Dimensions Dance’s Program II marks return to the Main Stage

Claudia Lezcano and Maikel Hernandez in “The Four Seasons” by Yanis Pikieris. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)

Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami returns to the SMDCAC Main Stage in July with its Program II: “Generations of Genius.”

The program, set for July 17-18 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, will feature premieres choreographed by different generations.

The first, “Around Midnight,” is the work of DDTM dancer and choreographer Yanis Eric Pikieris. The five-movement, 20-minute piece was originally commissioned and performed in January by Ballet Vero Beach. Pikieris set “Around Midnight” to music by 20th-century Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnànyi, and said he found inspiration from a painting of the same name by Hungarian painter Robert Pelles.

In it, the painter establishes a counterpoint on the canvas between hard-edged, brightly colored geometric figuration and cloudy washes of purple and blue tones.

Mayrel Martinez and Alexey Minkin in “The Four Seasons” by Yanis Pikieris. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)

This counterpoint of sharp and soft is one of the choreographer’s hallmarks. Solo and group sequences mesh snap re-directions with gooey duets in which the partners twine together.  Unsurprisingly, this is the kind of transition that Pikieris the dancer executes brilliantly.

“In this piece, I’m committed to the concrete reality of connection between dancers while also remaining committed to abstraction in movement. For ‘Around Midnight,” this means visually repeating the ethereal, airy quality of the music and painting while locating moments of tenderness in the abstraction,” he said. “If there’s no connection between the people dancing, abstract dance can get boring. It’s important that the dancers locate each other and have a relationship for the dance to feel warm.”

DDTM’s Program II connects both dancers and choreographers. Pikieris not only contributes a new work to the program but dances a principal part in his father’s full-length, 40-minute choreography of composer Antonio Vivaldi’s 1723 violin concerti, “The Four Seasons.” (DDTM frequently performs to excerpts of the piece, but this will be the first program where the company dances the entire work.)

During a recent rehearsal, the violins pulsed brightly with the principal theme of “Spring,” the work’s opening movement, as Pikieris’ father, choreographer Yanis Pikieris, observed intently from the sidelines.

Dancers Meisy Laffitte, Claudia Lezcano, Miranda Montes de Oca, Calista Olson, Paulina Zambrana and Cassidy McAndrew circled the floor in pairs, sashaying en pointe, their arms sweeping low to overhead before forming three pairs that introduced a visual fugue. Each pair executed a forward-kick swung back in attitude then freezing in a lunge, their arms reaching overhead as if holding up a trophy.

“And then we run out of steps,” said the senior Pikieris, jokingly, as he cut the music. “This used to be a solo. We never had this many women dancing with us, so I’ve redone the piece to include them.”

DDTM was founded in 2016 by former Miami City Ballet principal dancers Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra and, since then, has built a reputation for consistently strong dancing. On this afternoon of rehearsals, though, the lunges seemed deeper, the footwork crisper, the coordination and group timing even sharper than before the shutdown.

“I feel everyone returned with a new appreciation for what they’re doing,” said Kronenberg. “They have a mentality now of, ‘Let’s not hold back. This is something that can be taken from me.’ People aren’t saving themselves.

“Also, throwing Emily and Cassidy into the mix has been fun, like throwing a pebble into a lake,” she added, referring to Los Angeles Ballet company dancer Cassidy McAndrew and former Miami City Ballet principal Emily Bromberg, who both perform in this program.

Selah Jane Oliver in “The Four Seasons” by Yanis Pikieris. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)

With the first slow chords of “Summer,” Bromberg transitioned elastically from deeply forward to a full backbend, her arm wafting with the adagio passage above her head, and the tip of her finger lifting softly to mark the end of the phrase.

“I asked if I could take class and they said sure, so long as I was vaccinated,” Bromberg later related. “Then after a set of canceled performances, I realized I’d go to Spain without dancing for eight months.”

Bromberg is headed to Spain for her new role next year, as both principal and ballet mistress with the Ballet de Barcelona under artistic director, Chase Johnsey.

“I found it gracious of [DDTM] to invite me,” Bromberg said. “March 2020 was the last time I was in a theater, and this program gives me the chance to dance one last performance for audiences in Miami before I leave.”

For Kronenberg, Bromberg brings a special skill: “I think she embodies what we are trying to get [the dancers] to do. She has a different style and technique … Her footwork is so deliberate, intentional – you don’t see the shoe when she dances, not to mention her suppleness and musicality.”

Program II also includes “Maria,” a pas de deux set to “Ave Maria” and choreographed by Ballet Hispanico dancers Melissa Fernandez and Lyvan Verdecia. It will be danced by Selah Jane Oliver and Stephan Fons.

Oliver admitted some nervousness at the prospect of performing live on the SMDCAC Main Stage after such a long pause.

Daniel White in Gerald Arpino’s “Touch Me.” (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)

“This is the first Main Stage ballet, so I have nerves, but they’re good nerves,” she said.

The final piece is “Touch Me,” a 1977 Gerald Arpino work being danced by DDTM guest artist Daniel White. It was staged for DDTM by Cameron Basden, a Joffrey Ballet repetiteur, The Gerald Arpino Foundation board member and Artburst Miami collaborator. Set to a recording of a live concert by the Rev. James Cleveland and the Charles Fold Singers, “Touch Me” is notable for its nod to Alvin Ailey works like “Cry,” and the striking visuals the bare-chested dancer makes as he sweeps the floor, draped in a voluminous white gown.

“Arpino’s sensitivity in every element of ‘Touch Me’ truly shows how inspired he was by Rev. Cleveland’s music,” Basden said. “It becomes a real journey for the dancer using Arpino’s modern-influenced movement combined with the spiritual gospel music. I know audiences will be moved.”

With “Generations of Genius,” DDTM hopes to move and inspire.

“The world needs a beautiful experience and to see how it’s possible for beauty to emerge from a really ugly time,” Kronenberg said. “And these [dancers] are a product of the community. It’s about the artists representing the resilience of the community. They didn’t give up. They didn’t go somewhere else. It says a lot that they felt that investment in the community.”

WHAT: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s Program II: “Generations of Genius”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday July 17, and 3 p.m. Sunday, July 18

WHERE: South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center Main Stage, 10950 SW 211th St., Cutler Bay

COST: $25-$45

INFORMATION: 786-573-5300; Smdcac.org/events/dimensions-dance-theatre-miamis-program-ii-generations-genius

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‘Boys Will Be Boys’: Choreographer Randolph Ward’s work confronts toxic masculinity

Karl Stephan St. Louis is among the dancers performing in Randolph Ward’s “Boys Will Be Boys” at Miami’s Sandrell Rivers Theater. (Photo courtesy of Roi Lemayh)

“Don’t cry. Be tough. Don’t show weakness. Be strong.”

Miami choreographer Randolph Ward’s latest work, “Boys Will Be Boys” — debuting July 10 at the Sandrell Rivers Theater — confronts the emotional landscape masked by such bromides as it examines the complexities of growing up male in America.

Where intellectuals and academics talk about toxic masculinity, Ward lived it as a ballet dancer with the San Francisco Ballet.

“When I was a professional ballet dancer, I always had to put on a mask,” Ward says. “In classical ballet, the men are strong and the women need saving.”

For Ward, the issue was one of body type. “The image of maleness classical ballet projects didn’t really fit me because I’m tall, long and thin. I would meet people after a performance and they would be surprised and say, ‘But you are so masculine on stage.’”

He recalls a moment in San Francisco when “a very famous ballet dancer” took him to task.

“During rehearsals one day, I was in a tutu and pretending to be a girl.  She pulled me to the side and said, ‘We don’t care what you do outside but don’t you dare do that in the studio.’”

Experiences like these inspired Ward to tackle the theme of toxic masculinity in a short work, “What Makes a Man,” that debuted in 2019 for Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s lab theater series. The work, which explored male femininity and homophobia, featured a duet between dancers Natanael Leal and Kevin Hernandez.

“The full evening is a spin-off of that duet,” Ward says.

The July 10 program, which starts at 8 p.m. and is followed by a post-performance talk, will also include Leal, along with CC Glitzer, Ariel Miyake-Mugler, Karl Stephan St. Louis, Ryan Nicolas DeAlexandro and Sascha Baer.

Through solo and group pieces, the dancers tackle the raw feelings behind homophobia, male emotional unavailability, fraternity and locker room culture, and masculinity as a performance.

(Boys Will Be Boys July 10th 2021 from Randolph Ward on Vimeo)

Leal, who identifies as nonbinary, performs a work about the experience of locker room humiliation. Growing up in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Leal was the first to come out in the family.

Ward recorded Leal’s voice reciting slurs in Portuguese, Spanish and English — words often directed at Leal both in the favela and in the United States.

“I am representing in my piece what society dislikes the most, femininity in the male figure,” Leal says. “The story I am telling is the story of my life, not knowing why I was being hated for being a fem person.”

Ward left room for the performers to reflect on how they survived the experiences reflected in their pieces.

“For people like me, we don’t have a choice — it’s a life-or-death situation,” Leal says. “A younger me created a persona that allowed me to walk through the world, knowing at any moment I could be killed. My family used to agree with other people’s judgments and tell me I should die.”

Those conflicts followed Leal to Miami, even within the dance community.

“People would doubt my ability to dance a work because I am nonbinary,” Leal says. “The dance community wants you to believe it is a safe place for queer artists, but that is not the case. If they look at you and think you are queer, they will doubt your ability.  A dancer who passes as straight does not raise those doubts.”

Working with Ward was the first time Leal experienced immediate acceptance as a nonbinary dancer on the basis of talent. Leal found in Ward another artist who immediately understood the struggle.

“In 20 years as a dancer, preparing for this ballet was the first time I had to ask for five minutes to go to the restroom and cry,” Leal says. “I never thought anyone would be interested in hearing what I went through. I tried to forget these emotions because I needed to survive. This piece is a like a chance to move on for myself.  I feel like I’m saying to myself, ‘You’re going to go through this, and then move on.’”

Glitzer – a German drag artist and Ward’s partner – performs a piece that examines  masculinity as a performance. Glitzer lip syncs to the song, “I’maman,” which was released in 1973 by Jobriath (the stage name of Bruce Wayne Campbell), the first openly gay artist to be signed to a major record label.

Natanael Leal performs a work about the experience of locker room humiliation in “Boys Will Be Boys.” (Photo courtesy of Roi Lemayh)

Glitzer’s passion for drag as an artform grew out of her interest in makeup and styling hair.

“The art of drag allows me to bring joy, smiles and laughter to my LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/allied) community and others, giving them a brief break from the daily stresses of life,” Glitzer says.

Interestingly, Glitzer’s piece in the program spotlights an act of “de-dragging.”

“To ‘de-drag’ on stage is a powerful statement to me,” Glitzer says. “At first, I thought it would make me feel more vulnerable. but it has actually had the opposite effect. It is making me even stronger and realizing even more that ‘we are all born naked and the rest is drag.’  We are all basically playing a role and pretending to be something other than ourselves to survive the daily grind of life.”

Asked what he hoped audiences would take away from the program, Ward muses: “I want the performance to start a conversation around humanity.  When I lived and worked in Germany, the Germans talked about what was going on, but in the U.S., we don’t talk about anything.”

WHAT: Choreographer Randolph Ward’s “Boys Will Be Boys”

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 10

WHERE: Sandrell Rivers Theater, 6103 NW Seventh Ave., Miami

COST: $30 for general admission; $25 for seniors, students and veterans

INFORMATION: ftfshows.com

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Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami’s gala to celebrate dance & live performance

Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami dancers in “La Vivandière Pas de Six,” one of the ballets to be performed at the June 5 Grand Classical Gala. (Photo courtesy of Carlos Llano)

A yearly gala performance is a tradition for most dance companies. The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami is no different.

CCBM will be presenting its Grand Classical Gala on Saturday, June 5, at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater. However, instead of a customary fundraising gala, CCBM will be using this performance as a celebration of dance and a joyous homage to live performance. It will be both live with a socially distanced in-person audience and livestreamed from the company’s website.

“Every year, we do one big gala,” says CCBM artistic director Eriberto Jimenez. “It is more elegant and is a big event, but it is not a fundraiser. It is our largest performance of the year, and we try to do mainly classical ballet.”

This year’s performance will be a repeat of a 2014 show that paid tribute to some of the greatest and most established classical ballets. The chosen ballets are from the golden age of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, a company that broke barriers in Paris in the early 1900s – with colorful, vibrant costumes and sets and collaborations with the greatest musicians and set designers of the time – and affected the way audiences viewed dance from then on.

“It is important for audiences to see a range of classical ballet on the same program,” Jimenez says. “And these ballets should be seen over and over.”

The Ballet Russes favorites will be “La Vivandière Pas de Six,” “Le Spectre de la Rose,” “La Bayadère Suite,” “Les Biches,” and “Carnaval” to close. The program will be an hour and 15 minutes with no intermission, per COVID-19 safety protocols.

CCBM was created by Cuban-born Pedro Pablo Peña (1944-2018) in 2006 as a vehicle to continue the tradition of Cuban classical ballet outside of the island. Jimenez, who arrived to the United States in 1989, became Peña’s righthand man.

Through the years, even while dancing, Jimenez was responsible for staging, coaching and choreographing repertory, as well as overseeing all of the backstage needs. Later, he began accompanying Peña at business meetings. It’s evident Jimenez was being trained to take over as artistic director when the time came.

“I got everything through Pedro [Pablo Peña],” Jimenez says.

“La Vivandière Pas de Six” will feature Ihosvany Rodriguez (here pictured with Gretel Batista). (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Now as artistic director, and in preparation for the June 5 gala, Jimenez has staged and coached each of the ballets. He pays particular attention to continuing the vision of preserving the repertoire and technique of classical ballet and displaying the distinctive talent and artistry of Cuban dancers.

Most of the dancers that will be seen during the gala are Cuban and are part of the South Florida dance community. To augment the company, the CCBM has established a partnership with the Florida’s St. Lucie Ballet, whose dancers will act as the ensemble.

Opening the performance will be the jewel of a ballet, “La Vivandière Pas de Six” (or “Markitenka,” as it is known in Russia), which premiered in 1844, with choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon and Fanny Cerrito, and music by Cesare Pugni. The pas de six is the only section from the one-act ballet that is preserved and notated (documenting the movements). The difficulty lies in the expressive Bournonville technique and the effortless and charming quality of the dancers.

Performing will be Paula Zapata and Ihosvany Rodriguez, accompanied by Eleni Gialas, Myriam Ayala, Jennifer Villalon, and Niuris Rodriguez.

“Le Spectre de la rose” premiered in April 1911, produced by the great choreographer Michel Fokine and set-costume designer Léon Bakst. It featured Hector Berlioz’s 1841 orchestration of Carl Maria von Weber’s piano music, “Invitation to the Dance.”

The ballet tells the story of a young girl who dreams of dancing with the spirit of a rose that she’d received at her first ball. The ballet’s premiere was a huge success, notably for Nijinsky’s portrayal and for the huge leap he made through a window at the ballet’s end. Ronna Olarte and Carlos Caballero Hopuy will dance the parts of “The Young Girl” and “The Rose,” respectively.

The gala is expected to close with the 1910 ballet, “Carnaval.” (Photo courtesy of Carlos Llano)

The full four-act ballet, “La Bayadère” – with music by Ludwig Minkus and original choreography by Marius Petipa – premiered in 1877. This exotic ballet follows an eternal love between the noble Solor and the temple dancer (bayadère) Nikiya, which is disrupted by the vengeance of the beautiful temptress, Gamzatti. For this rendition, Gamzatti is played by Daynelis Muñoz; the warrior, Solor, is Jonhal Fernandez; and the corps de ballet will feature the St. Lucie Ballet.

The chic and atmospheric “Les Biches” is a one-act ballet premiered in 1924 with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska (Nijinsky’s sister) and music by Francis Poulenc. The plotless ballet depicts the random interactions of a group of mainly young people in a house party on a summer afternoon. CCBM will reenact a scene where a group of sophisticated ladies enjoy a pleasant evening.

Finally, the 1910 ballet, “Carnaval,” featured the music of Robert Schumann’s piano suite, “Carnaval, Op. 9,” choreography by Fokine and costume designs by Bakst. The ballet has been described as a series of light and humorous incidents intertwined with poignant moments and an undercurrent of satire. The characters are the melancholic Pierrot (played by Carlos Caballero Hopuy), the fickle Columbine (Muñoz), the mischievous Harlequin (Rodriguez) and four couples. All the fun and romp will bring the evening to a delightful close.

To read a Spanish-language preview of this upcoming performance, click here. 

WHAT: Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami’s Grand Classical Gala

WHEN:  8 p.m. Saturday, June 5

WHERE: The Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave.

COST: $39-$59 for in-person tickets (available through Ticketmaster.com); $20 for special livestream tickets (through Cubanclassicalballetofmiami.org/season-program)

INFORMATION: Cubanclassicalballetofmiami.org

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Choreographers unite in outdoor performances for the planet

“Such Rooted Things” will give audiences the unique opportunity of seeing Dale Andree perform with her daughter, New York dancer Thryn Saxon. (Photo courtesy of Karime Arabia)

** Due to weather conditions, “CIRCA/MIA” and “Such Rooted Things” has been rescheduled from May 13-14 to May 14-15. If you have any questions or concerns,  email liveartsmiami@mdc.edu, follow PAMM on social media or check liveartsmiami.org for the latest updates.

The late performance artist Ana Mendieta once said, “I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source.”

In the two climate-conscious works that choreographers Dale Andree and Sandra Portal-Andreu will debut on May 14 and 15 outdoors in downtown Miami, it is dance that offers this connecting force: to nature, to the maternal, to community.

As part of Miami Dade College’s Live Arts Miami LALA (Live Arts Lab Alliance) Performance Series and the EcoCultura initiative, the special double-bill will feature Portal-Andreu’s “CIRCA/MIA,” followed by Andree’s “Such Rooted Things.” Each will consist of a dance component at Pérez Art Museum Miami’s adjacent Palm Terrace, at Maurice A. Ferré Park, and an accompanying short film screening inside PAMM. They’ll be presented live before a limited audience with COVID-19 protocols in place.

Andree, a pioneer in the Miami dance world and founder of the National Water Dance collective, has spent the past four months rehearsing weekly at Matheson Hammock Park, working on choreography for “Such Rooted Things.” At the park, she and her dancers bonded almost viscerally with nature. They connected with the mangrove forest “almost as if we’re being birthed out of it,” she said.

The performers behind “Such Rooted Things,” hard at practice at Matheson Hammock Park. (Photo courtesy of Karime Arabia)

It was a union forged by necessity. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Andree took the need to rehearse outside during the pandemic and raised it one. After all, why rehearse on solid ground when you can dance on sodden ground in a tangle of curved roots, mud and mosquitoes?

“We were in the mangroves every Saturday since January,” Andree said. “I’m a real process person, but it took me one level deeper in process.”

The dancers’ movements were awkward at first; one warm-up early on was spent just concentrating on how their feet should meet the soil.

“We took that into the way we moved on the mangroves and it changed everything,” said Andree. “There was a white heron sitting there and she never moved, because we were moving through [the trees] with that kind of care … the idea that every motion has intention, so even if you were at an awkward place, it wasn’t about making it right, but rather that intention to move created the dance … It brought art into an immediate moment for us.”

Andree has never approached choreography with the goal of telling a story. Here, she looked instead to illuminate the poetic truths offered by the natural world.

“You see death and birth right together in the mangroves, and that’s what’s so powerful,” she said. “It’s the rich cycle of life.” Where one dead branch is decaying, other cigar-shaped propagules are clinging to the sandy bottom, shooting out roots.

Dale Andree is a pioneer in the Miami dance world and founder of the National Water Dance collective. (Photo courtesy of Karime Arabia)

“I see that entanglement of the roots of the mangrove in the way we have to approach climate change,” she said. “The way they collectively hold the coastline … they’re the workhorses there that make life possible. I see community as that. The only way that we can deal with climate change is as a community.”

“Such Rooted Things” will give audiences the unique opportunity of seeing Andree perform with her daughter, New York dancer Thryn Saxon. Their collaboration marks the first time that the two have created a work together as co-choreographers and co-directors.

Physically, both are gorgeous to watch, with impossibly long limbs, beautiful line, and a capacity to invest the smallest gesture with intense meaning. While the two approach choreography very differently, their shared background in contact improvisation offered a firm base to build on. Still, dancing together presented both challenges and opportunities for mother and daughter.

“We’re really interwoven in our relationship,” Andree remarked. “But some of that had to be unthreaded … We needed to weave a new garment together.”

For Saxon, the idea of working with the woman she had spent her childhood dancing with caused mixed emotions. It seemed at first as if she were taking a step backward just when her artistic life in New York had been propelling her swiftly forward—to an apprenticeship with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., a place in the Kate Weare Co., and a steady gig in “Sleep No More” (an immersive theatrical experience based on “Macbeth;” Saxon had to shave her head for her role as one of the three witches). Still, she has come to call her pandemic year in Miami “a transformative experience.”

And her duet with Andree, she said, has turned out to be an intense 24 minutes.

Choreographer Sandra Portal-Andreu will dance in the evening performance, with images from the film projected behind them. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Fuentes)

“We ran it the other day, and I was exhausted and covered in sweat … I think I just have taken for granted the fact that I get to do this with this incredible artist who has lived decades of an art life and life in general,” she said. “I just look at this experience of dancing with my 74-year-old mother as being not only artistically challenging, but physically challenging.”

Roles have a way of shifting in long-term relationships. A mother teaches a daughter who later comes back to teach the mother. For Andree, “everything in life is about birthing and dying and the sensuality of that, and the beauty of that, and this physical intimacy is just such a thing to relish.”

Live Arts Miami executive director Kathryn García, who developed the EcoCultura initiative at Miami Dade College when she was just coming off maternity leave, spoke of the special sense of responsibility mothers feel in addressing the climate crisis.

“I think in many ways Sandra, Dale, all of this cohort have been inspired by our children, right? And really thinking about what the crisis means for the next generations that are coming, and not only the generations that we know today, but the ones that follow after that,” she said. “What is our responsibility to take action now to really safeguard the future of generations to come, including those that are most personal to us, our children?”

In listening to her two young sons’ concerns regarding the climate crisis, choreographer Portal-Andreu was moved to create a film that would focus on the voices of young people as we seek collectively to rescue a wounded planet. She interviewed 37 children from neighborhoods throughout Miami-Dade County and collaborated with Miami Dade College’s MAGIC (Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex) program to create “CIRCA,” a short film that animates the children’s artwork. It is a child’s-eye view of Miami in the crosshairs.

The soundtrack is a combination of commissioned music from Miami duo Afrobeta and snippets from the children’s interviews.

“It’s something I haven’t seen done before,” García said, “and it opens up a whole new world, to really allow children to have a voice in a creative way.”

Six of the children’s mothers, including Portal-Andreu herself, will dance in the evening performance, with images from the film projected behind them.

Portal-Andreu hopes that the children’s message will not go unheard.

“I guess my hope for this project is that there is an opportunity for it to live on,” she said. “I would love for it to be sort of like a postcard to the people that are making decisions about the city’s future, you know, from our children.”

WHAT: LALA Performance Series presents “CIRCA/MIA” and “Such Rooted Things”

WHEN: 8 p.m. May 14-15 (Due to weather conditions, “CIRCA/MIA” and “Such Rooted Things” has been rescheduled from May 13-14 to May 14-15)

WHERE: Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., on its waterfront Palm Terrace

COST: Free; RSVP required

SAFETY PROTOCOLS: This event will require appropriate facial coverings (except when eating or drinking) and social distancing. All guests are expected to register in advance and present their E-ticket on their mobile device at the door.

INFORMATION: liveartsmiami.org

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Dance artist’s family tradition inspires Live Arts Miami’s ‘RoseWater’

As the lockdown dragged on, dance artist Michelle Grant-Murray found herself wondering how her grandmothers had lived through the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which inspired her latest work. (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

An African-American woman in a bright red dress and cat-eye sunglasses poses before a pale yellow Studebaker, a pair of white gloves in her hands. The slight fade to the Polaroid suggests the frequent handling of a cherished photo.

The image captures Elma Julius Newton-Henry, grandmother of dance artist Michelle Grant-Murray, who’s also associate professor and coordinator of dance at Miami Dade College. The stance of the woman’s body, and her body vernacular as she posed for that photo, will appear in Grant-Murray’s latest work, “RoseWater.”

Presented as a form of dance theater, “RoseWater” will explore memories from both of her grandmothers. The show is set for April 23^–24 in Pinecrest Gardens, as part of Live Arts Miami’s LALA (Live Arts Lab Alliance) Artist-in-residence Program.

“RoseWater” emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as Grant-Murray was trying to figure out how to cope. She says she thought about her grandmothers’ experiences during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic – and was reminded of their practice of making rose water from scratch.

She began learning the craft of making rose water, experimenting with drying roses and distilling the flower’s oils. As her research expanded, she realized that her family’s use of rose water was a link in a centuries-old practice that traced back to Africa.

“All the ingredients [of rose water] have a medicinal purpose as well. They come from nature, and they have sustained people from antiquity,” she says. “I researched the connections rose water has with African spirituality and realized this knowledge existed within my family for hundreds of years.”

Shanna Woods is one of the performers to be featured in “RoseWater.” (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

Last summer, Grant-Murray’s practice of creating and sharing rose water with neighbors and friends intersected with her passions for social justice and the environment.

“I started looking at why we have so many environmental issues right now. The main reason we have these issues has to do with environmental racism,” she says. “I asked myself, ‘How did we get to this point?’”

Guided by what she described as a “visceral feeling for the limitations of the freedom of Black women,” Grant-Murray and her company, Olujimi Dance Collective, mapped out the work using prompts that drew on collective memory and movements lodged in the body.

“In this work, I am looking at the decolonialization of the Black female body,” Grant-Murray says. “People don’t listen to Black women. They carry the essence of the world inside of their womb.”

Grant-Murray says the “perfect example of that” is Henrietta Lacks,  the African-American woman whose cancer cells were found to be instrumental to medical research.

“Black women and the environmental DNA that exists in the Black body has answers to many of the issues that we are experiencing in the world,” she says.

When the pandemic shuttered dance studios in March 2020, the interruption and period of uncertainty allowed Grant-Murray to examine suppressed feelings of vulnerability.

“As a Black woman, [I] know that injustice happens and racism is very real. As an artist and an artmaker, I noticed I was finding ways to deflect situations and to refocus my energy, so I didn’t have to think about the injustices going around,” she says. “During the quarantine, we couldn’t get to a studio or share a space, so I started riding my bike, running and walking and kayaking. But these were solitary activities, and I was alone policing my thoughts and actions.”

Melissa Cobblah-Gutierrez does her part for Michelle Grant-Murray’s production at Pinecrest Gardens. (Photo courtesy of Woosler Delisfort)

The goal of Live Arts Miami’s LALA Program is to support a local arts ecosystem, with performances made in Miami and fueled by communal creative practices. “RoseWater” is billed as “the first of six unforgettable new performances” from LALA.

“In 2019, we commissioned our current cohort and were motivated to bring together a group of artists who shared a passion for climate justice,” says Live Arts Miami executive director Kathryn Garcia, with the aim of developing “new works centered on climate change and sustainability in Miami, as part of our larger ECOCultura initiative.”

That initiative is described as an ongoing series of action-driven programs and performances for the planet.

Grant-Murray’s track record of engaging issues of climate justice made her a perfect fit with the 2019 cohort.

“As an MDC professor and part of our Faculty Task Force, [Grant-Murray] has partnered with us on countless engagements connecting students with changemaking artists,” Garcia added. “Through LALA, we have had the incredible opportunity to support her artistic vision as a creator in our community.”

Still, even with the support of LALA, Grant-Murray found connecting audiences with “RoseWater” to be a challenge during a pandemic.

“Four films go along with this work, by videographer Woosler Delisfort. It was a way to present ‘RoseWater’ because we didn’t know that we could do a face-to-face performance. We thought it would originally have to be presented this way,” she says.

Grant-Murray even structured the 45-minute, open-air performance in a way that recalls features of the conferencing platform, Zoom – with a series of spaces where dancers will perform.

“The piece is informed by Zoom because we have the structure of the main room and the breakout rooms,” she says. “The piece is built so that people come into the main room where everyone sees everything. Then the audience members go into different spaces and all see something different. They all come into the main room and then have a discussion.”

Michelle Grant-Murray’s “RoseWater” – set for 7:30 p.m. April 23-24 at Pinecrest Gardens, 11000 Red Road – is sold out. To join the wait list for free tickets, visit Liveartsmiami.org/events/rosewater. For more information, go to Pinecrestgardens.org/entertainment/performing-arts/dance.

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Karen Peterson and Dancers reflects on pandemic, loss in new show

“Lost and Found” performers will include, from left, Shawn Buller, Ximena England, Barny Espinal, Vanessa Dunleavy, Penelope Huerta and Jesus Vidal. (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson)

Choreographer Karen Peterson talks about wheelchairs like some people talk about horses.

As artistic director of Florida’s leading physically integrated dance company – Karen Peterson and Dancers (KPD) – Peterson finds that the greatest challenge to choreographing wheelchair-bound dance is not the physical limitations of her performers but rather the “personalities” of their chairs.

“One of the most difficult things in dance practice or performance is to get wheelchairs to move in unison. The chairs have a mind of their own,” she says. “One has a battery that reacts this way, one’s wheels stick a little bit. The wheelchairs engage my imagination – from the speed of the chairs to their unique features to how fast they go.”

“What is it like to crumble?” she says. “What is it like for the body to crumble and the bones to crumble? I can support your weight and you can support mine, but what happens when that support is not there?”

The duets experiment by setting up sympathetic relays between audience and performers through weight displacements and games with negative space.

(Video courtesy of Karen Peterson)

“In the duets, I was focused on conveying physical empathy through the movements I developed,” Peterson says. “Physical empathy is having your arms full and having your arms empty, or having your chest open with someone there or the same chest open with no one there.  There is a lot of coming together and pulling apart and filling and vacating space for one another.”

All seven company members will perform in the program. Asked about safety protocols and precautions, Peterson says: “The three wheelchair dancers were very mindful of what the virus could do to them if they got a severe case of the virus. They faced the difficulty of many live performers during this time, of the need to be masked while performing and exerting energy and feeling trapped within the mask.”

Still, in discussing mixed-ability dance, Peterson returns to the quirks of her performers’ wheelchairs.

“My mother had a stroke three years ago. I know from her experience that ordinary wheelchairs are very heavy and not very elegant. Some chairs just lend themselves to being more athletic,” she says. “In our company, one dancer is totally strapped into the chair so that he can balance on one wheel, and that’s unique to his chair and body. Whereas another’s chair is more like a solid piece of furniture.”

Specific types of chairs are so critical to a performance that if a chair changes, the choreography has to be adapted or dropped.

KPD dancer Jesus Vidal’s duet with Penelope Huerta pushes his current chair beyond its operational limits. His chair from Ki Mobility “is portable and compact and very responsive,” he says.

“My favorite part is when I tilt all the weight of my chair and my body back with her behind me,” Vidal says. “I really allow myself to be vulnerable when I do that. She presses me back into place and then we separate, and when we meet up again, she closes my eyes.”

Dancers Jesus Vidal and Penelope Huerta rehearse their “Lost and Found” duet. (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson)

Adds Vidal: “It is both an abstract and narrative duet. It begins abstract then ends up narrative.  We each have a solo at the beginning, and then as the duet progresses we exchange roles.”

Jesus began dancing ballet, hip-hop, jazz and contemporary routines at age 5, just for fun. Later, he became a professional gymnast, becoming an eight-time Dominican Republic national champion. But Vidal’s gymnastic career ended when he suffered a spinal injury during a floor exercise.

“Once you get injured, you think there is not a lot of opportunity to do dance. You get stuck in a bubble where you think you have lost use of your legs and the opportunities that come with them, and society says the same,” he says.

Then he discovered wheelchair dance. He caught a performance by AXIS Dance Co., a California-based, mixed-ability troupe, and learned they pursued dance full time. He was invited to train with some of the performers, and that was enough for him to catch the bug.

“I would now love to switch to a sports chair,” he says. “They are expensive, and I want to get the right one. Those … AXIS dancers use a small, light chair, and they use it solely for dance.”

In describing the dance experience before and after his accident, Vidal refers to his chair almost as a third partner.

“Before when I danced, I had more control of my body, and my job was to be aware of my partner,” he says. “Now I have three jobs – to be connected to my chair, be connected to my body, and be aware of my partner.”

WHAT: Karen Peterson and Dancers present “Lost and Found”

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday, April 11

WHERE: Pinecrest Gardens’ Banyan Bowl amphitheater, 11000 SW 57th Ave., Pinecrest

COST: Tickets will be sold in pods of two, at a price of $20 for general admission (available online at tinyurl.com/PinecrestKPD) or $10 for those age 18 and younger (available at the door on the day of the show, with valid identification)

 INFORMATION: Visit Karenpetersondancers.org, email karen@karenpetersondancers.org or call 305-298-5879

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Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida will bring to life ‘Fairy Doll’

Starring as the fairy doll, Wendy Guo performs the ballet’s famous pas de trois with Taiyu He and Haowei Zhu. (Photo courtesy of Patricia Laine)

After months of cancellations forced by the pandemic, South Florida dance companies are showing signs of rebirth this season with a steady string of carefully staged indoor and outdoor productions.

As the latest offering, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida will present “Fairy Doll” at the Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores on March 6 and at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale on March 13-14.

This Arts Ballet Theatre production features original choreography by the company’s artistic director, Vladimir Issaev, who admits he chose to rework this particular ballet for its lighthearted storyline.

“Why this ballet now? We need this right now – we need to relax,” Issaev said. “No one kills someone in a fight in it. There’s no black swan who steals the boyfriend. This is an easy story.  This is a happy ballet with no drama.  It’s about two guys in love with one girl, and there’s magic and a lot of fantasy.”

The work’s libretto may be meant to relax audiences, but his choice of ballet also communicates Issaev’s serious passion for dance history.

Set to music by Austrian composer Josef Bayer, “Fairy Doll” is a two-act, comic ballet based on the story “The Sandman” by E.T.A. Hoffman. The main protagonist brings to life the dolls in a toy shop. The story that unfolds shares features of its libretto with other 18th^–century, Hoffman-based ballets such as “Coppelia” and the “Nutcracker.”

“[Issaev] is always trying to keep these old ballets alive,” said the company’s executive director and his wife, Ruby Issaev. “He loves and respects contemporary dance, but he insists that classical ballet shouldn’t die. When we travel, he likes to search for information on these old ballets.”

When the shop owner leaves, the dolls come to life in “Fairy Doll.” (Photo courtesy of Patricia Laine)

And this ballet has deep roots. First performed in Vienna in 1888 as “Im Puppenladen” (“In the Doll Shop”), the libretto of the “Fairy Doll” reflects the 18th-century obsession that bourgeois European audiences had with early robotics. Crowds flocked to gawk at complicated lifelike animatronics that both served to entertain and fueled theological disputes over the status of the soul.

Though Issaev choreographed much of the current production’s ballet, the closing pas de trois between the fairy doll and two rivals for her affection dates back to an early 20th-century version. To recreate this dance, Issaev relied on notes he took at university as well as his own experiences dancing this ballet in Russia when he was just 7 years old.

“When I studied at the university, we didn’t use video to learn dances,” he said. “At that time, we received ballets mouth to mouth. This is typical of the Russian tradition, which hands down ballets from one generation to the other.”

The ballet opens in a busy toy shop where the star attraction – the fairy doll – fascinates the village children. When the shop closes for the day, it comes to life and animates the shop’s other dolls. The second act unfolds in a series of nationality-inspired couple dances including Spanish-, French-, Brazilian-, Chinese- and Japanese-themed dolls.

When the pandemic began, both the company and the school closed. However, as early as July, Arts Ballet Theatre had returned to its North Miami Beach studio for in-person rehearsals and classes.

Liu acknowledged the hard road the performers have traveled, from lockdowns at the start of the pandemic to the current partial reopening of theaters. But she also identified an unexpected positive to mask-wearing during class and rehearsals: “When I was able to get back into the studio in the summer, it was uncomfortable to wear masks in the class. But now my stamina is getting better. The mask actually helped me to build up my stamina. It is so hard to breathe with the mask. I had more energy than ever during the company’s December performances of ‘The Nutcracker,’ which was the first performance I danced without the mask.”

From left to right, Takayuki Asai, Yuki Beppu and Hirofumi Kitazume in a 2015 performance of “Fairy Doll.” (Photo courtesy of Patricia Laine)

The March performances will take place indoors. Audience members will be seated in socially distanced pods, with two or four seats, and required to wear masks.

To maximize safety, the performers receive regular testing and wear masks when offstage or in dressing rooms. Onstage, the dancers perform without masks. Ruby Issaev credits the company’s strict testing and social distancing measures with creating a safe and healthy environment for the company’s classes and rehearsals.

“We are already teaching and practicing such a disciplined artform, and this is why it has not been a stretch for us to add another layer of discipline related to health and safety during the pandemic,” she said. “Discipline is not a punishment – it makes you organized, and that organization makes you free.”

Hong Kong native Janis Liu joined the company as a soloist in 2016 and will dance the current production’s title role. Liu shares Issaev’s opinion that the ballet’s subject matter couldn’t be better timed.

“The ballet is very fun, with a lot of acting and dancing, which makes it easier to follow,” she said. “Since the pandemic started, everyone is stressed out. It’s a way for people to escape.”

WHAT: Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida presents “Fairy Doll”

WHERE/WHEN:

Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores: 7 p.m. March 6

Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ Amaturo Theater, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale: 7 p.m. March 13 and 5 p.m. March 14

COST:

$35 for a pod of two or four seats in Miami

$40 for a pod of two or four seats in Fort Lauderdale

INFORMATION: 305-948-4777; artsballettheatre.org/program-iii

To read a preview in Spanish, by our very own Orlando Taquechel, click here.

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Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami ready to return to live performance

Josue Justiz, Gabriela Mesa and Fabian Morales in a previous performance of “Esferas,” one of the works returning in Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s “Program I.” (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

When the pandemic hit, live dance halted, and companies shifted online. Now South Florida companies are increasingly capitalizing on outdoor performances to reunite performers and audiences for a safe and meaningful experience.

Among them is Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, which is presenting its first program of  2021 at 4 p.m. Feb. 20 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay, on an outdoor stage built especially for the event.

Carlos Guerra and Jennifer Kronenberg – artistic directors of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami and former Miami City Ballet principals – are betting audiences are ready to return for live performances.

“It’s beyond time,” Kronenberg said. “It’s lovely that we’ve all been doing virtual [performances], but at the end of the day, the art form is not about that. There is a big loss in the translation from live to digital. This is not where this art form lives.”

Added Guerra: “We have to perform, and it can’t be all virtual … It is exciting that it is live, and it is important for the dancers.”

Alexey Minkin, Mayrel Martinez and Fabian Morales rehearse “Esferas” in the studio. (Photo courtesy of Yanis Eric Pikieris)

Dimensions Dance Theatre was a prominent content provider of virtual dance in 2020, with regular offerings that derived first from its archive and then from the creation of new online works. The Feb. 20 Spring program will be the first live, in-person performance for both the company and the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center since the start of the pandemic.

Eric Fliss, the center’s managing director, expressed confidence that the facility’s rigorous adherence to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal Guide” will provide a safe, socially distant experience for all involved.

The company established protocols to keep dancers safe and rehearsing throughout the fall, when numbers involved only two or three dancers. “Program I” increases the complexity because some works require the whole company to be onstage together.

“To handle that, we upped the strictness,” Kronenberg said. “The county requires testing of the dancers daily for seven days before the performance, and the dancers will wear masks during the performance.”

“Program I” will feature four works, with no intermission:

**The return of company favorite, “Esferas,” by choreographer and Miami City Ballet dancer Ariel Rose.

Miranda Montes de Oca in “Castles in the Air,” choreographed by Dimension Dance Theatre’s Yanis Eric Pikieris. (Photo courtesy of Yanis Eric Pikieris)

**The world premiere of “Castles in the Air,” choreographed by Dimension Dance Theatre’s Yanis Eric Pikieris. Set to composer Benjamin Britten’s “Bridge Variations,” it explores the sensation of being locked in a daydream.

“During the lockdown, we were dreaming of what the future might be, while acknowledging the present was what we had,” Pikieris said. “We were pretending we were together when we were actually taking class or choreographing through Zoom.

“In the piece, there is a duet where the two dancers – Maikel Hernandez and Mayrel Martinez – come very close to one another, but they don’t actually ever touch. And I took a lot of inspiration from the music itself, which is heavy and could make people think of isolation and loss.”

**The company premiere of “Adiemus,” a work co-choreographed by Yanis Pikieris Sr. and David Palmer, which the Maximum Dance Co. premiered in 1998.

For Pikieris Sr., “Adiemus” celebrates the joy of reconnecting – and it will be the first full-length work that includes the entire company onstage at the same time in more than a year.

“This was choreographed by me and David Palmer when we were both directors of Maximum Dance Company as a dance of celebration and exuberance …,” he said. “At that time, [my son] Yanis Eric was 3 years old. Now, for this performance, he will be dancing the role that I danced in it then.”

Fabian Morales and Claudia Lezcano in “RUTH: Ricordi per Due,” the final work choreographed by Joffrey Ballet artistic director Gerald Arpino. (Photo courtesy of Yanis Eric Pikieris)

**Another company premiere: “RUTH: Ricordi per Due,” the final work choreographed by Joffrey Ballet artistic director Gerald Arpino, before his death in 2008, and set on the company by Cameron Basden, former Joffrey Ballet dancer and now repetiteur and board member for The Gerald Arpino Foundation (and an occasional Artburst Miami writer).

Commissioned by Barbara Levy Kipper in the memory of her mother, Ruth Doctoroff Levy, the nine-minute pas de deux is set to the music of Italian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni and reflects on the experience of remembered loss.

Basden emphasized the relevance of the piece to the present: “The idea of losing someone is so prevalent in our life right now. It could not be more appropriate for this time that we are in,” she said. “It expresses both the love that one feels for the people who are here and those no longer here.”

WHAT: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami’s Spring 2021 “Program I”

WHEN: 4 p.m. Feb. 20

WHERE: South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211th St., Cutler Bay

COST: $45 for a pod (two seats)

INFORMATION: smdcac.org

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Miami City Ballet takes dance out into neighborhoods with ‘To Miami, With Love’

Miami City Ballet dancer Itzkan Barbosa in a promotional image for “To Miami, With Love.” (Photo courtesy of Gary James)

Though the COVID-19 vaccine rollout holds out hope for an eventual return to normalcy, the near-term challenges of safely staging live performances remain real.

In December, Miami City Ballet tackled this challenge with its outdoor production of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in the Park” in downtown Doral.

For its 2021 spring season, MCB extends this model further – bringing dance to South Florida neighborhoods with “To Miami, With Love,” a series of January and February pop-up performances set in iconic locations including Lincoln Road, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Wynwood, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami Design District, and The Underline.

Admission to the performances is free, though tickets are required. And all performances adhere to the health and safety measures implemented by each locality or individual business.

“As a cultural institution, we wanted to demonstrate our love for this city that really made us who we are,” said MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez. “When COVID hit, we thought we are not going to let go of our desire to thank this city, instead we will find other ways of doing it.

“And the idea of pop-ups came up. What better way than to go out and dance in all the iconic places this mosaic of the city has to offer?”

For the first of the pop-ups, on Jan. 30, MCB and partnering New World Symphony will perform on Lincoln Road, as a nod to the historic Miami Beach beginnings of both organizations.

For MCB Corps dancer and choreographer Cameron Catazaro – whose new work, “A Lovely Feeling,” will headline the Lincoln Road performance, the pop-ups provide an opportunity to give back to the community.

MCB dancers Cameron Catazaro and Ellen Grocki rehearse “A Lovely Feeling” while quarantining in Maryland. (Photo courtesy of Cameron Catazaro)

“Before this horrible pandemic, the 35th season of Miami City Ballet was going to be a love letter to Miami, and we still wanted to find a way to give back to the community, give people a chance to take some time to relax,” said Catazaro, a former MCB school student who joined the company as a Corps member in 2019.

When the pandemic forced the cancellation of MCB’s season, Catazaro quarantined at home in Maryland with girlfriend and fellow MCB Corps member, Ellen Grocki. During downtime, he began work on “A Lovely Feeling,” a pas de deux set to the plaintive prelude of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, “La Traviata.”

“It came naturally to me to choreograph,” Catazaro said. “The music we dance to is why I love to dance. Locating the music and then imagining the steps that would work for it was the fun part for me. Seeing the music play out through the dancers is what I really love.”

Verdi’s music especially moved him.

“I would play it during quarantine while doing puzzles,” he said. “Every time it would catch my ear, and I would put the needle back and play it again.”

The libretto of the Verdi opera revolves around the mortal illness of main character, Violetta. Asked whether his choice of music was intended to resonate with the broader theme of the pandemic, Catazaro said: “Originally I did not know the story behind it. It worked out perfectly for a time that is so challenging with so much sadness.”

Catazaro overcame the challenges of choreographing a dance for himself by shaping his steps around the sequences he laid out for Grocki. “In all partnering, it’s always about the girl. You want to make the girl look the best she can possibly look,” he said. “I’m doing my job if at the end of it someone says to me I barely noticed you.”

For the Jan. 30 pop-up, Catazaro and Grocki will dance to music performed by a quartet of New World string fellows, including third-year violin fellow Harry Chang.

Like Catazaro, Chang is elated at the opportunity to be performing again live in Miami.

“I’m so grateful that New World is trying everything to bring us back to the community,” said Chang, who returned home to Taiwan during the summer. “I’m very excited for this Lincoln Road pop-up … There’s something about playing for people on the street and having the human connection. That makes the experience intimate.”

The first pop-up will also include new work by Miami City Ballet Corps dancer and choreographer Julian Goodwin-Ferris.

Jordan Elizabeth Long will perform in Bradley Dunlap’s work on Feb. 21 at The Underline’s Sound Stage at Brickell Backyard. (Photo courtesy of Bradley Dunlap)

“For this project, I really spent a lot of time studying the musicality of Balanchine’s ‘Square Dance,’” he said. “Balanchine has such interesting ways of sometimes following Baroque music’s structure.”

His new work, “Realized Inner Voices,” is a two-part pas de trois danced by Satoki Habuchi, Jennifer Lauren and Eric Trope and set to the music of 18th-century composers Georg Philipp Telemann and Jean-Marie Leclair.

“Realized Inner Voices,” one of his first choreographies, was inspired by a visit to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, where his ballet will be performed again on Feb. 5.

“Vizcaya feels like a villa you would see in Italy, but it is also a mix of different styles and eras of European history,” he said. “Vizcaya’s mash-up of different European art is, in a way, similar to ballet that is choreographed today. Influences and ideas often come from the large mix of the choreographers and ballets that came before, but the steps still trace their origin to the Italian court.”

For those unable to attend in person, the pop-up performances will be freely distributed on MCB’s social media channels beginning the week of March 8.

WHAT: “To Miami, With Love” pop-up performances
WHEN: Jan. 30-Feb. 21
WHERE: Venues throughout Miami-Dade County
COST: Admission is free, but tickets are required
INFORMATION: MiamiCityBallet.org/popups

Information from Artburst Miami’s Orlando Taquechel was used to supplement this article.

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Dance NOW! Miami’s ‘This Moment, Here’ chronicles 2020’s turmoil and pain

Dance NOW! Miami’s Anthony Velazquez and Benicka Grant will perform in Program I: “This Moment, Here,” on Jan. 10. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Amid the struggles of 2020, dance companies were forced to innovate at every stage of the artistic process – with performers doing their strength-conditioning in kitchens, rehearsals taking place in “pods,” and shows reaching audiences online.

Few dance companies have encapsulated the pandemic experience like Dance NOW! Miami. Since company shutdowns started in March 2020, DNM has rolled out 12 new programs working every angle of the pandemic, from the biomedical to the sociopolitical.

On Jan. 10 at the North Beach Bandshell, the Miami-based modern dance company will push the envelope even further with “This Moment, Here,” an emotional, eight-part archive that chronicles the events of 2020 in DNM’s most powerful treatment to date. The production, which will be offered virtually through its YouTube channel, tackles subjects ranging from the quarantine to civil unrest at the death of George Floyd to the 2020 election.

In a joint email statement, DNM co-artistic directors Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten described “This Moment, Here” as having emerged “from the need to reflect on this moment in time and how 2020 is the culmination of many years of dissonant vibrations that continue to attempt to unravel the fabric of our society. The virus, Trump, police brutality, the political divisions are the manifestation of a world that is losing its humanity; a world where, through the fake illusion of easy mass communication and social media globalization, everyone is more and more alone.”

Several vignettes reflect on early moments of the pandemic, when shock prevented many from connecting emotionally with events as they were unfolding.

For instance, in “Prologue,” DNM dancers circle the floor to a jazzy, syncopated mesh of winds, strings and percussion, part of a new soundtrack created for the work by composer Federico Bonacossa. Matthew Heufner and Isabelle Luu Li Haas jog a circle while, in a corner, Benicka Grant and Anthony Velazquez anchor each other through lifts and turns. At the front of the stage, Renee Roberts solos in a half-dance, half-pantomime of quotidian tasks that range from gardening to washing dishes.

An emergency alarm screeches. The dancers freeze, scanning the room for threats. The action resumes, but the alarm again interrupts, and this time a dancer exits the floor until, finally, with the third alarm, those who remain don black masks.

Another vignette, “The Kitchen Table,” opens with Haas, Julia Faris, Joshua Rosado and David Harris seated or leaning around a table. None wear masks as they exchange sides, roll beneath the table, pile up in one corner, or scatter to the sides of the room, miming a heated conversation as they do so. The dancers’ circuits of activity repeat until Rosado falls to the floor.

At first, he struggles to return but soon falls again. Haas, Faris and Harris first hover over him before withdrawing to regard his outstretched body at a distance. They, too, then don masks.

Salterini says the vignette acknowledges the crescendo of deaths in Italy during the first wave: “It shows, in the beginning, families gathered together during the quarantine, fighting and playing, but then also transferring virus to one another as they did so.”

A prominent feature of “This Moment, Here” is its visceral treatment of events that are still in process.

In a brilliantly funny nod to the election cycle, “The Debate” opens with dancers perched on buckets, hands on knees, each in their respective corners. At the music, they fly to their feet, confront one another, jump in place, whirl and return to their corners. Their movements reflect the violence of the election’s rhetoric, but the tongue-in-cheek character of the movements playfully transforms it.

“This Moment, Here” closes with “8:46,” a work whose title refers to a period of time associated with the May death of George Floyd. Though the exact length of time that Floyd was pinned beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee has become unclear, the 8:46 number became a symbol for police brutality, and the company’s choreography symbolically lasts the full 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

The piece opens with streaming arpeggios, and the dancers in three lines. They turn, then first push out through their arms before pressing hands on their hearts. A duet begins between Velazquez and Grant. Starting from opposite sides of the floor, they first perform on their own. While Velazquez stretches out and spins freely, Grant repeatedly snaps her arms behind her back as if handcuffed or halts with her hands around her throat.

But as the melody turns pizzicato, they begin to circle, first Velazquez supporting Grant through lifts and pivots. The duet ends with them facing, their palms and forearms pressed against the other’s.

For Grant, the duet embodies the opposite of what happened to George Floyd. “The duet between Anthony and I portrays something else that could have happened in that time frame. He and I are two people who have no knowledge of one another at the beginning of the duet but somehow feel connected. Eventually, as the duet progresses, we form a relationship. We are full of joy and happiness. There are many moments within the choreography where I see it as, ‘I got you.’”

DNM dancer and rehearsal director Allyn Ginns Ayers thinks this is precisely the right time to look back on the past year’s issues and emotions.

“Of course, the pandemic and all of the societal issues that accompany it (social justice, health care, housing insecurity) are still unfolding and, undoubtedly, perspectives will change and evolve, as they have already,” she says. “But I don’t think the moment has to pass before one can or should comment on it.

“To the contrary, the process of creating – and consuming – art can allow us to reflect on, to understand, and ultimately to heal from this moment.”

WHAT: Dance NOW! Miami presents Program I: “This Moment, Here” 

WHEN: 7 p.m. Jan. 10 

WHERE: On DNM’s YouTube channel, livestreamed from the North Beach Bandshell. The venue will be closed to the public.

ADMISSION: $10 “virtual ticket” is required to watch the performance online; available  at dancenowmiami.org or northbeachbandshell.com. 

MORE INFORMATION: Check out the websites above, call 305-975-8489, or email info@dancenowmiami.org.

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Review: MCB’s outdoor ‘Nutcracker’ offers glimpse of possible new directions for post-pandemic dance

Miami City Ballet principals Jennifer Lauren and Renan Cerdeiro play the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

Every year, the “Nutcracker” ballet is a holiday tradition.

This year, ballet companies faced a difficult decision over whether to stage live performances. “Nutcracker” shows typically bring in a considerable percentage of yearly revenue for the nation’s ballet companies. Many companies that canceled their 2020-2021 seasons early continued to signal intentions of doing some sort of live “Nutcracker” well into the fall. However, in the end, they opted for online versions of the classic.

One notable exception: Miami City Ballet, whose 2020 rendition – entitled “George Balanchine’s Nutcracker in the Park” – is a live, full-length production with an outdoor audience and stringent safety protocols.

Presented through Dec. 31, this performance is a hybrid of filmed segments (mostly Act I) and live dancing (mostly Act II), based on the company’s 2017 “update” of choreographer George Balanchine’s 1954 version of the ballet. That update included new costuming by New York designer Isabel Toledo and scenic elements by her husband, Ruben Toledo, as well as South Florida-inspired lighting schemes by James Ingalls and gorgeous animated sequences from Wendall Harrington.

Doral Park dressed up for this newly designed rendition of Miami City Ballet’s “Nutcracker.” (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

This new “pandemic version” of the holiday production at downtown Doral Park is the product of combined community forces, including the City of Doral, the Codina Family, and health-care sponsor Baptist Health South Florida. Together, they implemented strong measures at the park designed to maximize audience safety.

For starters, the ticket-processing was touchless, socially distanced and organized to keep people flowing into the open theater space. Ticketholders were quickly seated in “pods” – distanced areas with room for four. Audience members had seats or could bring blankets, depending on ticket level.

Miami City Ballet also developed protocols with Baptist Health South Florida to safeguard the health of the performers, including consistent COVID-19 testing, rehearsal podding and mask-wearing.

On Dec. 18, which was opening night, the familiar Wendall Harrington projection of the “Nutcracker” doll on the stage backdrop and rows of gorgeously lit trees shaped an outdoor theater that was noticeably informed by biomedical protocols yet still pretty and festive. The roughly two-hour performance included a 10-minute intermission, in which most people remained seated.

The audience capacity at the park was restricted to 600, which meant ample distance between pods. The Friday night performance was free for essential workers. Those in attendance complied with the frequent messaging to wear masks and remain socially distanced at all times. As dancers left the stage, they could be seen donning masks.    

Nathalia Arja, in white, showed accuracy, speed and precision in her pointe work as Dewdrop in “George Balanchine’s Nutcracker in the Park.” (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

Aspects of “George Balanchine’s Nutcracker in the Park” were startling and offered a glimpse of what a marriage of digital production and live dance can do.

Act I’s film segments are a virtual-reality projection based on a post-2017 company performance of the ballet. The 3-D effect of the L.E.D. screen is so pronounced that it can be eerily difficult to determine when a shift occurs between live dancers and filmed segments. Adopting this approach for Act I’s party and fight scenes allowed the company to avoid safety issues involving dozens of child performers.

The film effects were not perfect. The white tones saturated certain segments of the film, making it difficult to see facial expressions and obscuring some dance sequences.

Still, the spell cast by the 3-D effects was so complete that when Marie – ably performed by a very real Mia Zaffaroni – entered to nestle into the red velvet folds of the sofa with her broken Nutcracker doll, the sight of a real body on the stage for the first time caused a couple of double takes.

The sensation was magnified with the first group number, “Waltz of the Snowflakes,” when 16 dancers executed snap kicks, coordinated pivots, and skimmed the stage in bourrées, in tight groups of four and eight. Watching a group perform live after so many months of virtual-only productions was electrifying.

Much of Act II continued the live dance, with a few notable changes. For instance, the act traditionally opens with “Dance of the Angels,” performed by the very youngest dancers. However, due to safety concerns, the current version replaces it with a Harrington animation of brightly colored sea animals, birds and dolphins whirling in a trippy vortex that resolved into a South Florida beach-scape version of the “Land of Sweets.”

The Marzipan Shepherdesses coordinated flawlessly throughout the intricate choreography’s slight, unforgiving shifts of weight. (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

During the eight divertissements, some dancers struggled with the double tours, fouettés and ronds de jambe – entirely understandable given the cold (it was a breezy 60 degrees), the small dance floor, and the pandemic protocols.

Principal Jennifer Lauren was not one of them. In the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Lauren opened her solo against an emerald-blue backdrop, displaying terrific pointe work and piqué turns.

In the pas de deux that closes the act, Lauren returned with principal Renan Cerdeiro as her Cavalier. The two cast a spell, with Cerdeiro offering strong support during deep penchés, lifts and the choreography’s signature floated and pivoted arabesques.

Other highlights in Act II included the over-the-top exuberance that principals Lauren Fadeley as Hot Chocolate and Alexander Peters as Candy Cane brought to their respective roles. Emily Bromberg showed heroic attention to musicality throughout the contortions of the “Dance of Coffee.” Marzipan Shepherdesses Ashley Knox, Julia Cinquemani, Nina Fernandes, Suzette Logue and Helen Ruiz coordinated flawlessly throughout the intricate choreography’s slight, unforgiving shifts of weight, and principal Nathalia Arja as Dewdrop recalled her spectacular performance from last spring’s “Firebird” with the accuracy, speed and precision of her pointe work.

With solid dancing and palpable attention to safety protocols, Miami City Ballet’s latest “Nutcracker” offered  South Florida audiences both an evening of relative normalcy and a glimpse of possible new directions for post-pandemic dance.

WHAT: “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in the Park”

WHEN: Dec. 18-31

WHERE: Downtown Doral Park, 8395 NW 53rd St.

COST: All tickets are sold as pods and cost from $120-$285, depending on the section and the date.  All tickets include free parking.

INFORMATION: 305-929 –7010; miamicityballet.org 

To read our preview for this event, click here. 

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