Review: ‘Birds of Paradise’ is ambitious, spectacular … and unsettlingly personal

Gabriela Cruz in “Birds of Paradise.” (Photo courtesy of WorldRedEye.com)

Visually spectacular. Intensely, even unsettlingly personal. Revealing yet opaque.

After a twisting two-year journey sent into unexpected directions, like everything else, by the pandemic, choreographer Pioneer Winter’s dance/multimedia work, “Birds of Paradise,” premiered at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021 — and it turns out to be powerful but mysterious, even indeterminate. Very much like what the pandemic has been to all of us.

By digging deep to explore the vulnerable psyches of his eight performer/collaborators across giant screens and in front of us, Winter has made something revealing about an uncertain time, and the power inside us, whether separate or apart. Commissioned by the Arsht Center when it made Winter its first resident-artist in more than a decade, “Birds of Paradise” plays at the Arsht through this Sunday only.

“Birds of Paradise” is certainly the most ambitious piece that Winter, who has become one of Miami’s most influential artists, has ever made. His influence is not only as a dancemaker who champions individuality and queer identity outside all kinds of conventional margins (he works with performers who are disabled, transgender, physically large, or not traditionally trained, among other things), but as a producer of site-specific work and the director of Miami Light Project’s ScreenDance Miami festival.

Winter has explained the piece many times (for insight, check out the study guide on the Pioneer Winter Collective website), and he did so again for the audience that filled the socially distanced seats in the Arsht’s Carnival Studio Theater on Thursday evening: “In the queer community, isolation is felt often,” he said. “This is the first time everyone felt that isolation. But it’s also beautiful to see what can be made in that void. Tonight, we celebrate eight solo artists, then see them come together. We celebrate the power of transformation. Especially the transformation that nobody sees.”

That sounds pretty comprehensive. But it doesn’t get to the visual gorgeousness, intensity, and the interwoven film, sound, costume, design and performance elements of “Birds of Paradise” — it’s a true creative collaboration. The piece opens with performer Barbara Meulener’s hands blooming against a blue sky on a wall-spanning screen, as part of a film, the first of eight. The films are by Ronald Baez’s White Elephant Group. Baez is credited as co-director, with Kevin Berriz as cinematographer, colorist and editor. The stunningly shot, emotionally detailed and unnervingly intimate films are the most vivid aspect of “Birds of Paradise.”

Also integral is Juraj Kojš’ sound design, which brings us the dancers’ voices, their breathing, their inchoate noises, almost as if we were inside their heads. Chaplin Tyler’s fantastical, intricate costumes, in brilliant red or pale flesh tones, incorporate billowing clouds of fabric, body-hugging lace rosettes or filmy sheaths, wisps of feather. Mai Lan Lau also gets credit for styling. Hair and makeup designer Angel Torres splashes their faces and bodies with iridescent gold and red. The effect is to turn the dancers into hallucinatory, very faintly birdlike creatures.

The piece starts with films in the studio theater, each on their own screen, then moves down a hallway into another large space, with the films continuing on multiple screens. (Also impressive are David Hans Lau’s production design and Quanikqua Bryant’s lighting.) Although projected text invites us to move around, the audience stayed seated in each room.

Each film is an expressionistic portrait that includes the dancers speaking about their state of mind during isolation. Meulener arches and spins in a velvety black void, images of blue sky and her lying on a lush green lawn flash, as if she’s imagining the outdoors – a shot of grass springing back evokes her absence. Frank Campisano, a sinewy, elderly, classically trained dancer struts with sensual disco-ish moves across three split screens. Niurca Marquez, face haggard with black eye shadow, crouches atop a wood box like an abandoned goddess who’s partied too hard, hands clawing and arms winding in a jagged twist on flamenco.

“Exploration of the thing deep inside,” she says. “It also shows you are alive.”

We see Josue Garcia, imperiously large, swelling pectoral breasts outlined by feathers, belly curving over a bikini, and hear him curse his mother for abandoning him. “Why did you leave me?! Why didn’t you love me?” In the past, or just now?

Garcia leads us to the next space and to powerful, statuesque Katrina Petrarca, panting, writhing, reaching toward a camera that zooms into her face.

“I’m reaching that crescendo,” she says, “that point of letting it all out.”

Enigmatic Gabriela Cruz seems to float in a cloud of a dress, her hooked and elongated hands flinging wide, while Lize-Lotte Pitlo lunges, arches and spins.

“It’s like I’m putting my skin under a microscope,” Pitlo says. “I almost feel you can read my thoughts.”

Last and most powerful is Shamar Watt, not only because he’s a such an intense, formidable presence, but because he is the only performer who interacts live with his film, projected on three screens. A wide, bell-shaped tunic swinging around his muscular frame, Watt stamps atop an amplified platform, the sound thundering ominously. He howls, head thrown back, an agonized king bird, while the film shows him silhouetted in a vast orange-red background, as if in a lonely nightmare from inside his head. It’s immensely affecting and unsettling, and it makes you wish “Birds of Paradise” had more of this kind of exchange between film and live performer.

The finale sees the other seven performers together onstage, no film. They sway, circle, reach, arch, clump together and spin apart, crouch on the three amplified platforms to scratch up sounds (another of Kojš’ inspirations). The section seems like a structured improvisation, and while the dancers’ fierce commitment carries the dance, the moment also feels meandering. And yet, it also fits. As if they’ve ventured out of their isolated pandemic film cells into the world: uncertain, chaotic, and anxious – but filled with the energy of coming together.

 

WHAT: Pioneer Winter Collective: “Birds of Paradise”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16-18 and 2 p.m. Sept. 19

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

COST: $40 admission, plus $15 tickets available as part of the Arsht’s “Sweet 15” celebration (arshtcenter.org/Tickets/Sweet-15)

SAFETY INFORMATION: Based on guidance from national and local health officials, the performance will be seated at limited capacity and require face coverings.

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org

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Miami’s 3rd Forward Motion Festival returns with a message of inclusivity

Penelope Huerta and Jesus Vidal de Leon performing Karen Peterson and Dancers’ “Lost and Found,” which will be featured at the Forward Motion Festival. (Photo courtesy of Giorgio Vera)

There’s a renewed interest in physically integrated dance, according to Karen Peterson.

The artistic director of Karen Peterson and Dancers sees it as a consequence of recent social movements: “After the social upheaval of this past year, and with diversity, equity and inclusion on the minds of most everyone today, there is more focus on PI (physically integrated) dance than before.”

Good thing, then, that the event she founded – the Forward Motion Dance Festival – is able to return this year after being canceled in 2020.

From Sept. 22-25, the third edition of the festival will showcase the nation’s top PI dance companies, including Peterson’s company, KPD, as well as Oakland-based AXIS Dance Co., Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels Co. and Tampa’s REVolutions Dance. Performances, workshops and lectures on PI dance techniques will take place at Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center and the Miami-Dade County Auditorium.

Uniting disabled and non-disabled performers onstage, the festival is meant to challenge conventional notions of dance.

“What is KPD’s value to the community? Everyone loves our work, but still many do not enjoy wheelchairs moving onstage. Does KPD have artistic integrity? How do we measure pointe work to wheelchair balances? How does one look at a trained ballerina and compare the individual to a wheelchair dancer? Are they apples and oranges?” Peterson says. “Many of these questions have different answers, but PI dance certainly pushes the envelope about who can and cannot dance.”

For Mary Verdi-Fletcher, artistic director of Dancing Wheels, the artform of PI dance goes hand in hand with advocacy work for expanding opportunities and safeguarding the rights of the disabled.

“Not all the performances are geared toward a social message, but by the inclusivity of the company the message is there, because the inclusivity speaks to it. The performance is in that way educational for the audience,” Verdi-Fletcher says. “I was born with my disability, and there weren’t opportunities for people to participate in the arts other than being a viewer or audience member. But then I started dancing, including social dancing. This was in the disco days, and what I was doing actually caught on like wildfire.  I was in a competition that was nationally televised and people wanted to see us perform.”

Her company, Dancing Wheels, employs 11 dancers and celebrated its 40th anniversary in June. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the company had a robust national and international tour schedule and offered master classes, concerts and lectures.

At the Forward Motion Festival, Dancing Wheels will present the Miami premieres of two works: “Pallas Athena” and “Od:yssey.”

“Pallas Athena” includes nine dancers (two disabled and seven non-disabled). Featuring the music of David Bowie, the concert work was choreographed by the rehearsal director of Dancing Wheels, Catherine Meredith.

The second piece, “Od:yssey,” showcases eight dancers (two disabled and six non-disabled) and was created by choreographer Marc Brew, who is the artistic director of AXIS Dance Co.

“I had commissioned [Brew] along with two other disabled choreographers for  a show that featured disabled choreographers. There are not a lot of disabled choreographers,” noted Verdi-Fletcher.

Brew’s interest in choreography began when he was an 11-year-old dance student in Australia. He began his career as a professional ballet dancer, but a car accident in South Africa left him paralyzed from the chest down. Brew went on to work with New York dancer Kitty Lunn, a disability activist and founder of Infinity Dance Theater, to translate classical techniques into the upper body.

Brew frequently focuses on the concept of restriction in his choreographies: “When I first started using my chair, people would say I’m wheelchair-bound. However, this is not what I mean by this. By working with restriction, I mean exploring floorwork and partnering and contact improvisation by restricting space and setting up guidelines and structures that present an  opportunity for the dancers to solve a problem.”

In addition to contributing “Od:yssey,” he choreographed the KPD solo, “Remember When,” featuring wheelchair dancer Jesus Vidal de Leon, who once studied with Brew during an AXIS Dance Co. summer session. Brew will also conduct a workshop and lecture during the festival.

For Brew, the greatest obstacle to appreciating PI dance is often the preoccupation with the disability of the dancers.

“People need to get over looking out for the disability of a dancer during a performance and identifying who’s disabled and who’s not,” Brew says. “Look for the artistry of their performance, their awesomeness. Look for how they join together their diversity of shapes, sizes, genders. Take in and absorb being moved.

“I want audiences to be moved – not just emotionally, but with lots of questions and images in their minds, and have them take something away from that moment.”

 

WHAT: Forward Motion Festival 2021

WHEN: Sept. 22-25, 2021

WHERE: Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center, 2705 SW Third St., and Miami-Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler St.

ADMISSION: There will be free events, as well as $10 workshops. Admission for the main performances are $25 for the general public and $18 for students and seniors age 65 and older.

SAFETY PROTOCOLS: The venues will follow federal, state and local public health regulations and guidance related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Face coverings are “strongly encouraged” at the Koubek Center and required at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, according to the website.

INFORMATION: ForwardMotionMiami.com or 786-498-6756

This article originally incorrectly attributed choreographer Marc Brew’s involvement with one of the Dancing Wheels Co.’s dance pieces. Brew worked with the company on “Od:yssey.” Additionally, the number of performers changed for “Od:yssey,” which showcases eight dancers (two disabled and six non-disabled). The story now reflects these changes. 

Click here to read our Spanish-language preview for this event.

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Pioneer Winter Collective’s ‘Birds of Paradise’ finally getting off the ground

Barbara Meulener’s solo in “Birds of Paradise” is about a sense of becoming, beginnings and liberation, according to choreographer Pioneer Winter. (Photo courtesy of WorldRedEye.com)

The creation of the Adrienne Arsht Center’s first commissioned contemporary dance work – from its first artist-in-residency in a decade – had more than its share of ups and downs, as did just about anything that had its beginnings not long before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, a little less than a year after its originally scheduled date, choreographer-dancer Pioneer Winter’s “Birds of Paradise” is ready for its world premiere.

“The project itself was reborn. It had to be,” Winter says about the production, which was originally set for October 2020 and will now debut inside the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021.

The work envisioned about coalition, ensemble and a collective mindset became impossible in the midst of a pandemic, according to Winter.

“The piece was supposed to be about being en masse, being in group, being this collective mindset – collective in a way that is unity. Then it became taboo for us to be able to be together. So, it made the very thing that we were making a dance about impossible to do,” Winter says.

The original vision for the Pioneer Winter Collective began with an open audition for dancers in October 2019, followed by rehearsals with a full ensemble of 11.

“On March 13, 2020, we decided that it was no longer safe for us to work as a group, so we took a few weeks off,” Winter says.

They resumed rehearsals using Zoom for three months, but it wasn’t conducive to Winter’s vision – almost a year went by in which they weren’t able to work as a group at all. And when the piece could be revived, it no longer made sense to work as an ensemble because of safety precautions.

Not knowing where Miami, or the world for that matter, would be by the time “Birds of Paradise” premiered at the Arsht, Winter had to figure out a way to make the work “pandemic-proof.”

They returned to rehearsals in late January 2021, with eight dancers working on individual solos over four months. Then their performances were filmed individually inside the Carnival Studio for eight consecutive days in May.

When it premieres, “Birds of Paradise” will begin with the film installations shown throughout the Carnival Studio Theater and end with a 20-minute piece in which the dancers come together live as an ensemble in the center’s Peacock Foundation Studio. The dancers are: Barbara Meulener, Frank Campisano, Niurca Marquez, Josue Garcia, Katrina Petrarca, Gabriela Cruz, Lize-Lotte Pitlo and Shamar Watt.

“This was never meant to be a transmedia piece, so it will not be presented as a series of film screenings,” Winter says.

Each film has its own individuality, Winter stresses, with different camera work used and other techniques: “Some are projected on Plexiglas, some are on a wall. One of them is set up in a hallway to create the illusion that the performer is in that hallway with you.”

For Arsht CEO and president Johann Zietsman, the commissioning of “Birds of Paradise” represents an exciting chapter in the center’s history.

“The center has never commissioned a contemporary dance piece, so it is very special,” Zietsman says.

Bringing “Birds of Paradise” to fruition has been “a winding road of challenges and surprises, but all great,” says Jairo Ontiveros, vice president of Education and Community Engagement at the Arsht Center, the department charged with overseeing the residency.

The core of their commitment didn’t change, Ontiveros says, nor did their focus on what the residency represented.

“We wanted to make sure that we were supporting Pioneer as a developing choreographer,” Ontiveros says. “In supporting new work, one of our primary goals is to reflect and represent the Miami community, especially those marginalized voices, the pockets in our community that are under-represented. In this case, it is the LGBTQ+ community that the Pioneer Winter Collective represents.”

Ontiveros calls the artist-in-residency a “hand-in-hand process to bring other voices that have been historically excluded from our stages around the country and around the world, and that to us is really important.”

What audiences will see in the premiere of “Birds of Paradise” is only the beginning, Winter says. “It will keep evolving. It has to.”

Because the piece received funds from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) National Dance Project, it’s expected to tour for at least the next two years, Winter says. Commissioned by the Arsht Center, Winter also received funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The MAP Fund, Our Fund Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its 2019 Knight Arts Challenge.

As it continues, the dream for “Birds of Paradise” is that the individual solos will be created with performers from everywhere. Winter hopes that, post-pandemic, the work will become a hybrid of film and live solos.

Despite the difficulties, Winter says the delays helped to “inform” the piece further than he had imagined.

“All artwork right now is deeply affected by the pandemic, including the isolation and the need for closeness and community … Isolation was already pervasive in the queer community, but during the pandemic, it became a common thread,” Winter says. “Now, for maybe the first time in our history, everyone felt isolated.”

“Birds of Paradise” is meant to acknowledge that some of the greatest struggles and growth are experienced alone, and then the person can “emerge liberated, stronger, iridescent and beyond definition,” Winter says.

“It’s become about celebrating the individual. Everyone has experienced a time where they are in their own void and, oftentimes, you think that you are the only one experiencing that,” Winter continues. “This is about acknowledging that you’re not alone and there is a virtuosity, even in the small things we do in order to keep going.”

 

WHAT: Pioneer Winter Collective: “Birds of Paradise”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16-18 and 2 p.m. Sept. 19

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

COST: $40 admission, plus $15 tickets available as part of the Arsht’s “Sweet 15” celebration (arshtcenter.org/Tickets/Sweet-15)

SAFETY INFORMATION: Based on guidance from national and local health officials, the performance will be seated at limited capacity and require face coverings.

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org

 

Click here to read our Spanish-language preview for this event.

Click here to read our review for this event. 

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IN CONVERSATION WITH LOURDES LÓPEZ, ‘A LIFE FOR DANCE’ AWARD RECIPIENT

 Lourdes López with Miami City Ballet dancers in a rehearsal for George Balanchine’s “Jewels.” (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

Lourdes López (Havana, 1958) this year received the Lifetime Achievement Award “A Life for Dance” (in Spanish, “Una Vida para la Danza”), which has been presented since 1998 by the International Ballet Festival of Miami (IBFM).

The artistic director of the Miami City Ballet (MCB) now becomes part of a select group of personalities from the world of dance, as the 25th honoree and the 11th woman. Also, as the fourth Cuban-born recipient – after Alberto Alonso in 2006, Carlos Gacio in 2016, and Pedro Pablo Peña, founder of the IBFM, posthumously in 2018.

How did the news of the “A Life for Dance” award make you feel?

“It was very moving. My mom always wrote to me saying, ‘Lourdita, put Cuba’s name up.’ So I grew up Cuban. And knowing that the award comes from a Festival that has so much history among Cubans here in Miami made me feel: “I’m a Cuban receiving an award!”. Add to that the fact that I’m entering my tenth year with the company and that this season we’re coming back from the pandemic, and you can say those three things made it much more special.”

Lourdes’ family emigrated to the United States in 1959, and she grew up in Miami, where she began taking ballet lessons at the age of six. When she was eleven, she received a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet (SAB) in New York.

Being an artist was always the only option for you?

“No. I started taking ballet classes because of some medical problems I had in my legs. When I was young, I loved being around children, and at some point, I thought I wanted to be a child psychologist. My dad wanted me to go to the University, but I have no regrets about the career I chose because I can say that from a very young age, I found something that really fills my soul.”

Do you remember the first time you saw a dance performance?

“Yes. It was at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, where a dance festival was presented that visited Miami once or twice a year. Because we were migrants and poor, my mom would buy a ticket, hide it in the program, and we would enter like… three of us. I remember seeing Lydia Díaz Cruz in “The Dying Swan,” Carla Fracci and Lupe Serrano, [both are also recipients of the IBFM’s A Life for Dance Award] among many other great dancers.”

At the age of 16, Lourdes joined the ballet corps of the New York City Ballet, became Principal in June 1984, and played numerous roles in choreographies created by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. After retiring as a dancer, Lopez worked as a cultural reporter, administrator, teacher, and even executive director of the George Balanchine Foundation.

In 2007, she and the choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created a company called Morphoses, and in 2012 she replaced Edward Villella – also recognized by IBFM in 2004 – as MCB’s Artistic Director. Her management at the head of the company immediately exceeded expectations, and today his creative leadership is recognized by the public and critics. In 2018, she received the prestigious Dance Magazine Award.

What made you stop dancing?

“The respect I have for art. I’m a person who always tries to be realistic. I looked in the mirror, and my eyes saw me. I’ve never been blind. I looked at myself and recognized what I was missing, what I needed, and what wasn’t right. When I was about 38, I began to realize that there were pieces that I wasn’t dancing the way they should be danced, and I said to myself, ‘no more… I prefer to retire with dignity.’ So, I finished the season and didn’t come back.

But the truth is that I danced more than I ever thought. I danced in a company that I never thought of dancing in my life. I never thought I would be a Soloist, and I never thought I would become a Principal. For me, it was always getting up every day and working, but I didn’t have those goals in mind. It wasn’t an easy thing to make the decision to stop dancing, but maybe that’s why it was easier for me than it was for others.”

“Sesame Street” – Cooperate (Lourdes López and Jock Soto), Season 28, 1996-97. “The choreography is by a young Christopher Wheldon,” says Lourdes.

What personal characteristic has been of most help to you in your career?

“What has helped me in my career is something my parents taught me, and that’s a commitment to the job. ‘You have to put one foot in front of the other.’ ‘You can’t take it for granted that someone is going to give you something.’ All those things they tell you. And my parents were a great example because they worked for many years.”

What is your definition of success?

“Success is to be happy in what you do. It’s not the money. It’s not the material things. It’s being able to say, ‘I’m doing what I love, what I like, what I want,’ because only then the effort, time, and energy you invest in what you do will not shock you too much.”

What achievement has made you feel most proud?

“In my personal life, my two daughters, I swear. The first one was born while I was dancing, and she changed my way of thinking, even my way of dancing. Children make you see the world differently. In my career, that’s something I can’t answer because every single thing I’ve done has a different meaning. But there is something that is never mentioned and of which I am very proud. It is to have been the first and only Latina Principal Dancer -until today- of the New York City Ballet. Latina and Cuban”.

When two Cubans have a conversation like this one, the current situation in Cuba is a must, and for quite a while, we didn’t talk about anything else.

“The unprecedented wave of protests taking place in Cuba is something powerful. The Cuban people are speaking out against what has been a lack of human rights for a long time. And about a government that has not heard their cries for change. Everyone has the right to be heard, live their lives without fear of expressing themselves, and freely determine their own future. As a Cuban and an artist, I stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and support their struggle for change.”

Finally, what is your recommendation to a young artist interested in making a career in dance?

“My advice would be to take every day as it comes. And by that, I mean two things. One is that what happens today, good and bad, is likely not to be that important in five years. The second is that life is not going to be a straight shot. Life is up and down, next to and around. So, the important thing is to be present every day. The important thing is to stay present.”

For the Spanish-language version of this interview, click here: CONVERSANDO CON LOURDES LÓPEZ, PREMIO ‘UNA VIDA PARA LA DANZA’ DEL FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE BALLET DE MIAMI

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Armour Dance Theatre renamed & reorganized to promote social equity mission – VIDEO

“Armour Dance Theatre teaches dancers to express the movement of their own body rather than someone else’s body,” says Stephanie Bell, forefront, an ADT student and high school junior at the New World School of the Arts. (Photo courtesy of Addyson Fonte)

When is a ballet academy more than a dance school?

When ballet instruction helps remove the economic, social and emotional hurdles that may prevent students from thriving.

That is the mission of Armour Dance Theatre (ADT): Miami’s Community Dance Conservatory, formerly Thomas Armour Youth Ballet — and this year has brought changes in name and leadership that are meant to further  move the school in that direction.

“Armour Dance Theatre is a social justice organization whose goal is to address accessibility and inequity in the community,” says Ruth Wiesen, artistic director and outgoing executive director of Armour Dance Theatre. “We have dance students who do go into professional companies, but that’s not our goal. All of our kids go to college or get into a company.”

As part of the evolution, Wiesen has passed the baton to Camila Gil, a former scholarship student who worked there during college handling data collection for ADT’s first grant from The Children’s Trust (whose mission is to help Miami-Dade County children and families). In the process, Gil became ADT’s director of community programs, rolling out services addressing a mix of academics, nutrition, parenting and social and emotional learning.

(Video courtesy of Florida International University’s Inspicio Arts e-magazine)

“Adding those components allowed for greater impact,” said Gil, who more recently served as ADT’s associate director before taking on the new role of executive director. “We started with a dream of providing quality dance training and quality academic support.  We hired certified teachers from the community, who were hired from the same neighborhoods where we taught the program.  This allowed for a lot more connections with the kids beyond programming hours.”

Asked about the challenges of using ballet — a historically elitist art form — to promote conditions of racial equity in the community, Gil replied: “We’ve always known at Armour Dance Theatre that ballet has been an elitist and racist art form, but we know the historical and technical value ballet has for informing a dancer.  We have to take the initiative to make it diverse and make it inclusive and to preserve its historical value.”

To further support students academically, Armour Dance Theatre through the years has developed community programs with a focus on reading, math, social-emotional learning and dance at four schools in Miami-Dade County: Morningside K-8 Academy, Robert Russa Moton Elementary, Miami Gardens Elementary and  Pine Villa Elementary.

“You can’t just offer dance classes,” said Wiesen. “You need also an obstacle removal program as well.  There are small things in kids’ lives we can fix, from eyeglasses and a metro card to homelessness, sexual identity and medical issues.  We’re very fortunate to have a diverse array of partners, both private and governmental, who support us so that we can offer this support …

“The community programs arose when we saw how much the challenge of transportation limited our ability to reach more children. We decided to bring the programming directly to neighborhoods. We have set up programming in many venues over 20 years, including South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, a Homestead Housing Authority house, churches, recreational centers and public schools,” Wiesen added. “As the scope of programming expanded to daily dance, academics and social-emotional skills, the amount of space and time greatly increased. Miami Dade County Public Schools welcomed the programming and were able to accommodate the space and time issues.”

Wiesen, a former dancer who trained with world-renowned classical ballet dancer and ADT founder Thomas Armour, had been juggling the roles of artistic and executive director for quite a while. But as the organization expanded, she found herself swamped by the two positions: “I love teaching and I love to be with the kids, and the executive work kept me behind the desk, paying bills and paying vendors.”

Among her biggest accomplishments, she founded the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet Scholarship Program in 1989, providing opportunities for youths who perhaps couldn’t afford dance training and helping to set the course for ADT’s well-rounded approach.

“Our goal was to get our students into high-performing schools like New World School of the Arts. But we weren’t really dealing with their grades,” Wiesen said. “We’d help get a child into New World only to find out that they were years behind in reading and math.”

With the artistic and executive director roles now split, the idea is for ADT to continue growing and flourishing. The other big change: The academy dropped “Ballet” from its name to better reflect current student interests, with classes in hip-hop and musical theater/jazz added to the mix.

ADT student Stephanie Bell, a high school junior at the New World School of the Arts, values the influence the dance school has had on her life.

“In general, dance is an expensive art form and brutal. Many dancers go through it mentally, questioning whether they are doing the right things,” Bell said. “George Balanchine would teach tall, white dancers with long legs to dance a certain way. Armour Dance Theatre teaches dancers to express the movement of their own body rather than someone else’s body. They prepare dancers for the dance world from that perspective.”

Added Bell’s friend, Sophia Chang, also a junior at New World: “Since Armour Dance is right in the center of the city, I know so many people who get here through the train, the car, walking, bicycle. Armour Dance Theatre gives people a purpose … they give that to those who live in the worst areas and in the best areas. They help people with mental health, physical health … they’ve saved so many lives.”

ADT counts Robert Battle, the artistic director at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York, as an alumnus. At one point, 25 percent of the dancers at New York’s Martha Graham Dance Co. could trace their origins back to ADT, according to Wiesen.

Another alumnus, Chris Rudd, became the founder and artistic director of New York-based RudduR Dance in 2015 and a Guggenheim Choreography Fellow in 2019. In November 2020, the American Ballet Theatre premiered Rudd’s groundbreaking work, “Touché,” as part of a virtual gala.  It featured a pas de deux between two men, marking the first time the American Ballet Theatre presented a work with an explicitly homosexual theme.

The former ADT scholarship student credited Armour Dance Theatre with opening the door to ballet and providing a second family.

“I started dancing through the company’s scholarship program around 1990, when it was just taking off,” said Rudd. “Ruth [Wiesen] became our second mom. We were all welcome despite the fact that we had different needs. She then put this spirit into her institution, filling the gaps our parents couldn’t for whatever reason.”

For Rudd, Armour Dance Theatre is unique among ballet schools in its holistic approach toward its students.

“Only now is the rest of the ballet world having conversations about the importance of this approach,” Rudd said.  “It is evidence for what ballet companies could have become had they approached education this way.”

For more information on Armour Dance Theatre’s academy and community programs, go to Armourdance.org, call 305-667-5543, or visit its studios at 5818 SW 73rd St., Miami.

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XXVI International Ballet Festival of Miami showcasing dance at its finest

Ihosvany Rodriguez and Gretel Batista are seen here during one of last year’s performances, without a public, at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

The XXVI International Ballet Festival of Miami is more expansive than ever, with an encompassing three weeks of dance and events running through Sunday, Aug. 15. Expect classical and contemporary performances, a book launch, art exhibit, film series, plus numerous free activities, a summer dance intensive workshop, as well as indoor and outdoor events that invite public participation.

“This year, thankfully, we have the chance once again to be back in theaters,” says Eriberto Jimenez, director of the festival and artistic director of the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.  “We found seven wonderful venues, some of which are new to us. I thought we would also take some activities outside to be accessible to everyone.”

Six dance films will be shown outdoors, free of charge, at two different locations. Additionally, one special documentary by Cuban director Miguel Castanet will honor the late Pedro Pablo Peña, Jimenez’s predecessor and mentor. Castanet was fortunate to have interviewed Peña before his death in March 2018 — and the resulting documentary, “La Amable Euforia de la Danza” (“The Kind Euphoria of Dance”), will be shown publicly in Miami for the first time after garnering awards worldwide. Playing at the Sanctuary of the Arts in Coral Gables, it highlights the founding of this popular Miami festival, as well as of the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center and the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.

On Sunday, Aug. 1, local dance students and participating studios and artists will converge at Bayfront Park for the IBFM First Dance Marathon.

“I added the dance marathon, first, to bring the dance community together after a year of being so separated,” Jimenez says. “Second, many of the dance students don’t know about the festival. Dancing is what they like, so this is a way to bring the dancers together, and also to promote the festival.”

As part of the festivities, a “Life for Dance Award” statuette, created by Mexican artist David Camorlinga Tagle, will be presented this year to Miami City Ballet (MCB) artistic director Lourdes Lopez. Not only was Lopez a principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet, but the Miami resident has built MCB to be a major classical company that is recognized throughout the world.

Among all the periphery events taking place throughout South Florida, the highlights of the festival, of course, are the dance performances.

The first week is dedicated to young dancers and the future. Competition medalists will dance during a Youth Gala Performance, in collaboration with Miami International Ballet Competition, Universal Ballet Competition (United States), World Dance Award (Italy), Mercosur Dance Festival and Concurso Internacional Latinoamerica Danza (Argentina), and Danza Activa (Panama). Students attend daily classes as part of the Cuban Classical Ballet Summer Intensive and receive free tickets to the festival’s performances and events.

The second week will feature four contemporary performances — presented throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties — by a mix of companies from Miami and New York City, and from countries such as Colombia and Switzerland.

The final weekend of performances will include the much-anticipated Etoiles Classical Gala and Gala of the Stars, presented by 10 international groups from throughout the United States and Austria, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Italy and Slovenia.

Representing the United States, and uniting with the international groups, will be dancers from the San Francisco Ballet and United Ballet Theatre in Orlando. Audiences will see the familiar faces of returning dancers from Milwaukee Ballet, Marize Fumero and Arionel Vargas, and from The Washington Ballet, Katherine Barkman.

The local organizations participating in the festival are MCB, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Dance Now! Miami and, of course, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.

“I hope that the festival continues to grow, is more inclusive, and that we can open up to be more accessible to audiences,” Jimenez says. “If you don’t get to see the art, the dance, how can you know what it is?”

Having spent a year presenting performances virtually, Jimenez plans to continue giving viewing opportunities by streaming some performances online. IBFM performances will be available through the website or the Facebook page.

The XXVI International Ballet Festival of Miami is taking place through Sunday, Aug. 15, at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Prices vary. For a schedule and more information, visit Internationalballetfestival.org.

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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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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 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.

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.”

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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