miami festival

 The Mocko Jumbie stilt dancers from the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) will perform at DanceAfrica Miami’s “Rise Above.” (Photo courtesy of USVI Mocko Jumbie)

As distinctions between communities living side by side blur, the extraordinary diversity of the African Diaspora in South Florida is often hidden in plain sight.

The DanceAfrica Miami festival will celebrate the richness and depth of African culture and its many reinterpretations throughout the Americas and the Caribbean from Friday, Aug. 5, through Sunday, Aug. 7, at the Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens.

The three-day family-friendly event includes morning dance workshops with instructors from Congo, Cuba, Guinea, Mali, and Senegal. Afternoon drumming sessions explore the instruments and traditions of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Senegal.

The theme of this year’s DanceAfrica Miami is “Rise Above,” a nod to the participation of two Stilt Mask Guilds that are prominent performers of the African-derived traditional and acrobatic ballet style of stilt walking: the Nanfoule Folklore Ensemble of Washington, D.C., and The Mocko Jumbie Stilt Dancers from the United States Virgin Islands (USVI).

Both groups perform at Florida Memorial University’s Lou Rawls Center Saturday at 8 p.m. The Mocko Jumbie stilt dancers will also appear at the Broward Center for the Performing Art’s Amaturo Theater on Monday, August 8, at 8 p.m.

This year’s festival marks the continuing evolution and rebranding of the African Diaspora Dance and Drum Festival of Florida, founded by the Miami-based Delou Africa Dance Ensemble in 2010. After receiving a Knight Arts Challenge and with the support of the late Charles” Baba Chuck” Davis, a founder of DanceAfrica Network, Delou Africa launched “DanceAfrica Miami” in 2016. Miami is now one of five cities recognized under the DanceAfrica Network, which bills itself as “Africa’s largest growing Dance Network.”  More than 20 musicians and 13 dancers across the DanceAfrica Network will teach and perform at DanceAfrica Miami.

After moving from Brooklyn to Miami in 1981, Njeri Plato, executive director and founder of Delou Africa, felt a void in the city’s cultural scene. After visits to Senegal and Gambia in 1985 and 1987, she created the organization as a platform to learn about and experience African traditions. “Delou” is a Wolof word from Senegal, West Africa, that means “back to” or “return to,” she explains.

“Having classes to engage the community in West African folklore, dance and music, and culture, we have a lot of people coming and saying to us that the culture (they experienced) is more the same than different.”

Underscoring the connection, several local groups, such as the West African Music & Dance Collective, Sikan Afro-Cuban Project, and the Haitian-inspired TLL Dance Ensemble, will be part of the festival.

Meanwhile, the Nanfoule Folklore Ensemble is based in Washington, D.C., and features members from various heritage societies across the country, notes Papa Aziz, who is the oldest living member of the group. The stilt dancers, who wear masks to hide their identities as they represent the spirit of the ancestors, are accompanied by drumming and folk storytelling.

The stilt tradition “is from parts of Guinea, Liberia and Ivory Coast . . . and goes back centuries,” explains Aziz. “But there’s symbolism in the mask performances that changed in the diaspora. West Africans went to many different places and took some of these traditions. But of course, these traditions initially were stripped away, just like our name, especially anything that dealt with spiritual references.”

For “Tall Spirit – Stilt Artistry of Black Immigrants,”  the Mocko Jumbie Stilt Dancers (“Moko Jumbie” means good god, good spirit), were commissioned to portray the story of the Moko Jumbie in the Virgin Islands, tracing its beginnings to today.

“. . .  It’s going to be very beautiful,” says Aziz. “It’s an offshoot from the African tradition in the islands. I hope people see the differences and the connections between how it was practiced at home and in the diaspora and the coming together of those ways.”

Plato explains that the festival is for everyone.

“You don’t have to understand any African language to listen and enjoy. It moves your soul, and that’s what music does. So, we learn the culture as we go along, and we learn to respect each other’s culture while coming together for one common goal: to unite and have fun,” says Plato.

WHAT: DanceAfrica Miami: “Rise Above”
WHERE:  Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts, Florida Memorial University, 15800 N.W. 42nd Ave., Miami Gardens
WHEN:  9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, Aug. 5 through Sunday, Aug. 7. Dance and drum workshops daily. Concert 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6. (Note: Monday, Aug. 8, concert is at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale.)
COST: $35, seniors and students, $25, Children (7 and younger), $15; Broward Center tickets, $21.50, $37, $48; classes and workshop prices from $10 and up.
INFORMATION: danceafricamiami.org

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