Review: Flamenco Sephardit presents a tour de force at Temple Emanu-El

From left: Jeffrey Eckstein, Rabbi Marc Philippe, Jorge Robledo, Audrey Babcock, Celia Fonta, Jose Moreno, Paco Fonta, Michel Gonzalez, Katherine Kobylarz and Chava Appiah. (Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Eckstein)

Miami increasingly figures as an international center for flamenco, second to Madrid, of course. Yet amid this sea of offerings, Flamenco Sephardit’s latest program in Miami Beach shone bright.

The Jan. 26 performance, “Flamenco Sephardit VII,” presented a fusion of Andalusian and Jewish traditions – blending Spanish flamenco with Ladino music and dance. It took place in a packed Temple Emanu-El and featured the well-known, husband-and-wife team of Celia and Paco Fonta. (The couple belongs to the Miami-based flamenco group, Siempre Flamenco, which is known for the  annual Festival de Cante Flamenco shows in September that have delighted audiences for more than a decade.)

After a quick introduction, Rabbi Marc Philippe – one of the evening’s singers – spoke about Ladino and flamenco’s connection to North African Muslim art forms and told the audience to think of the performance as an act of light and love.

Though flamenco dance and music are well-known, Ladino music is not as recognizable. Once spoken by Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula to the Ottoman Empire, Ladino is a dialect of 15th-century Spanish mixed with French, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the evening’s second piece, “Fel Sharah Canet Betet Masha” (“Walking down the street”), whose lyrics read as a mash-up of languages.

New World Symphony fellows Katherine Kobylarz on violin and Chava Appiah on cello laid down a slow, off-beat melody that spun into a gorgeous ballad with Philippe on vocals. This set up the entrance of dancer Jorge Robledo, who sprang to the center of the stage, striking in a blue velvet jacket and black vest.

With the bimah right at eye level, the synagogue proved a spectacular place to view the dancer’s quick footwork. Robledo caused the edges of the makeshift dance surface to pop off the floor with the strength of his rapid heel strikes. He snapped out an opening sequence before Celia Fonta – striking in a full-length turquoise dress ringed with ruffles from the waist down – joined him.

The two circled, mirroring each other’s sudden shifts of posture, pulses in shoulders, and quick snaps of the head. The audience burst into appreciative applause.

Celia Fonta returned with “Como la Rosa” (“Like the Rose”), and she was marvelous.

Mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock, whose gorgeous operatic vocals were a highlight of the evening, spun a slow and mournful melody, accompanied by Appiah’s cello and Paco Fonta and Michel Gonzalez on guitar.

Celia Fonta theatrically arched her back and worked her arms sinuously while tapping out tight percussive sequences, her feet pacing the rhythms of her husband’s guitar. She floated forward on a wave of eye-popping footwork, pulling out all the stops as she high-stepped across the stage. Her solo ended and the audience went wild.

Another highlight was a “seguiriya,” which is a type of flamenco music in the “cante jondo” vocal style (“deep music”). It opened dramatically with Robledo slow-walking to the center, his eyes locked on Babcock. Without relaxing his gaze, he crouched and pivoted in place, finding the singer’s eyes repeatedly as he raised arms overhead. When Babcock’s solo ended, Robledo’s fireworks began.

As Paco Fonta spun an insanely rapid guitar solo, both dancer and guitarist riffed off the other’s rhythms, the dancer’s arms circling, fingers snapping, left hand holding open his jacket. Then with a snap of his head, he froze.

With the sanctuary silent, the audience first applauded but stopped as the violin and cello drove the melody forward. Robledo responded with intricate, infectious footwork that sent the hall vibrating. Many in the sanctuary swayed, and some at the front raised their hands. When the number ended, audience members got to their feet.

But the evening contained one more surprise, “A La Una,” which closed the performance spectacularly. Percussionist Jose Moreno started with a drum solo then suddenly sprang to the center of the stage and belted out a song before unmasking his skills as a dancer with a sequence of whip-like turns and lightning rhythms. Moreno’s theatrics ended the evening with the audience again on its feet.

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Jon Boogz and Lil Buck bring ‘Love Heals All Wounds’ to the Arsht

Jon Boogz, left, and Lil Buck in “Love Heals All Wounds.” (Photo courtesy of artist management)

South Florida-raised dancer/choreographer Jon Boogz has always wanted to use dance to tell stories that matter.

Growing up, the only things he loved as much as dancing were issue-driven films such as “Schindler’s List” and “The Color Purple.” As a street dancer in the style called popping, however, Boogz was in a world where success typically means getting on TV shows, touring with pop stars, winning competitions, and constantly upping your virtuosity. Not breaking hearts, opening minds, or changing worlds. He wanted more.

“People like to put boundaries on the art form,” Boogz says. “I always wanted to create powerful stories with it.”

Boogz has done just that with “Love Heals All Wounds,” an acclaimed multimedia theater work he created with Lil Buck, a dance star who made famous the Memphis jookin style. The show, which has been touring for two years, comes to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 8 and 9.

“We’ve been getting immense feedback,” he says. “During [question-and-answer sessions], people are crying, saying their lives are changed.”

“Love Heals All Wounds” uses street dance, poetry, film and live music to express the two men’s feelings on subjects such as social injustice, racism and environmental destruction. The show has received a passionate response, giving Boogz faith that they’re having an impact.

He also hopes it shows other dancers from the B-boy and street dance worlds that they, too, can find creative fulfillment and success outside pop videos and commercials.

“We want to empower people like us, give kids who come from neighborhoods like we come from something else to aspire to,” Boogz says. “There’s always been people thinking more uniquely and artistically about the [street dance] genre, but there wasn’t a lane for it. We’re opening up a new highway.”

Boogz, 32, grew up in Hollywood and North Miami, and began dancing as a young boy in Miami’s underground B-boy scene. He competed in the Bboy Masters Pro-Am, a major event on an international circuit of B-boy conventions and contests. In 2009, feeling like he’d done everything he could in Miami, Boogz and a girlfriend moved to Los Angeles.

But things quickly went sour. He split with the girlfriend, struggled in the intensely competitive commercial scene, and found himself sharing a tiny apartment with four other guys.

“You see all these dancers on shows like ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’ I was like, ‘How do I separate myself? Should I be doing what they’re doing?’” he says. “I realized I had to combine the things I’m passionate about: storytelling in film and storytelling through dance.”

Depressed, broke and ready to return to Miami, Boogz went to a street dance jam at an L.A. studio, where he encountered Lil Buck.

“I’m letting out all my frustrations and this guy comes up to me and says, ‘Where are you from, dude? I’ve never seen anyone pop like that. Your style is amazing,’” Boogz recalls.

Buck invited him to join his crew, which performed on the sidewalks of Venice Beach for tips, a lifeline that enabled the Miami dancer to pay his bills and pursue his career. Boogz began making short films on subjects including domestic violence and suicide. In the next two years, the pair bonded over their dreams to take street dance beyond the street.

“He had a similar passion to take street dance to the next level,” Boogz says. “We were looking at the era of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, the Nicholas Brothers, when dancers were superstars. We said, that’s where street dance needs to be.”

Buck’s career took off around 2012, after a video of him improvising with world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma to “The Dying Swan” went viral. He went on to tour with Madonna, earn raves in the mainstream cultural press, and do commercials for Versace and Apple.

The two friends reconnected in Las Vegas in 2014, when Boogz got his own break performing with Cirque du Soleil there, just as Buck was leaving the show. The duo realized they finally had the resources and visibility to bring their artistic dreams to life.

They formed a nonprofit, Movement Art Is, and their first effort was “Color of Reality,” a 2016 short film they created in reaction to the wave of police shootings of young black men.

In the film, covered in a collage of paint by artist Alexa Meade, they flow from pain at television news to rejection on the street. “Color of Reality” went viral, pulling almost 400,000 views on YouTube.com. Other issue-driven dance films followed: “Am I A Man,” on the mass incarceration of black men; “Funeral for America,” where they bury racism; and a Ted Talk performance, “Honor Thy Mother,” on environmental threat, for the 2017 Vancouver edition of the famous conference.

“Love Heals All Wounds,” which they launched in 2018, is their most ambitious project yet. Boogz says it’s inspired by the often-overwhelming news of racism, intolerance, violence and environmental threats that have surged during the current administration – and by their own experiences.

“A lot of this comes from our lives,” he says. “I’ve been pulled over by cops and had illegal [things] happen to me. And, of course, everything going on in our country now inspired the work.

“You can’t be an artist and not be inspired by the times. We’re the newscasters, and we’re reporting live from the authentic stage of the people. It’s my duty to do that through my work. Hopefully, we won’t always have to do that. But until then, it has to be part of my life mission and art’s mission.”

This will be the first Miami performance of “Love Heals All Wounds,” and Boogz is thrilled. Along with Buck, he will join eight other dancers, spoken word poet Robin Sanders and violinist Jason Yang onstage.

“I’m so excited to bring it home,” he says. “Words can’t describe how I feel. For me to do this show in Miami means so much to me.”

He and Buck think art is more effective at inspiring people to take action and come together than political speeches and venting on social media.

“If I preach what I think, people might turn off. ‘Oh, here’s another rant.’ But when you allow people to take it in through movement, music, poetry, storytelling, they absorb it in a different way,” he says. “I’ve had people come up and say, ‘Your show has changed my whole outlook on life.’ You can’t put a value on that.”

What: Jon Boogz and Lil Buck’s “Love Heals All Wounds”

When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 and 3 p.m. Feb. 9

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

Cost: $40

More information: 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org

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Miami City Ballet, New World Symphony unite for ‘A Monumental Collaboration’

Tricia Albertson and Renan Cerdeiro in “Apollo.” (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

If only one titan, Atlas, could support the Earth on his shoulders, for two together would even the sky be the limit?

The 20th century experienced just that when choreographer George Balanchine and composer and pianist Igor Stravinsky collaborated in Paris and Washington, D.C., in 1928 on their ground-shifting ballet, “Apollo.” Their artistic partnership shifted the tectonics of both classical dance and music.

In a tribute to the composer and choreographer’s artistic union, New World Symphony musicians have teamed up with Miami City Ballet dancers for “Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Monumental Collaboration,” to be presented at Miami Beach’s New World Center at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The program features “Apollo” with two other Balanchine ballets: “Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant” and “Stravinsky Violin Concerto.”

For New World Symphony’s artistic director and co-founder, Michael Tilson Thomas (who will conduct the performances), the seeds of the event were sown decades back.

“It was in the late 1980s that I first wandered over from the Lincoln Theatre, which was then the home of the New World Symphony, to the storefront on Lincoln Road that was then the home of the Miami City Ballet. Since then, I dreamed of uniting the brilliant young musicians of the New World Symphony with the extraordinary dancers in the Miami City Ballet,” he said in a statement.

The organizations have worked together before, but the opportunity to produce a full-length  Balanchine/Stravinsky program together was the result of both good timing and the personal connections that Thomas and Miami City Ballet’s artistic director, Lourdes Lopez, had to Stravinsky and Balanchine, respectively.   

“Lourdes Lopez was a student of Balanchine, [Michael Tilson Thomas] worked and studied with Stravinsky – we could think of no better collaboration for our 21st century institutions and audiences,” said the New World Symphony’s president and CEO, Howard Herring, in an email.

New World Symphony already had a Stravinsky festival programmed for its 2020 lineup, so when Thomas approach Lopez with the idea of doing a full-length program, she found it an attractive fit with the company’s recent programming.

“They were hoping for ‘Symphony in 3 Movements,’ but it would not have fit in the NWS space. However, ‘Apollo’ we had just done last season and ‘Violin Concerto,’ this season,” she said by email.

The joint venture presented practical challenges, and its own set of firsts, said Lopez.

“They are removing the seats where the audience usually is and placing the musicians there,” Lopez said. “The dancers will be where the musicians usually are. The audience will be only in the mezzanine and in the round.”

In another first, New World Symphony’s Wallcast will project both the music and dance to the audience out in nearby SoundScape Park, 400 17th St. Wallcast seating is free.

The symphony’s simulcasts of concerts have become a preferred way to pass an evening for many South Florida music lovers. However, ballet simulcasts are something new to the area.

For Lopez, meeting the challenges of live-streaming ballet was “about bringing the level of dance and music that both these institutions are noted for to our communities and showing them what Miami is capable of.”

The Wallcasts allow park audiences an intimacy with the performers that competes with even theater in the round for full immersion, Herring added.

“For an audience member, the traditional perspective is one-directional. Each New World Symphony Wallcast features more than 700 individual shot changes allowing audiences closeup views of soloists and artists, sweeping views of the stage, and unique human perspectives of the performances,” Herring said.

The event also will bring the South Florida performing arts scene to the world. Medici TV will The Feb. 1 performance will air live on Medici.tv, a worldwide classical music streaming platform, where it will remain available for viewing.

When asked how projects like this one strengthen the profile of both classical dance and music in South Florida, Lopez replied, “The most interesting thing for me is that Miami has two artistic directors who head leading dance and music institutions in the U.S., and who both were mentored by the greatest creative geniuses of 20^th century dance and music. I can’t think of another city in which this could happen.”

What: “Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Monumental Collaboration”

When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1

Where: New World Center, 500 17th St., Miami Beach

Cost: $75-$195

More information: 305-673-3331; nws.edu (click on “Events & Tickets”)

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Bistoury Physical Theatre & Film explores the power of dreams  

The couple at the heart of “The Commune – Chapter 1: A commune of oranges” were played by Carla Forte and Osmany Tellez. (Photo courtesy of Giovanni Ambrosio)

Searching for the meaning of an especially vivid dream can become all-consuming.

The way dream states can challenge common-sense certainties was the subject of Bistoury Physical Theatre’s latest multimedia work, “The Commune – Chapter 1: A commune of oranges,” performed Jan. 9-12 at Miami-Dade County Auditorium’s intimate On.Stage Black Box Theatre.

In an intense, hourlong show, BPT deployed dance, theater and film to shake the settled approach to people and things that dominates waking consciousness. The piece was directed by Bistoury co-founder Alexey Taran and starred co-founder Carla Forte and dancer Osmany Tellez.

The performance on Jan. 12 began with a film showing Forte and Tellez eating dinner. In it, Forte described to Tellez a dream where she became an orange tree that was cut down. The dream continued with them both becoming dogs. The dream’s subjects ranged from pasta and sex to the pleasures of beer.

As the film ended, the lights came up on a stage scattered with oranges – on the floor, hanging from the ceiling and piled in a large steel tub. A scene of an orchard was projected against the back wall.

In a black skirt and red top, Forte began a slow, sinuous dance toward the audience, as Tellez crouched behind her, shuttling forward monkey-like to a soundtrack of a revving motorcycle and a noisy crowd. Tellez went to all fours, dog-like, as Forte continued to walk-dance accompanied at the front of the stage by keyboardist and sound designer Dee Bertoldi, who hummed along to the recording of a male singer.

A series of vignettes followed that developed the themes Forte described in her dream with striking images that re-enacted dream logic and associations.

Certain vignettes dislodged customary expectations of behavior. In one segment, Forte danced salsa, sometimes walking hand over eyes, neon lights forming a large triangle on the floor.  As she did so, Tellez repeatedly called out, “Bah,” his leg springing before him. The effect of the two became increasingly hypnotic as their bodies moved like suspended puppets – Tellez resting an elbow on Forte’s shoulder as they high-stepped toward the audience.

In another scene, Tellez laid down a beat by clicking his tongue as Forte scatted and shimmied at the center. He offered her an orange, and she held it in her mouth before he began to chase her. Finally Tellez also bit down on the orange, and they spun wildly across the floor in a sensual embrace, holding the orange gripped in their mouths.

For other vignettes, the images were the key. In one, a black scrim lowered across the stage and both performers took a seat behind it, facing the audience and wearing black masks. On the scrim, a video image of Tellez’s face appeared over Forte’s body and her face appeared over his. A film of Forte’s face described her passion for pasta, and Tellez moved his arms and hands to emphasize her speech.

Later they reversed roles and Forte gestured as Tellez described his obsession with the carnality of sex. Here, the head-body reversals performed by the couple spoke to the compulsion couples experience to project onto their partner what they think makes the other tick.

“The Commune” closed with an arresting final image. Blue with fluorescent light, the stage had projections of phrases such as “en el fondo de su pecera” (at the bottom of your fish tank) and “dando lentas vueltas” (circling slowly) appearing on the back wall and on the performers’ bodies. Sheets of white powder fell like snow from the ceiling, cutting the stage in half.

Forte put on a long dress of black crepe, whole oranges sewn among its folds. She waved her arms to the sound of the wind as the harpsichord and viola da gamba laid down the opening measures of Handel’s aria, “In un folto bosco ombroso” (In a thick and shadowy wood). From time to time, Tellez picked an orange from Forte’s dress as she waded through the white powder, slowly waving her arms to the phrasing of the vocals. It was an extraordinary image, in which the potency of the performance picked up the logic of the dream Forte had described in the opening film.

Many of the images BPT created for “The Commune” were surprising and one of a kind. The strong applause on Jan. 12 from an appreciative audience pointed to Miami’s readiness for the recent sudden growth in South Florida’s experimental performative arts scene.

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Dance NOW! Miami presents socially charged 20th season opener

Dance NOW! Miami kicked off its 20th season on Dec. 21 at Lincoln Road’s Colony Theatre, showcasing works exciting for their creativity and for their relevance to pressing social issues.

“Program I” included three Miami premieres – Daniel Lewis’ “Women II,” Angela Gallo’s “Those Things … ” and Diego Salterini’s “Elemental” – as well as the revival of Hannah Baumgarten’s 2011 “Visions of Unrest.” Baumgarten is DNM’s co-artistic director, along with Salterini.

First up was “Women II” — the evening’s strongest work, distinguished by its imaginative choreography and political relevance. Dancers Allyn Ginns Ayers, Benicka Grant, Isabelle Haas and Renee Roberts led five girls, ages 12 to 14, from Miami’s Conchita Espinosa Academy. To a recording of the 1941 Ink Spot’s anti-war hit, “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire,” the nine dancers covered their eyes or spread arms wide, hands shimmering. One sequence saw the four “elders” striking robotic poses, while the “young’uns” shuffled along the diagonal, snapping their hands out as if catching butterflies between their fingers.

The 12-minute work remained surprising throughout, as when Roberts, Haas, Ayers and Grant cartwheeled seventh-grader Catalina Vigil through a lift.  Sequences connected consistently to the spirit of the #MeToo movement and the student-led protests that followed the 2018 Parkland school shootings. When the girls, hands on hips, pumped arms as if in victory, the rapid tap-tap-tap of the snare recalled gunshots.

Next up was the company premiere of “Those Things … ” – performed by Matthew Huefner, Anthony Velazquez, David Harris and Joshua Rosado. The men paired off and tested each other through pivots and exaggerated lunges, showcasing their strength.

Often, one dancer broke from the pair, twitching in a panic attack. At once, the other dancer dropped the athletics and comforted him in a moment that sparkled with intimacy. The episodes vividly recalled headlines describing recent spikes in mental illness among young adults.

The four men performed powerfully during both the polished dance sequences and the sudden theatrical shifts, but the choreography ended unconvincingly with troubled dancers simply returning to the contest. If the suggestion here was that those experiencing chronic anxiety just needed a warm rub on the back to get back to things, that message fell flat.

An excerpt from “Visions of Unrest” opened with “Insomnia” and DNM newcomer Julia Faris hugging a futon-sized pillow. To a sharp techno beat, Faris thrashed through variations of fetal positions to off-pillow sequences that included spun attitudes or legs wind-milled wildly.

This was followed by the evening’s most touching segment: “Dreams.”  The piano soloed as Huefner spooned Roberts. Still coupling, they looked to the horizon, or disengaged in sequences on their own, before returning to the rehearsal of intimacy. “Dreams” presented a very sweet vignette of two people learning to form a life together.

In “Awakening,” Ayers – gorgeous here – often soloed, or served as the focal point for the others, initiating motions they then echoed. The movement closed memorably with the dancers lying on the floor and Faris walking toward the audience as the lights went black.

Act II saw the company premiere of Salterini’s four-part “Elemental.” The subject’s inevitable intersect with environmental themes made it the evening’s most risk-taking work.

“Gaea,” the most effective movement, presented Earth as both a stage for human cooperation and a limit to human activity. Huefner, Rosado and Harris took turns cycling Faris – lovely here in the role of Gaea – through lifts. She first performed as their focal point, the men often finishing at her feet. Increasingly, they excluded her from sequences until she lay on her back, motionless. Then they too lost steam.

Grant was striking in “The Fire of Faith,” soloing to a recording of gospel great Mahalia Jackson. Repeatedly, she lifted her leg overhead then lunged, accenting the vocals as she kicked back, hands clasped overhead in prayer.

However, the work’s spiritual treatment hit limits with “The Shifting Weight of Water” and “Heavenly Creatures.”

“Water” opened with Ayers, Haas, Roberts and Rosado in blue tops and loose-fitting slacks, forming a line of four. To the sound of running water, they gorgeously mimicked the back-and-forth of cresting waves. But where “Gaea” connected the material to the spiritual, “Water” and “Creatures” stayed with spirit. By not addressing the material complexities that sea level rise and the atmosphere’s changing chemistry now carry for South Florida life, the treatments of these elements lacked relevance. After starting strong, they grew repetitious.

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Top photo: The company’s “Women II” features, from left, Benicka Grant, Renee Roberts, Isabelle Luu Li Haas and Allyn Ginns Ayers. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Miami City Ballet bringing ‘I’m Old-Fashioned’ to South Florida

Miami City Ballet will show the wonders that dancers can weave in pairs when it presents “Program Two: I’m Old Fashioned” this month at three South Florida venues.

The show starts Jan. 10 at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, before moving first to the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach then to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

Four ballets include the return of Alexei Ratmansky’s large-scale “Symphonic Dances” and, prominently, the troupe’s first staging of “I’m Old-Fashioned,” for which choreographer Jerome Robbins mined a quintessential film duet featuring master of the dance floor Fred Astaire and his equal in enchantment, Rita Hayworth. Thus, under three minutes of dancing in a scene from the 1942 musical, “You Were Never Lovelier,” gave rise to more than a half-hour of choreographic exploration by Robbins, earning multiple curtain calls at its New York City Ballet premiere in 1983.

“This is truly special in that it involves another medium for visual impact,” says Aaron Hilton, who will dance one of the leads in “I’m Old-Fashioned.” He underscores the novel import of the film excerpt that, on a looming screen, opens and closes the piece.  These moments bring reference and reverence in a tribute to Astaire.

“We’ve watched the video clip many times,” Hilton says about the cast’s preparation. “The ballet’s variations follow its base themes. In fact, so does the music.”

The Morton Gould score, which the composer labored over with input from Robbins, extends musical qualities in the Jerome Kern-Johnny Mercer song that stirred Astaire and Hayworth and shares its title with the ballet. A Cuban rhythm pops up, recalling not only a percussive passage in the film but also Robbins’ dancing in his debut choreography for 1944’s “Fancy Free.”

“I have to be mindful of movement in the film, to show what Robbins must have felt looking at it,” Hilton says.

His duet with Jordan-Elizabeth Long is crucial in transitioning from the movie’s ballroom dancing to the neoclassical ballet on-stage. Theirs is one of three principal pairings throughout several sections, some involving an ensemble of nine couples.

“When the orchestra starts playing, I see this girl who’s perfect for me,” Hilton says. “I ask her to dance, and everything takes off — seamless, elegant. These people must look real, their movements natural.”

Hilton, still a member of the corps de ballet, feels fortunate to partner Long, a soloist of charm and skill. For him, there’s been a before and after from dancing with her. As he confesses, “It’s made me mature — that’s what a more experienced ballerina can do.”

Of course, it also helps that MCB Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez performed this work during her career at New York City Ballet. She now can share the fine points of interpretation gleaned directly from Robbins, letting the company put a shine on steps they learned from Christine Redpath, an envoy of the Robbins legacy.

Soloist Ashley Knox values this direct line to the choreographer. Alongside Alexander Peters, she’s part of the so-called bump couple whose playful collisions echo a funny exit in the film.

“The challenge,” she says, “is keeping your movements tied precisely to the music. Still, I’ve found this quite enjoyable.”

She realizes that — beyond technical demands — the key here lies in developing a character, with lots of romance, yes, but also with good humor and a touch of innocence. To give dimension to the meetups with her partner, she must also project a private world in a solo validating her own dreams.

“The emphasis on character feels newer to me,” Knox admits. “But I’ve really put myself into it.” And, as an actor would, she wants to make her role look fresh each time she performs.

Born on the year the ballet premiered, Knox insists “I’m Old Fashioned” remains relevant for younger generations in its romantic fundamentals. And Hilton underscores the value of this work for dancers.

“When we enter in evening clothes,” he says about the final ensemble, “the mood shifts, and everything becomes more dramatic. Our job here is to move perfectly together and do the steps as close as possible to the dancers on-screen. We’re keeping up a tradition and are able to do this because of the greats that came before us.”

The bow to towering figures continues with “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux.”  Choreographed by George Balanchine in 1960, to music salvaged from “Swan Lake,” this gives the classical-duet formula a high-adrenaline boost.

“It’s so dynamic!” says principal Katia Carranza, admiring a work she’s performed for years, not only at MCB but also in countless galas and her native Mexico’s Ballet de Monterrey. “The dancing requires a really strong technique, and you have to know how to conserve energy. The speed never ceases to amaze me.”

Carranza will also tackle “This Bitter Earth,” a company premiere. Christopher Wheeldon’s work takes the pas de deux to a very different place with its peaks of emotion.

“This contrasts with the Balanchine, where so much happens in the feet, the legs, while you keep a calm upper body,” Carranza says. “With Wheeldon, the arms, the torso, the head come into play. When he visited the studio, he emphasized how the moves must look organic.”

The title’s well-known song, with its lyrics in Dinah Washington’s plaintive tones, is remixed with the circling currents of Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight.” The blend imbues the ballet with an aching but resolute humanity.

“The music reaches deep down into you,” Carranza says. “You don’t just follow the melody but feel the words. And, exquisitely laid out, the partnering has to aim for perfection. There can be no false moves, since the balletic line and basic positions are so exposed.”

For Carranza, it’s been wonderful to see how she and partner Kleber Rebello have arrived at mutual trust through this. “It’s all about helping each other,” says the ballerina, stressing their goal is to create an unforgettably lyrical experience.

What: “Program Two: I’m Old Fashioned”

When/where: 

7:30 p.m. Jan 10-11 and 2 p.m. Jan 12 at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

7:30 p.m. Jan. 17-18, 2 p.m. Jan. 18 and 1 p.m. Jan. 19 at Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach

7:30 p.m. Jan. 25 and 2 p.m. Jan. 26 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale

Cost: Tickets start at $30

More information: miamicityballet.org/oldfashioned

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Top photo: Ashley Knox and Renan Cerdeiro in “I’m Old-Fashioned.” (Photo courtesy of Karolina Kuras)

‘Tis the season for MCB’s ‘The Nutcracker’

It wouldn’t be the holiday season without “The Nutcracker.” And Miami City Ballet didn’t disappoint, presenting the George Balanchine version at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County on Dec. 13-15. Attendance was strong at the Friday opener and packed at the Sunday matinee – and both castings turned in strong performances.

Some North American ballet companies make news with intentions to remake “Nutcracker” productions to reflect their cities’ racial and ethnic mix. MCB has already accomplished a great deal here.

In 2017, celebrated women’s bespoke designer Isabel Toledo and her husband, artist and illustrator Ruben Toledo, revamped the costumes and design elements of the MCB production. Toledo died in August, leaving behind a production that bubbles with embossed fabrics, surprising cuts of coat and dress, and happy juxtapositions of texture.

The costuming identifies Miami as a family of hues. For example, 7-year-old Dev Jones performed a Fritz most parents would fret over. Despite the crowd of Act I students, the purple jacket flaps of his periwinkle suit identified him instantly with the eggplant coat of on-stage father, Rainer Krenstetter (as Dr. Stahlbaum).

For both performances, Mia Zaffaroni charmed as Marie. The hints of gold in her wooly white dress anchored her visually to the gown of on-stage mom, Tricia Albertson (as Mrs. Stahlbaum).

So how were the performances of opening weekend?

The Opus I orchestra under MCB Principal Conductor and Music Director Gary Sheldon made the weekend memorable for music. Especially noteworthy were violinist Mei Mei Luo’s Act I solo and  pianist Francisco Rennó’s celesta in Act II.

Dominick Scherer as the Little Prince mimed a terrific Act II battle scene ending with a closing lunge any fencer would envy.

The dance of the Snowflakes began with shades of difference in spacing, alignment and timing in the groups of four. However, the final presto presented an impressive phalanx of 16 tightly coordinated dancers who sprang in pas de chat, drove forward in emboité, or bourréed into the closing triangle as one.

Key to Act II is the Sugar Plum Fairy. Play it too detached and distant, and the point of the Act – her presentation of the dance form’s youngest dancers – vanishes. Mixing older sister sensitivity with watchful teacher mien, Jennifer Lauren fully connected with the role’s double demand for accessible aristocrat and heart-stopping dancer. She worked wonders with the celesta’s uniform staccato, varying the accent of the phrase with the sweep of her arm or the turn of her head and with consistently gorgeous suppleness in the upper body.

On Friday and Sunday, demi-soloists Nicole Stalker and Chase Swatosh set the bar high in the dance of Hot Chocolate. The trumpet line flashed by in eighths and sixteenths, while the bass and cellos moderated beneath. The two dancers gave both registers their due, Swatosh adding flair to his final double tour with softly bent knees.

On Friday, Shimon Ito packed double tours and a pair of well-defined jeté cloche into 60 seconds before vanishing back into Act II’s most gorgeous prop, a black lacquer box stamped with a ruby face.

As lead Shepherdess, Ellen Grocki was spectacular on Friday, hopping in attitude devant and derrière. Both Friday and Sunday, Kleber Rebello brought impressive energy to the dance of the Candy Canes, but no less impressive were the younger dancers who flanked him: Renata Adarvez, Alina Besteman, Ilona Halloran, Sirja Joeveer, Paulina Luis, Sofia Osorio, Valentina Rodriguez and Daniela Yunis.

For both performances, the Dance of the Flowers completely disarmed. In sequence after sequence, the Flowers showed breathtaking coordination whether circling in bourrée or with a kick, reach and fold to the chimes.

Samantha Hope Galler and Emily Bromberg were terrific lieutenants to Ashley Knox, who on Friday dazzled as a gorgeously musical Dew Drop. On Sunday, 16-year-old Taylor Naturkas – a second-year MCB School student – was a surprising choice for Dew Drop, a role second only in importance to the Sugar Plum Fairy. Though she rushed some transitions, Naturkas shined with the precision she brought to the part and showed eye-popping strength in jetés.

For the dance of the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier, lighting designer James Ingalls drenched the scene in cyan blue before shading it with the tones of a ripening mango.

Costumed in pale mint and white, Lauren and Renan Cerdeiro as her Cavalier brought the ballet to a powerful close. During their pas de deux, Cerdeiro provided terrific support in lifts — whether planting Lauren on his shoulder or pressing her overhead. Lauren made unsupported arabesques look effortless, and the Arsht stage seemed snug for Cerdeiro’s circle of jetés.

Miami City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” continues with performances at the Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, through Dec. 22 and at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, on Dec. 27-29. For more information or to buy tickets, visit miamicityballet.org/nutcracker.

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Top photo: Miami City Ballet dancers in George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker.” (Photo courtesy of Alexander Iziliaev)

Dance NOW! Miami goes to the edge in season opener

Wearing black tops and skirts, four dancers walked the diagonal in the Little Haiti Cultural Complex’s bright studio. Allyn Ginns Ayers, Benicka Grant, Isabelle Luu Li Haas and Renee Roberts were accompanied by five 12-year-old girls in jeans and brightly colored shirts from Miami’s Conchita Espinosa Academy. The dancers all reached arms up and out as they sashayed from side to side to a recording of the 1941 Ink Spots hit, “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire.”

They were rehearsing for “Women II,” part of Dance NOW! Miami’s Program I, which is set for 8:30 p.m. Dec. 21 at the storied Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, suddenly a hub of renewed dance activity. Program I also will feature “Elemental” and “Those Things … ”

Inspired by the #MeToo movement, “Women II” represents the first new work in 25 years by Daniel Lewis, founder and former dean of dance at Miami’s New World School of the Arts. Ayers, one of the dancers who is a five-year veteran of the company, says the recent activism of young people greatly influenced Lewis.

“The youth energy today around the Parkland [school] shooting and #MeToo reminds Danny of the ’60s,” Ayers says.

The dancers have connected to Lewis’ choreography by including movements and gestures they suggested on the basis of personal experiences related to the movement. “Women II” has a rite of passage vibe, with the young girls growing up through the piece, says Haas, a new dancer in the company.

“Those Things … ” is the work of choreographer Angela Gallo, who is dean of the arts at Coker University in South Carolina.  Where “Women II” examines the gender and generational divide, “Those Things … ” challenges the separation of public personas and private realities.

To a sharp techno-pulse, dancers Matthew Huefner, Anthony Velazquez, Joshua Rosado and David Harris practiced pairing off and testing each other through spins and lunges. In one sequence, Rosado and Harris performed a tug of war of bodies, legs raised behind to sharply offset their centers of gravity.

In another sequence, Harris and Velazquez formed a standing lean. Harris hit the floor and flipped, catching a falling Velazquez with a foot to his chest. They disengaged, with Harris suddenly beginning to spasm and shake with a panic attack.  Velazquez shifted from athletic aggressiveness, comforting him in a half-embrace. The gesture was so intimate that it triggered a reflex to look away and give space.

“Originally, I didn’t understand the piece whatsoever,” Velazquez says. “But in my personal life, I work like 50 jobs. One day, I was in the car when the pressure of it all caught up with me. I pulled over to the side of the road. I was just breathing so hard, and then I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what this piece is about.’”

Audience favorite “Insomnia,” by DNM co-artistic director Hannah Baumgarten, has been revived for Program I as a nod to the company’s 20th anniversary. It opens with dancer Julia Faris (new to the company) clutching an ottoman-sized pillow and thrashing through sequences that anyone who has been bright-eyed at 2 a.m. recognizes too well. The percussion line strengthens and Faris throws herself through turns and sharp pivots, arms swinging at the limit before suddenly coming to sit, chin on palm.

Treading the line between reality and delirium, the Pillow Solo originated in the sleeplessness the choreographer experienced from a hip injury.

“Though it was a painful period, it was also out of body. I would get close to falling asleep only to be shocked awake by the injury,” Baumgarten said.

“Elemental,” a new work by choreographer and DNM co-artistic director Diego Salterini, forms the second half of the December program. Originally the work was inspired by the pressing themes of environmental crisis and resource depletion.

“For the first movement, ‘Gaea,’ I had in mind a battle between human beings, represented by the three men and Earth in the figure of Julia [Faris].”

But Salterini’s passion for Eastern philosophy edged the work from a political plane to one of spiritual struggle, forefronting the energy of volcanic primal forces.

For example, “Gaea” opens with Faris, Huefner, Velazquez and Harris forming a braid of limbs. They stretch away and the men sweep Faris repeatedly overhead. In the sequences that follow, she remains their focal point. At one point, she hits an arabesque and Velazquez catches her head between his hands. Their eyes lock.

Salterini’s four-part work treats the classical division of the elements expansively.  For the final movement — “Heavenly Creatures”– Salterini locates the element of air on a purely spiritual register.

As the choreographer explained: “In it, we shed everything that is physical and we live in pure joy.  After all, once you get to be a spirit, you have to have fun.”

What: Dance NOW! Miami’s Program I, featuring the world premiere of “Elemental” and the company premieres of “Women II” and “Those Things … ”

When: 8:30 p.m. Dec. 21

Where: Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach

Tickets: $35 general admission; $15 for students and age 65 and older with ID (at the box office in-person only); regular-price tickets may be purchased in advance online at colonymb.org/dance-now-miami, by phone at 800-211-1414, or at the Colony box office. 

More information: 305-975-8489; dancenowmiami.org

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Top photo: From left, Anthony Velazquez, Matthew Huefner and David Harris in the “Earth” section of “Elemental.” (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Thomas Armour Youth Ballet, New World School of Arts astonish with ‘Nutcracker’  

Thomas Armour Youth Ballet’s 43rd production of the holiday classic “The Nutcracker,” presented Dec. 4-7 with the New World School of the Arts, dazzled with high production values and student dancers whose command of the movements often approached the professional.

During the shows, at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, terrific costumes were the rule, and lighting designer Joshua Gumbinner transformed the usually drab Biedermeier interiors of the Stahlbaum (in the TAYB production “Silberhaus”) family’s salon with a South Florida tropical palette that energized sets with peacock blue and papaya hues.

The skill of the dancers consistently surprised. During the Dec. 7 show, Michael Cadena and Kasey Thomas were extraordinary as Harlequin Dolls, as they conjured the illusion of robot love with a mechanized game of hide-and-seeky

In the role of Clara, Olivia Yaya on Dec. 6 and Nami Chung-Vastine on Dec. 7 were charmingly absorbed by their Nutcracker doll, opposite Leonardo Alvarez in the role of Herr Drosselmeyer, who captured the ambiguity of the Hoffmann character flashing from vaguely vampiric to favorite uncle.

The production also was well-organized. In one version of the battle between the Nutcracker Prince (ably acted by Cadena) and the King Rat (in an especially acrobatic version by Alexander Sokolov), both the militia and mouse hordes each faced off 20 students strong. Young voices could be heard in both performances expressing disbelief at the Mouse King’s return of his disarmed enemy’s sword.

The pas de deux of the Snow Queen and her Cavalier, performed by Allyssa Nelson and Joao Silva, was spectacular. Nelson appeared feather-light, whether scooped overhead by Silva or folded onto his shoulder. Also impressive was Nelson’s lovely sequence of pirouettes and Silva’s jeté cloche.

As the Spirit of Christmas, Autumn Rodrigue shone during the “Dance of the Snowflakes,” with a rotated sequence of flawless sissonnes flanked by Snowflakes who presented terrific coordination of the upper body.

The timing of Spanish Chocolates Maggie Mesa, Nichole Perez, Itxaso Sanchez, and Larissa Souki was precise and consistent. During the Dance of Arabian Coffee on Dec. 7, Anya Susan Collins carefully sculpted the music’s adagio tempo through the sinuous play of her arms and upper body.

Marzipan Shepherdesses Amanda Bacallao, Ainsley Grippando, Isabella Lucas, and Allyssa Nelson — wonderfully costumed in white with accents of green and pink — shone with eye-popping group precision, whether springing to arabesque or in the attack and landing of pirouettes.

Thomas Armour Youth Ballet’s Dance of Tea was notable for its 12-foot dragon, held overhead by dancers in stunning burnt orange tunics, accompanied by demi-soloists Grippando with Thomas on Dec. 6 and with Camila Hernandez on Dec. 7, draped from neck to ankle in turquoise and gold.

Sporting scarlet Cossack shirts, Michael Lerma, John Mobley, Joshua Moore, Jeremiah Paul and Alexander Sokolov set the crowd marking time as they leap-frogged one another from a push-up, or crouched and helicoptered their legs underneath.

Mother Ginger, sweetly mimed by Kristie LaPlante, flooded the stage with clowns whose infectious cartwheels, flips and pirouettes à la seconde set the auditorium thundering.

With two different versions of Dew Drop, both Bacallao and Destinee Jimenez turned in nicely controlled Italian fouettés and piqué turns that faithfully paced out the 3/4 time.

Former Thomas Armour  student Caroline Betancourt — now with the Royal Danish Ballet — danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, opposite Evgeni Dokoukine as her Cavalier. Betancourt showed a terrific sense of musicality, skipping forward in arabesque or catching the accents in the celeste with a flick of the foot in her piqué turns, while Dokoukine channeled power in his double tours and jetés.

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Top photo: Dew Drop Amanda Bacallao and Flowers perform in Thomas Armour Youth Ballet’s 43rd production of “The Nutcracker,” presented Dec. 4-7 with the New World School of the Arts. (Photo courtesy of Addyson Fonte)

Peter London’s company to bring gift of dance to the community

The room buzzed with activity as members of the Peter London Global Dance Company spent time preparing for “Crossing,” which will be performed Dec. 27-29 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

Founder and Artistic Director Peter London uses local dancers combined with dancers originally from Miami who are now working professionally in places such as New York City. The returning dancers choreograph as well as participate in the performances. Rehearsals  in Miami are especially valuable. The logistics of organizing rehearsals with dancers in a variety of other cities can be difficult. Much of the prep work is done with video, with steps being learned, choreography created and shared and then watched.

“Many of the artists are dancing with other companies,” London said. “They’re able to come home and share their talents with their families and their teachers. The community gets to see them … It’s like a gift to the community.”

During rehearsals recently, in the studio at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami, four small groups – 13 dancers in all – got to work. One group was made up of women, another of men, and two were mixed groups. There also were young boys from the Art Center participating, just as absorbed in the rehearsal process as the adults were. As they watched the older dancers with intense fascination, it was clear to see the youngsters are serious about dance and want to do it well.

London moved from group to group, giving notes, counting phrases and, occasionally, demonstrating the energy and range that he wants to pull from the dancers. His movement was massive, and he easily enveloped the space as he moved. It was a focused, working room.

“It’s Miami, there’s lots of big water,” London said, prompting the dancers with a laugh. “Get your back into it. It must mean something.”

The group of men wore colorful African harem pants that billowed as they rehearsed “Black Men Stories,” one of London’s world premieres. The piece honors the vision of men who have tried to move this country forward, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Abraham Lincoln. All of the male dancers will be in the work, including the young men.

Going through a sequence, London broke down each move and had the dancers repeat the steps over and over, searching for a larger body movement range while maintaining formations. The steps got increasingly better.

“Here, we’re giving thanks to our ancestors,” London said, as the dancers kneeled and shook their shoulders.  “It’s the use of energy and dynamics.”

“Wings,” choreographed by London and company, will showcase the women. It features medieval music composed in the 12th century by Hildegard von Bingen, who eventually became known as Saint Hildegard.

“Since we’re celebrating women – the writers and composers – I started a women’s voices series, and this is one of the installments,” London said. “Von Bingen was a consultant to kings and popes. I think she was put in a convent at the early age of 14, and she became this phenomenally inspired composer. She used to hear the voices of God and would transcribe that to music.”

There also will be two other world premieres: “Heart Rivers,” choreographed by London, and “Days Together,” choreographed by Ballet BC dancer Justin Rapaport.

The final tribute, performed by the full company, will be London’s high-energy piece, “Yoruba Yard,” a fusion of West African, Afro Jazz, Afro Caribbean and Contemporary dance.

“[In Trinidad], I grew up with all the deities. There was a type of celebration pulling different energies from the universe to assist people with their daily life, paying respect and celebrating their ancestors,” London said. “I can remember when one woman in her 70s or 80s became possessed and got up to dance. They put a huge ram on her back and she danced with the ram on her back. I couldn’t do that! ‘Yoruba’ is that kind of energy.”

What: Peter London Global Dance Company in “Crossing”

When: 8 p.m. Dec. 27; 2 and 8 p.m. Dec. 28; 4 p.m. Dec. 29

Where: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

Cost: $25 for 2 p.m. Dec. 28 show; $40 all other performances

More information: 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org; plgdc.org

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Top photo: Founder and Artistic Director Peter London uses local dancers combined with dancers originally from Miami who are now working professionally in places such as New York City. Pictured here are dancers performing London’s “Seoul Soul.” (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)

After 30 years, Miami City Ballet returns to The Colony

In November 1989, George H.W. Bush was president; joyous crowds straddled the Berlin Wall; stirrup pants were big; and Miami City Ballet performed its last program at Lincoln Road’s iconic art deco landmark, the Colony Theatre on Miami Beach.

On Nov. 23-24, the company returned to the 417-seat hall for an hourlong program of works that included the third movement of Justin Peck’s “Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes,” as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s “This Bitter Earth,” and Twyla Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs.”

With a column of roses and spirals framing the proscenium, the setting was rich in history and spectacularly intimate. But it left one wondering how the fledgling company could have squeezed even 20 dancers onto the theater’s petite stage.

For the Sunday performance, Miami City Ballet solved this problem by presenting a program of mainly pas de deux that was thought-provoking. A program of nine pas de deux performed by couples of the opposite sex on Miami Beach, with its vibrant LGBTQIA community, seemed intended to generate dialogue about the acceptance on the part of contemporary classical dance choreographers of the art form’s traditional representation of romantic love.

First up was the pas de deux from the 2015 “Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes,” set to Aaron Copland’s iconic, “Rodeo.” It featured principals Jennifer Lauren and Renan Cerdeiro against a backdrop suffused with pale rose light.

The Colony offered an up-close experience, and for this pas de deux, the proximity made Peck’s choreography shine.

Sequences between Lauren and Cerdeiro were fast-paced and playful. In one, Cerdeiro looped his arms around Lauren’s waist. Lauren ducked beneath only to catch his hand and stretch back into arabesque, springing forward into a waist-high lift, holding her arm behind her head like a ’50s pin-up girl. The furious game of catch-and-release ended when Lauren suddenly flashed her leg into arabesque and then froze, the dancers locking gazes. More than one person in the hall had to feel an involuntary sob at the sweetness of that moment.

Next was “This Bitter Earth,” a pas de deux excerpted from the choreographer’s “Five Movements, Three Repeats,” originally performed by New York City Ballet in 2012 and scored to R&B singer Dinah Washington’s 1960 hit, “This Bitter Earth,” and Max Richter’s 2004 plaintive composition for strings, “On the Nature of Daylight.”

Katia Carranza and Kleber Rebello — two of MCB’s most physically powerful dancers  — smartly maximized the tight space.  And they were powerful here, squaring off in a shallow lunge, elbows clasped, foreheads caressing, or Rebello floating Carranza across the floor in waist-high splits, her feet brushing en pointe.

The program closed with “Nine Sinatra Songs,” gesturing toward the beach’s storied history as a one-time playground for Sinatra and the Rat Pack in the 1950s and ’60s.  The ballet premiered with MCB in 2004 and, with costumes by Oscar de la Renta, “Sinatra Songs” has been a consistent audience favorite ever since. The couples navigated the tight space brilliantly, especially during the two group sequences.

Composed of seven pas de deux and two group dances, “Sinatra Songs” opened with a mirror ball showering light onto Cerdeiro in a tux and Ashley Knox in full-length pale pink gown laying down a soft shoe to Sinatra’s “Softly as I Leave You.”  They slathered the dance with romance, lifts with Knox in splits ended with her swooning from deep backbend to enmeshed embrace.

Julia Cinquemani and Carlos Quenedit were hilarious in “One for My Baby,” as a cautionary tale for the challenges that basic motions and the fact of gravity pose for the very smashed, while Shimon Ito opposite a sweetly earnest Lauren uncomfortably reminded at least one person that night of a former partner’s ultimatum they take dance lessons.

Also lovely were Nicole Stalker and Alexander Peters in “Forget Domani.” Peters snapped out wicked fast pirouettes as Stalker, brimming with energy and terrific timing, diverted attention from the nightmare frilliness of her over-the-top fuchsia dress.

But prize for the simply elegant went to Aaron Hilton and Emily Bromberg. Hilton’s partner-focused precision was clearly spot on for anyone with an eye for ballroom dance, while Bromberg in slate blue dress with sequined flower gathered at the hip was just a knock-out.

The intimacy of the Colony proved a great space for “Sinatra Songs” and, at the close of “My Way,” the audience took to its feet.

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