Karen Peterson Dancers’ Forward Motion Festival: Champions Of Inclusion

“The Axis” was performed by Karen Peterson Dancers in South Korea and will once again be performed as part of the Forward Motion Dance Festival in Miami on Saturday, March 8 at the Sandrell Rivers Theater. (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson Dancers)

Weeks before the sixth annual Forward Motion Dance Festival, Karen Peterson and a group of her dancers gathered for a rehearsal in her studio space in Kendall. One dancer set up a white partition while the others settled into place. As the music started, violinist Polina Mahova emerged first from the folded screen. Slowly, more dancers appeared and suddenly, chair dancer Adam Eckstat rolled onto the scene. The energy continued to shift as the dance progressed.

The 14-minute “In the Blink of an Eye” will be one of six dance works that is part of the weekend-long festival consisting of a full day of performances on Saturday, March 8, and a set of workshops on Sunday, March 9 at the Sandrell Rivers Theater.

“Throughout the festival, audiences will see a really broad spectrum of inclusive dance,” says Peterson.

As it pertains to the all-new dance number, “In the Blink of an Eye,” the seasoned choreographer explains her inspiration behind its origins. “I was thinking a lot about immigration and the news that’s going on in our atmosphere today,” says Peterson. “And, you know, what if something drastic happens? In the blink of an eye, your whole life changes. I love that the dancers really internalize this fear in their performances.”

[RELATED: Artburst Guest Column/VOICES: Karen Peterson, Navigating Dance, Disability and DEI]

She explains how the music is pivotal in the piece, which is why she brought in violinist and dancer Polina Mahova. As Mahova’s violin strings vibrate, they help to dictate the emotions felt both on and off stage, according to Peterson. Although there will be a large screen in the background of the performance space with visuals flashing and propelling audiences through the story, the music and the dancers are what will guide the audience’s journey.

At first, the piece starts off light and cheerful before — suddenly — switching to a more dramatic and darker tune. “My inspiration for this performance is Lindsay Sterling, a very talented violinist who also dances,” says Mahova.

She mentions the relevance of the piece to today’s state of affairs – natural disasters and wars.

“I think that this is something that everybody can relate to and it’s really genuine.”

This will be Mahova’s first performance with the Miami-based dance company. “Dancing is not new for me,” says Mahova. “My mother (was) my teacher and I’ve been practicing it for many years.”

The violinist, who recently moved to Miami from Israel, will be sharing the stage with her mother, Anna, who has been dancing with Karen Peterson Dancers for nearly two years.

Another dancer sharing the stage with Mahova is Eckstat, who is both a wheelchair dancer and a drummer. Eckstat has been with the Miami-based dance company for many years and has performed at nearly all of the Forward Motion festivals.

Despite his history with the company, the drummer admits, “This is the first time I’ve ever done dance and drum together.”

In the piece “In the Blink of an Eye,” Eckstat uses his chair as an instrument and beats his drumsticks against the wheels as he works to match the pace of Mahova’s violin. “The dancing part, I do what Karen tells me to do,” he says. “But the drumming part I put together myself, and then I blended it with Polina’s violin.”

One special aspect of this year’s festival is the international collaboration with Sunsik Yoo and the Light on Friends dance company based in Seoul, South Korea.

Karen Peterson Dancers performed its “The Axis” at a festival in South Korea in late 2024. While representing the United States at the Korean International Accessible Dance Festival, Peterson met choreographer Sunsik Yoo and invited his company to attend Forward Motion. Yoo is one of four guest choreographers, which also include Erica Lessner from Brooklyn and Christina Acosta from Tampa.

Another aspect of the Forward Motion festival is the interactive workshop. Whereas the performances are ticketed, the workshops are free to attend. Guests will be treated to a conversation with Miami dancer and choreographer Pioneer Winter as well as a movement class with Sunsik Yoo and his Light Sound Friends company, and a workshop with the Tampa-based REVolutions Dance.

Peterson, who founded her dance company more than 35 years ago, reminisces on its humble beginnings. The dancer and choreographer has dedicated her life to the craft, specifically inclusive dance. While Peterson herself is not disabled, she says she was inspired to start an integrated dance company after attending workshops in San Francisco at the start of her career. “They invited people with disabilities to be part of the workshops and that was in the ‘90s when the ADA laws were just starting to get federally mandated.”

She acknowledges that people with disabilities have shown up more and more on dance stages throughout the world, which is what Peterson calls a movement in the United States. Once she opened her dance company, they were invited to perform worldwide. “There was a high degree of curiosity about inclusive dance.”

WHAT: Forward Motion Dance Festival

 WHERE: Sandrell Rivers Theater, 6103 NW 7th Ave., Miami

 WHEN: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 8. Workshops, noon and 6 p.m. Sunday, March 9

 COST: $20 for Saturday’s performances, free for Sunday’s workshop. Tickets at SandrellRiversTheater.com or karenpetersondancers.org.

 INFORMATION: (305) 298-5879 or karenpetersondancers.org.

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

Intense bonds, fiery chemistry fuel Flamenco Festival Miami XVI

Patricia Guerrero, together with Alfonso Losa and singers Sandra Carrasco and Ismael “El Bola” will close Flamenco Festival Miami XVI on Sunday,  March 9 with “Alter Ego.” The festival is at the Adrienne Arsht Center for three days starting Wednesday, March 5. (Photo by Beatrix Molnar (courtesy of the Arsht Center).

Flamenco is defined by its ability to access “the fullness and intensity of the moment, living it to the fullest and transmitting that to the public,” says Miguel Marin, director of Flamenco Festival Miami XVI.

Flamenco Festival Miami XVI brings to the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall stars of dance and music with unique ways of connecting with one another and with the intensity that characterizes Spain’s most emblematic art form. On Wednesday, March 5, Thursday, March 6 and Sunday, March 9, this year’s three performances will feature Manuel Liñán & Compañía in the passionate, no-holds-barred “Muerta de Amor,” the acclaimed soloist Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante),” and Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa’s stunning duet, “Alter Ego.”

Marín explains in a telephone interview that it isn’t merely technical brilliance that makes a flamenco artist into an icon; rather, it’s the ineffable gift of being able to communicate great emotions without so much as moving a finger.

“It is about holding the silence, holding stillness, holding that moment when you are motionless, when you have no resources to turn to.” He explains that “when Eva [Yerbabuena] enters a stage, simply walking, there an energetic change takes place.” With Guerrero, who was recently named director of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, her mere presence “lights up the stage.”

“It is not about technique, about pirouettes,” says Marín, “it is about presence and depth in terms of an internal connection… with a more spiritual part, a more intimate part of the artist.”

In “Alter Ego,” Guerrero and Losa explore the energetic connections that they experience onstage, a bond neither has found with any other dance partner. Awarded four top prizes at the 2023 Jerez Festival, “Alter Ego” is an unbridled exploration of emotional and creative chemistry by two artists at the height of their powers.

“The beauty of this show,” says Guerrero, “lies in the love and respect we have for each other and our differences. Because it is important to know what sets us apart in order to come together.”

In technically brilliant solos, they search separately for the alter ego that lives in each of them. Finally, the two come together, creating in that highly sensual moment a “third character” that Guerrero says “stands beyond the two of us.”

Love as a creative force appears as a common theme across the three shows of this year’s Flamenco Festival Miami. Eva Yerbabuena, whom Marín calls “the queen of traditional flamenco, flamenco ‘por derecho,’ ” has spent the better part of her career sharing the stage with her husband and soulmate, guitarist Paco Jarana.

“For me, it is an honor to have an artist, a musician and composer like Paco, at my side,” she says, not only for his ability to intuit, moment by moment, precisely what she needs onstage, but also in the way they inspire each other in the development of their art. Over the years, in studios and rehearsal halls, the two have mined their deep connection to develop a creative methodology that, she says, is infallible. Their work, both in partnership and as independent artists, has garnered critical acclaim in the flamenco world and beyond.

“It’s not, ‘I feel this music and you choreograph it,’  explains Yerbabuena. “Then there are two paths… two rivers that don’t quite meet, but rather run parallel, right?” With Jarana and her, those rivers find their force by running together.

That nexus between music and dance has always been an intriguing feature of flamenco: since its inception as a performing art form, audiences have been fascinated to observe a group of musicians and dancers communicate with precision without anyone uttering a single word. But the other magical element of that exchange is how the musicians give the dancer access to the deepest recesses of her imagination.

For Yerbabuena, “cante jondo,” flamenco’s “deep song,” is the key to entering that place of ecstasy and risk. Marín observes that “what we call duende, that magic, searching for oneself inside, she searches for it through singing.”

“Oscuro Brillante” is itself a study of opposites, says Yerbabuena. “Light and dark, rigidity and softness, all that forms a contrast” is its subject matter. Searching out those contrasts, she wraps herself in the luxuriant sounds of four voices, those of Miguel Ortega, Antonio “El Turri,” Manuel de Gines and Ezequiel Montoya.

“They have very different voices,” she says, “very distinct melismas, all marvelous.”

In fact, all of the musicians performing this year, says Marín, have been critical not just to the performances but to the development of the three works. Singer Sandra Carrasco, who was a standout at last year’s Gala Flamenca, appears together with Ismael “El Bola” in “Alter Ego.”  Guerrero likens their artistic partnership to the one between she and Losa—a study in difference uniting in a whole that is even greater than the sum of its parts. And in “Muerta de Amor,” singer Mara Rey fills the stage with a dramatic intensity that recalls figures like Lola Flores or Isabel Pantoja.

The intensity radiated by the performers in “Muerta de Amor”—seven dancers and five musicians in total—is heady, nearly overwhelming. Liñán fills 90 electrifying minutes laying bare the power of fantasy, of physical desire between men, of passions both carnal and emotional. Love and lust, he seems to say, come in many forms—why not celebrate them at their fullest?

Here, as in “Viva!,” the worldwide hit that Liñán brought to the Arsht in 2022, the choreographer elevates the LGBTQ side of flamenco from its historical place in the shadows. Although always present in the art form, says Marín, this community “was hidden, pretending to be what it is not.” He points to the courage that artists like Liñán have to say, “‘No…I’m going to be me, I’m going to be authentic… and show the truth of who I am. ’”

“In the end, what defines flamenco in a very important sense is the authenticity of the artist,” he says. “It’s not the choreography. It’s that the artist who bares himself completely and can express his truth.”

His recommendation to the public?

“Come open to the artist’s intent,” he asks. “Come open to what the artist has to tell us.” Even if it is for just one night, let down your guard and allow yourself to connect with the fullness and intensity of the moment that is at the heart of flamenco.

WHAT: Flamenco Festival Miami XVI: Manuel Liñán & Company in “Muerta de Amor”; Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante)”; Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa in “Alter Ego”

WHERE: Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: 8 p.m. each night, Wednesday, March 5: Manuel Liñán & Compañía in “Muerta de Amor” (prior to the performance, at 7 p.m., the public is invited to participate in “Step into Dance!,” a free program about flamenco in the Peacock Education Center at Knight Concert Hall with dancer and educator Clarita Filgueiras); Thursday, March 6: Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante)”; 8 p.m., Sunday, March 9: Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa in “Alter Ego”

COST: $30, $50, $75, $100, $135

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

 

At the Moss Center: Twyla Tharp Talks About Her Company’s 60th Anniversary

From left, Twyla Tharp Dancers Marzia Memoli, Daisy Jacobson, Kyle Halford, Nicole Ashley Morris, Angela Falk, and Oliver Greene-Cramer perform “SLACKTIDE,” choreography by Twyla Tharp. (Photo courtesy of Studio Aura)

Sixty-year anniversaries call for diamonds—gifts celebrated for their endurance and brilliance—and few legacies shine brighter than that of Twyla Tharp Dance, founded in 1965. As the company marks this milestone, Tharp’s influence continues to redefine contemporary dance by pushing the envelope of movement and meaning.

Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Tharp, 83, has choreographed more than 160 works, spanning dance, television, film, Broadway, and even figure skating. Her decorated career includes a Tony Award, two Emmys, nineteen honorary doctorates, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor.

On Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2, the Twyla Tharp Company debuts at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in South Miami-Dade with the premiere of Tharp’s newest work, “SLACKTIDE” alongside a revival of her maddeningly complex “Diabelli Variations” performed only four times, the last in 1999.

When asked what he found so compelling about Tharp’s work, Eric Fliss, managing director of the Moss Center, cited its sheer breadth and impact.

“Beyond the numerous pieces she has created for her own company and American Ballet Theatre,” says Fliss, “she has been a driving force behind some of the most successful and iconic productions in dance and theater.”

For those familiar with Tharp’s extensive repertoire—from the kinetic energy of her “Brahms-Handel” to the accessible charm of “Nine Sinatra Songs” and the dynamic intensity of “In the Upper Room”—the Moss program offers a window onto the creative trajectories of her last few decades.

Asked why she chose these two works for her 60^th anniversary tour, Tharp emphasized the distinct ways in which they approach the notion of identity.

Originally choreographed by Tharp in 1998 for its premiere at Teatro Biondo in Palermo, Sicily, “Diabelli” was performed only three additional times during 1999 and then not again until its return this month.

In “Diabelli” Tharp keeps the costuming simple.  Ten dancers—balanced between women and men—wear black pants and tops accented with tuxedo dickeys. The staging and lighting are also basic.  Pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev has been traveling with the company on the current tour and will perform the “Variations” live at the Moss performances as well.

For Tharp this sets the audience up for an encounter with the music — Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations” (Op. 120).   Written between 1819 and 1823, these piano variations take their title from Anton Diabelli, a notable composer of the era who circulated a waltz theme to leading musicians with the intention of collecting variations for a charitable publication benefiting widows and orphans of the Napoleonic wars.

Instead of offering a single variation, Beethoven provided 33 distinct interpretations that continually reinvent the waltz theme.  Many critics have placed Beethoven’s piece alongside Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” as among the greatest set of variations ever written for keyboard.

For each of Beethoven’s 33 variations, Tharp has offered in “Diabelli” a distinct choreographic response.

When asked how she approached structuring the rhythmic complexities of Beethoven’s work, Tharp explains that she focused on two features that pervade the variations – transformation and opposition.

“It (“Diabelli”) works basically the same way Beethoven’s (piece) works, which is transformation of a given theme,” explains Tharp.  “So it progresses to build on a very limited body of material.  And how does one do that?  In Beethoven’s world, there’s always the juxtaposition of opposite forces. And that’s why there’s huge drama in his music. And so it makes it very theatrically inclined.”

The work also takes Tharp back to the start of her career.  For instance, Beethoven’s “Variation 32”, structured as a fugue, marks a return to techniques Tharp developed in her breakthrough 1969 work for three dancers, “Fugue.”

“That is why I called the “Fugue” from 1969, the first of the Opus, because it was and is a study of fugal techniques,” says Tharp.  “So when I work with this material, like Beethoven, I have a familiarity with these techniques for varying and for supporting thematic material. With the Beethoven there is this transformative situation where the material exists and then is reformulated, but retains an identity,” she says.

The second work on the Moss program  — “SLACKTIDE” – is the first time in 40 years Tharp has worked with the music of Philip Glass, since she set her groundbreaking, “In the Upper Room,” to the 1987 Glass composition of the same name.

Tharp set her newest work to Glass’s score, “Aguas de Amazonia” —a 10-part suite composed between 1993 and 1999 using a new arrangement of the work by Third Coast Percussion ensemble.  Based in Chicago, it is the first percussion ensemble to win a Grammy Award.

The slack tide is the short period of time when water lies suspended between opposing forces—when there is no movement either way in the tidal stream.

The water imagery in both the music and choreography titles might lead one to expect an environmental message in “SLACKTIDE.” However, for Tharp, any reference to nature merely supports her expression of a certain notion of reality formulated through movement.

“The “SLACKTIDE” is my second piece on Phil Glass’s music,” says Thapr, “and it also entails identifiable entities.  “In The Upper Room” Glass acknowledges different orders of being – the grounded and the aerial. And (“In the Upper Room”) these identities exist in opposition to one another. With the new Glass piece (“Aguas de Amazonia”), there are identities, but they exist in a coordinated form. They’re not in opposition.”

Those familiar with both works by Glass will note that “Aguas” constantly quotes themes from “In the Upper Room”.   Though Tharp acknowledges the continuity between the Glass compositions, “SLACKTIDE” differs markedly from her choreography for “In the Upper Room” since it operates from an entirely different conception of reality.

“It (“SLACKTIDE”) is about geometry and space in time,” explains Tharp.  “And it is about a different notion of identity, how there can be black and a white, and yet there can also be a condition where the black and the white are so closely identified that there is one entity – and it’s not gray. It is black and white very closely identified.”

“Tharp’s choreography balances humor, playfulness, and virtuosic movement.” says Fliss when asked how he thought Moss audiences would respond to the program, “(It) offers multiple ways for audiences to engage with the performance. Regardless of how one approaches the program, it is undeniably special to experience this work in Miami.”

WHAT: Twyla Tharp Dance 60^th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee

WHERE: The Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211 St., Miami

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 1, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 2.

COST: $25, $45, $57.50, and $67.50

INFORMATION: 786-573-5300 or www.mosscenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Dance NOW! Miami’s Partnership With Portuguese Co. Takes On Oppression, Resistance

Rehearsing for Dance NOW! Miami’s “Blue Pencil” Austin Duclos and Kirsten Velasco. The company brings “Blue Pencil” along with two other pieces to Miami Theater Center, Miami Shores on Friday, Feb. 28. (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier, courtesy of DNM)

One action from an authoritarian government can suppress the truth and aim to silence society; another from an artist can defy power and embolden us to raise our voices for freedom. Putting this clash between oppression and resistance at the forefront, Dance NOW! Miami—in what stands out as the most relevant and consequential work of the company’s 25th anniversary season and perhaps any season, given current events—brings “Blue Pencil” to Miami Theater Center on Friday, Feb. 28.

This world premiere will be accompanied in the company’s second program of the season by repertory pieces by DNM artistic directors Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini. Keeping the political theme, her “Court Dance,” from 2003, is based on the controversial United States presidential election of 2000, the outcome of which hung on Florida; his “Drawing Circles” clings to the geometry of dance and how, in fact, it can relate to architecture, here specifically with a local connection to the mid-century modern style.

“Blue Pencil” extends DNM’s involvement in international collaborations, this time with Portugal’s Dança em Diálogos—under the artistic direction of Solange Melo—which previously joined in for 2021’s “Anusim, What is Hidden Is Never Lost.” A transatlantic success, it featured an acutely gestural representation of 15th-century Portuguese Jewish culture during the Inquisition.

The companies’ current creative venture—and in part a diplomatic effort in association with the Miami Beach/Cascais, Portugal, Sister Cities Project—is another instance where DNM, in alliance with artistically aligned partners, uses modern dance to convey rich content, laying the foundation for international understanding.

“Our collaborative practice,” emphasizes Salterini, “provides artists an opportunity to dance with others in a way rarely experienced. Building relationships with other arts organizations is a key value for DNM. This recurring model creates bonds among artists and organizations across borders that last a lifetime.”

The collaborations, Baumgarten says, are partially funded by a Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs International Cultural Partnerships grant.

“We get involved in projects with similarly sized, like-minded companies and together create work thematically and artistically relevant to both groups and our respective countries. We perform this on our own and in a blended cast when we come together.”

“Blue Pencil” achieves those ends referencing Portuguese history and placing it in a world context—one which points to our current political climate. The title refers to the practice in Portugal, during the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar, to censor publications of any kind from the start by striking out controversial material—i.e., threatening to the regime—with a lápis azul, the sharp blue point of that pencil attempting to deal a death blow to freedom of expression and any aspiration to democracy.

This started in the 1930s, with the rise of fascism in Europe, and did not end until 1974 with the so-called Carnation Revolution. A fairly peaceful coup against Salazar’s successor by the military led not to bloodshed but to another kind of red being splashed around Portugal as the populace inserted flowers into the muzzles of the liberators’ weapons.

“The subject of ‘Blue Pencil’ developed from conversations we had with Solange investigating themes we felt connected our countries and companies,” explains Baumgarten. “We originally approached this as a cautionary tale, drawing from the stories of Portugal. As we researched recurring forms of government repression, we realized our interpretation would draw on both historical and fictionalized accounts, using the past as prologue to our present-day turmoil.”

The DNM directors poured their souls into this project after the need to address current state of affairs including Florida’s book bans, arts funding cuts, and increasing marginalization of minorities across the country. Likewise enthused, Melo seized on the opportunity to showcase the collaboration during her country’s ongoing celebration of the Carnation Revolution’s 50th anniversary. As such, after the South Florida premiere, “Blue Pencil” will debut at Vila das Artes in Cascais, Portugal on Wednesday, March 12.

Just days prior to the performance, DNM will travel to the Portuguese destination for the Miami cast of three men and six women to meet their counterparts in preparation for the performance that adds two men and a woman from Dança em Diálogos.  Allyn Ginns Ayers, company associate director, will run rehearsals to ultimately determine how and where the dancers from each group will be inserted or combined, according to Baumgarten.

Of course, to turn such strong inspiration and noble intent into impactful stage action calls for energetic and concentrated effort, and that’s where DNM’s well-oiled mechanisms for this sort of dance-making come in.

Salterini sees how the process of coordination “may seem crazy from the outside,” but through repetition he and Baumgarten have found a formula, as he puts it, “down to a science,” with Zoom and WhatsApp facilitating frequent exchanges with their foreign partners.

Video: 25 Years Of DNM Dance

The DNM directors are relying on their well-established creative team—technical director Bruce F. Brown and costume designers Haydée and María Morales—to help evoke both the piece’s central time period and the timelessness, as Salterini puts it, of “suppression, censorship, and entanglement.” Similarly in the work’s music there’s both specificity—with Portuguese selections iconic in the 1970s, for instance—and universal relevance—supported by pop and classical strains from the United States, Argentina, and Cape Verde. The sound collage, as Baumgarten describes it, is an anthem to compassion.

Last December, at a sneak peek of excerpts from this show at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, it was already clear that their creative process has yielded visually captivating and spiritually nourishing material. In one segment, Anneliese Browne struggled to keep her movement on course while being besieged by unrelenting manipulators (Austin Duclos and Alexander Campbell)—their grip thuggish, her tenacity heroic. Elsewhere David Harris—seemingly with his head in the clouds, a sort of beatific figure—found pure oxygen in his art to keep personal integrity above all the surrounding political toxicity.

“Our intention isn’t just to rail against the machine,” says Baumgarten, “but to deliver a message of resistance, highlighting the power and resilience of artists in their determination to emerge from authoritarianism with grace and courage.”

WHAT: Dance NOW! Miami’s Program II featuring “Blue Pencil”

WHERE: Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2nd Ave., Miami Shores

WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28

COST: $40 general admission in advance, $45 day of show, $25 for Miami Shores residents and $20 for students, with valid IDs. 

INFORMATION: (305) 975-8489 or https://www.dancenowmiami.org/

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance,

Review: STYX The Company’s irresistible charm comes through in ‘Not a Ballet’

 STYX The Company dancers in “Not a Ballet,” choreography by Brianna Campbell and Mika Santo. (Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company)

The descriptive music accompanying classical ballets is full of suggestions for the choreographer, the performers, and the spectator. It is composed with that intention, and if you listen carefully and perhaps close your eyes, it is easy to visualize the choreography and the intentions that enrich its execution.

 Swanilda’s waltz in “Coppelia” and the first meeting of Prince Siegfried and Odette in “Swan Lake” – or Odile’s famous 32 fouettés – are enduring achievements that, until today, had not admitted substitutes in the collective memory of ballet lovers.

But something changed on Saturday Jan. 18, when STYX The Company, the group founded and directed by Brianna Campbell and Mika Santo, presented a program titled “Not a Ballet” at the Seminole Theater in Homestead. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s music for “Swan Lake” made an unusual appearance at the end of Campbell and Santo’s splendid group work that gave the program its name and opened the performance.

The second work with music by Tchaikovsky was titled “The Fallen Swan” with choreography by Daniela Cepero. The piece began with six dancers dressed in white who crawled in, stood up, and danced, immersed in a mood inherited from Isadora Duncan.

As a side note, the program offered something for everyone, including hip-hop, modern dance, commercial dance, expressive dance, musical theater, ballet, contemporary dance, and contemporary ballet.  

The faith and sense of truth of its interpreters were essential to appreciate the subtleties put into play by Cepero, and “The Fallen Swan” was pleasing as an exercise in sui generis delicacy. But it was much more than that as we soon discovered that it was also the first assault on the memory of the readings established by the great choreographers of the past.

 By then, Campbell and Santo as “curators” of a program that included eight choreographers and 15 works – had established three resources that significantly contributed to the communicative effectiveness of the entire proposal. 

 The resources were the complicity of the lights, the monochromatic identity in the costumes (red in “Not a Ballet,” white in “The Fallen Swan”), and the management of the groups as if they were a well-trained army. 

 The transition between these first two works revealed a fourth resource: “Not a Ballet” (the program) was a concert of scenes intertwined. The dancers of the ending scene shared the stage for a moment with the dancers of the following one, and they even collaborated on the outcome of the work that preceded. There was no blackout between the choreographies, and the scenes were defined, as in the theater, by the entry and exit of the performers.

All of the works well deserved individual reviews because they possessed a strange quality: they were immune to an analysis based on tastes and merits. Often, when we look back on a performance, we think it may be better to have done it another way, but the irresistible charm of STYX The Company makes us feel the need to admit what they do, no questions asked.

 In this context, it is enough to mention that the solos performed by Santo (“Loophole,” choreography by Jade Mesa and music by Biosphere) and Campbell (“Forgetting Coda,” choreography by Rachel Abelenda, with music by Kendrick Lamar and Jay Rock) work perfectly as “special material” at the service of their immense talent.  

 The craft behind the group choreographies is formidable. Santo’s “Monkey Barre” (with music by Caleb Arrendo and Lou Reed) and “Dress Code” (music by Yaeji) amply demonstrated this.

 STYX The Company frequently incorporates comedy into its performances, steering clear of crude and black humor. Their objective seems to be to bring a smile to the viewer’s face, and they achieve this with a blend of absurd and white humor, as seen in Campbell’s delightful “I Am Plant,” where Rachel Abelenda and Clarissa Castañeda stand out as comedians.

However, the peculiar idiosyncrasy of its responses to the suggestions of the descriptive music of Ludwig Minkus, Delibes, and Tchaikovsky made this program an exceptional creative achievement.

STYX The Company seems to have given its dancers basic instructions, such as “Do what you feel with that music.” In all cases, the result was a celebration. 

Take, for example, the excellent second half of the program that opened with “Arms of the Carriage,” a solo conceived by Campbell with music by Minkus where Daniela Cepero’s arms are the ones that perform Kitri’s variation of the pas de deux from the third act of “Don Quixote.” She remained on stage the entire time with her back to the audience.

Next, in “Not a Variation,” it was the recognizable music of “Paquita” (Minkus), “Don Quixote” (again), and Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty,” but Campbell’s fascinating choreographic juggling is all her own.

It was a seismic event that – at least for those at this performance – Tchaikovsky’s music for the first meeting of Odette and Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake” will be remembered from now on, also associated with the performance of the company’s six apprentices in Joaquín Espinosa’s “Swan’s Trance.” Perhaps because, at some moment in life, we have all wanted to dance to Tchaikovsky as we please.

“La Bayadont” (an indecipherable title) came next, and it was time for Minkus’ “La Bayadère.” As a climax, the music from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” (final waltz and apotheosis) was illustrated with overwhelming precision by the entire company, each one dressed as Pulcinella (a loose white suit with buttons on the front) in an unforgettable closing sequence that captivated the audience and gives pause for the question, “Who came up with this fantastic idea?” And then, “Who says you can’t achieve perfection on opening night?”

 Of course, before asking the most incisive question, “Does it take a huge budget to assemble a show with a closing worthy of a blockbuster like this one?”

STYX The Company’s website states that they are Miami’s first and only professional company doing commercial concert dance. The truth is that nobody in the vicinity does what they do, and “Not a Ballet” is reliable proof of the merit of their artistic manifesto.

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music, and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez Is Leaving The Miami City Ballet, So What’s Next?

Lourdes Lopez is leaving her post as artistic director of Miami City Ballet to pursue a collaborative vision for Miami’s arts. (Photo by Daniel Azoulay/courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Just a day after the Miami City Ballet announced its 40th anniversary season, Lourdes Lopez, only the second artistic director since the company was founded in 1985, announced she is stepping down at the end of the season.

Speaking from her Coconut Grove home, Lopez says she first wanted to dispel rumors.

“I’m in totally great health. I have energy, vitality, all that. My family is great. My husband is great. My daughters are great, knock on wood.”

Lopez, 66, who was hired by the Miami City Ballet in 2012 and officially became the artistic director in May of 2013, had two years left on her contract and says her departure was not a decision she took lightly. However, she felt there was something more she could do for the arts in Miami.

While her new vision is still in what she calls “the hypothetical stage,” Lopez wants to be a centrifugal force in building a stronger collaborative infrastructure for all arts groups in Miami to work together.

“There’s a vitality to Miami, it’s an international city, and there are these pockets of neighborhoods but there are also certain things within its infrastructure that make it difficult for the arts to truly flourish,” she says.

She rattles off names of some of Miami’s professional companies – Nu Deco, Miami New Drama, New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, and, of course, Miami City Ballet.

“They are producing some high-level quality work on our stages, really impressive programming,” but she concludes that everyone is fighting for the same audience. “We have the same donors, the same boards. We’re all sort of eating each other’s lunch. Is there a way to pull our resources together and put all of that under one roof?”

She cites an example of Florida Grand Opera presenting “Carmen,” the first major production to be directed by its new general director Maria Todaro in April and only weeks before Miami City Ballet presents its world premiere of Bizet’s “Carmen” by internationally known Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

“But what if, in a perfect world, or a different world it would be possible for both companies to work together – some kind of shared idea where we aren’t competing against each other but working together?”

She sums up her new vision: “I want to figure out the arts in Miami.”

Lopez was born in Cuba in 1958. Her parents defected from the island in 1959 and she and her sisters came to the United States two years later. When she was 11, she received a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet (SAB), the New York City Ballet’s official school, splitting time between Miami and New York City. At 14, she devoted to full-time studies at SAB, and, at 16 she joined the corps de ballet at the New York City Ballet. She was with NYCB for more than two decades, interpreting many of George Balanchine’s and Jerome Robbins’s roles as a principal dancer.

The role of artistic director for the Miami City Ballet was her first time managing a large organization, she says.

“(There was) an extraordinary board, group of dancers and artistic team that, when I arrived and I said, ‘I have a vision of what the ballet school and the company might look like,’ they didn’t blink.”

During her tenure, she curated groundbreaking programming, including the U.S. premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Swan Lake” and expanded the company’s repertory with world premieres including bringing a fresh look to Balanchine’s 1962 narrative masterpiece, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the company’s 30^th anniversary in 2016. She enlisted Miami-born award-winning artist Michele Oka Doner to redesign the ballet’s set and re-design the costumes and Liberty City-born Oscar-winner Tarrell Alvin McCraney to guide the dancers through the dramaturgy.

She also led the company through the pandemic and ensured that the holiday staple “The Nutcracker” wouldn’t miss its annual performance developing an outdoor COVID-19 safe “George Balanchine’s Nutcracker in the Park” in downtown Doral in 2020.

Acknowledging her challenges, opportunities and successes in moving the Miami City Ballet forward, Lopez believes every organization comes to a place where change is necessary.

“After a while, all organizations need new leadership, a company needs new energy, a new way of looking at the dancers, a new way of looking at the community.”

Jeff Davis, chair of MCB’s board of trustees, in a prepared statement, said that the company has flourished under Lopez’s leadership.

“MCB’s Board of Directors recently adopted a strategic framework with valuable input from Lourdes.  The plan outlines initiatives centered on three main objectives: elevating Miami’s profile as a national arts and cultural leader; growing artists and arts enthusiast; and building an endowment for future sustainability.  This strategic direction will help guide our search for the next artistic director.”

The company has an annual operating budget of about $25 million. The board will begin the process of a search for a new artistic director although no timeline has been set, according to the company.

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

A Nonconforming Ballet Heats Up Miami City Ballet’s ‘Winter Mix’

Choreographer Pam Tanowitz rehearses with Miami City Ballet dancers in “Coincident Dances.” The work gets its world premiere with the Miami City Ballet opening on Friday, Feb. 14 at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, as part of the company’s “Winter Mix” program. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Speaking from her New York home base in January, choreographer Pam Tanowitz—currently held in the warmest of embraces by critics and knowing audiences—lamented the weather, confessing, “I can’t wait to come to Miami.”

As the Northeast shivered through an arctic blast, she looked forward to returning to put the finishing touches on “Coincident Dances,” the world premiere commissioned by Miami City Ballet as a red-hot component for its “Winter Mix,” also including re-stagings of George Balanchine’s “La Valse,” a glamorous and mysterious whirl to Maurice Ravel, and “Walpurgisnacht,” devilishly dynamic to passages from Charles Gounod’s opera “Faust.” The program opens at the Arsht Center in Miami, Friday, Feb. 14 through Sunday, Feb. 16. “Winter Mix” continues at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, Feb. 22 and Sunday, Feb. 23 and then at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9.

It’s not that our subtropical climate sets the temperature for “Coincident Dances.” But that concept amuses Tanowitz.  She notes, “Weather is like dance—ephemeral.”

The choreographer further recognizes how surrounding elements seep into creation, saying, “Life is messy, and everything can be in there.” In her case that includes motherhood and a divorce, her Jewish heritage, museum haunts and French cinema—and, yes, the environment. She references her choreography for “The Seasons,” an opera to premiere at Boston Lyric Opera on Wednesday, March 12, the libretto by Sarah Ruhl springing from Vivaldi’s concertos to tell of artists in a retreat disrupted by the weather.

The collaboration, along with her concurrent MCB commission, is among the many high points on the choreographer’s creative landscape. Sought-after by prominent dance companies in the United States and abroad, Tanowitz continues to head her twenty-five-year-old troupe, Pam Tanowitz Dance. Film work and a professorship of professional practice at Rutgers University extend her resume, which certifies Tanowitz as one of the busiest dance makers on the scene today.

“Though I don’t need any more work, I’d feel stressed out if people stopped calling,” she admits. “With every opportunity for me to make a dance, whether it’s modern or ballet, I feel so, so lucky.”

Small wonder she’s mindful of self-care, faithfully putting in time at the treadmill.  “I have to do it every morning,” she says. “It helps me focus for rehearsals.”

She’s been steadily holding that focus, wide and deep, to great results—two Bessie Awards, a Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship among her honors, all especially meaningful to a self-confessed late-bloomer.

“I’m now 55. In New York since I was 23, I’d been choreographing for a really long time before people noticed me,” points out this Westchester, New York, native and MFA holder from Sarah Lawrence College.  “I had a totally different path. I wasn’t a dancer in a company who then decided to be on my own. And my company is project-based, the dancers freelance.”

Various modern dance figures have informed her work, with mid-twentieth century luminary Merce Cunningham looming tall. “I love his technique, the clean lines,” says Tanowitz. This connection comes by way of the late Viola Farber, a founding member of the Cunningham company and a force of her own, “She was my mentor at Sarah Lawrence,” says Tanowitz about the director of dance at her college. “She challenged me and retaught me how to dance. She changed my life.”

Considering Tanowitz’s  trajectory, many observers single out 2019 as a wonder year. A career upswing then raised the choreographer’s visibility to a starry firmament, with commissions from Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, New York City Ballet, and Britain’s Royal Ballet. Contacted for the current premiere by MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez over two years ago, Tanowitz came by degrees into the company fold.

At the end of 2016, to inaugurate the Faena Forum on Miami Beach, Tanowitz made “Once With Me, Once Without Me,” a site-specific work joining her company with advanced students from MCB School. In May 2019, the same month that New York City Ballet staged “Bartók Ballet”—its first Tanowitz piece— “Gustave Le Gray No. 1,” a quartet created for Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet, featuring a man and a woman from each company, premiered as part of Ballet Across America at the Kennedy Center. Tanowitz explains that “No. 1” uses ballet slippers while a “No. 2,” for her own troupe, has the same movement base adjusted for bare feet.

Tanowitz’s exploration of pointe work, to be on view in “Coincident Dances,” takes this balletic hallmark into her own territory. “A lot of younger choreographers,” she considers, “come into ballet to make a dance they think audiences want to see. I don’t do that. I make what’s interesting to me, and I always question things—an arm position or a head tilt. And I believe that’s also interesting for the dancers.”

MCB soloist Satoki Habuchi agrees, empowered by the choreographer’s openness to contributions from the interpreters.  One of seven men who, alongside eight women, make up the cast of “Coincident Dances,” he participated as an MCB School student in the Faena project. Now more experienced in contemporary work, he’s extended his talent adhering to Tanowitz’s dictum “to be a neutral version of myself. We don’t have to make things bigger.”

Still, even at their most natural, MCB dancers can be quite an eyeful. Habuchi tells how after Tanowitz saw him do an impactful jump in a studio class, she decided to incorporate it into her dance, labeling it the “Satoki Special.”

Principal Hannah Fischer, whose wide range in contemporary dance dates back to her days at National Ballet of Canada, appreciates how Tanowitz encourages “honest intention.” This jives with the ballerina’s belief that her art form is about mindset as much as physical exertion. “Pam has a plan when she walks into the room, but she also lets us feel comfortable in the unknown. It’s fine if we make a mistake because she might end up liking it,” she notes.

Defying gender expectations, Tanowitz at one point asked if Fischer felt okay with circling the stage in a type of manège with traveling jumps usually reserved for men. Glad to take this on, the ballerina turned the opportunity into an off-the-playbook burst of excitement. Tellingly, both she and Habuchi point to a male duet—its soulfulness “truly awesome,” says Fischer—as a standout in the dance.

The choreographer is also unorthodox in not using counts in constructing phrases. Dancers take cues from the music, each other, and their internal responses. Whether in unison or in counterpoint, Fischer says she rides these currents in constant reference to the ensemble. Habuchi adds, “We have to look at each other, and I let the music guide me emotionally.”

Tanowitz is using two compositions, the scintillating “Starburst” and “Coincident Dances,” by Jessie Montgomery, among long-trusted collaborators—here including designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung for costumes and Brandon Stirling Baker for lighting—who bolster her conceptions.

Montgomery’s music, says the choreographer, “feels very cosmopolitan—entertaining in the smartest way possible. It’s very inspiring.”

WHAT:  Miami City Ballet’s Winter Mix 

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16

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

ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES:  Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 8; 1 p.m. Sunday, March 9

 COST:  $25-$225, depending on show time and venue.

 INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Peter London’s ‘After Landing’ Ponders Resilience, Legacy and What’s Ahead

Peter London Dance Company presents “After Landing” at the Adrienne Arsht Center inside the Carnival Studio Theater with performances Friday, Dec. 27 through Sunday, Dec. 29. Pictured, dancer Armand Young. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)

Miami has long nurtured some of the brightest stars in contemporary dance. From Alvin Ailey principal dancer and choreographer Jamar Roberts to Lloyd Knight and Richard Villaverde of Martha Graham Dance, the city has served as a launching pad for these extraordinary talents.

One pivotal figure in their journeys is Peter London, a New World School of the Arts dance professor and former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company.

In 2010, London founded the Peter London Global Dance Company, which each December spotlights emerging and established artists—including his former students— inside the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater.

This year, there are four performances on Friday, Dec. 27 through Sunday, Dec. 29.

After graduating from Juilliard in 1987 as a William Randolph Hearst scholar, London built a remarkable career collaborating with modern dance luminaries such as Merce Cunningham, George Faison, and Alvin Ailey.

But this year, London found himself stretched thin while preparing for PLDGC’s latest program, “After Landing,” which faced unexpected challenges. In June, Governor DeSantis vetoed $32 million in state arts funding, impacting 600 Florida-based arts and cultural organizations, including PLDGC.

“Those cuts affect us in a lot of ways,” says London. “I thought the company had arrived at a place when I could hire people to do some of the work. I ended up having to do a lot of the work myself. I’m laundering, stitching and ironing costumes, marketing, conducting correspondence as well as choreographing and teaching. When something like this happens you step in and do what needs to be done or it falls apart and the community loses.”

Despite the funding hurdles, “After Landing” emerges as one of PLDGC’s most ambitious offerings to date. It features world premieres of new choreographies set to original music, including a score by Etienne Charles, a longtime collaborator and associate professor at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

Charles, who was recently awarded the prestigious “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture, composed “Radical Transformation,” which will accompany Jamar Roberts’ stunning piece, “As An Offering,” reprised after its debut with PLDGC last December.

When asked why he named the December program, “After Landing,” London says the title captured how the world has undergone a shift.

“It seemed like the world has shifted with so many different kinds of changes taking place,” says  London.  “The program looks at what happens after we land.  What is the contribution of art after all these transitions take place – what happens after 2024 as we journey into 2025?”

A highlight of the December program is the world premiere of London’s trio, “Ancestral King and Queens,” created in collaboration with Kebra-Seyoun Charles, a New World Symphony double bassist and composer and winner of the Detroit-based 2022 Sphinx Strings Competition, where young Black and Latinx string players compete for cash prizes and mentorship from established musicians.

The piece brings to life the myth of Queen Oba, goddess of rivers (portrayed by Mar’Kayla Michel), whose betrayal by Queen Oya, goddess of whirlwinds (performed by Kayin Knighton), unfolds as they compete for the affection of their husband, King Shango of the Oyo Empire, played by guest artist Leon Cobb.

Cobb, a New York City-based dancer affiliated with RudduR Dance and Visions Contemporary Ballet, has maintained a deep connection to PLDGC since its inception and continues to return for special engagements. He is particularly excited by the immersive energy that live music adds to the performance.

(“Ancestral King and Queens”) will be performed to live drums and someone playing the keyboard,” says Cobb, adding that “the costumes are amazing,” says Cobb. “It is so amazing to dance to live music and to bring those artforms together and to put that art on stage.”

In addition to this premiere, Cobb will perform in “Blood,” an excerpt from London’s sweeping four-part ballet, “Inner Ritual.” Dedicated to London’s close friend, Judith Jamison, artistic director of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater from 1989 to 2011, the work is a poignant tribute to her memory following her passing in November.

“(“Blood”) is a dirge, a powerful one, and the dancers tear this up,” says London.  “It looks at the loss of blood from the beginnings of slavery.  The choreography represents the soul in Limbo and the dancers call the ancestors to take the soul home to the ancestral space.  We are celebrating her (Jamison’s) soul moving back into the ancestral space.”

Another standout in the December program is the company premiere of  “Ascension,” London’s visually striking piece for nine men and one woman, set to two original scores—“Issa” and “Zale”—composed by Haitian American jazz trumpeter Jean Caze, winner of the prestigious International Trumpet Guild competition in 2006.

London has dedicated “Ascension” to the memory of Regina Jollivette Frazier, an advocate for the arts and education who served as the leader of Breakthrough Miami and as the longtime president of Links, Inc., the country’s largest organization of distinguished Black women. Notable members of the group include Vice President Kamala Harris and civil rights leader Marian Wright Edelman.

For Cobb, the male solos in “Ascension” symbolize the struggle for achievement. The woman’s solo—performed alternately by dancers Michel and Knighton—features the voice of Maya Angelou reciting her poem, “Still I Rise.”

“In it, they (the male dancers) are fighting to be the top dog and prove themselves through their solos—it is a competition between the men in order to be the top dog,” says Cobb. “It describes how we continue to strive and to be better and do better until we’ve reached the top and a place of accomplishment.”

Other premieres in the program include Justin Rapaport’s “Awakening,” an electrifying eight-minute work for seven dancers set to a score by jazz pianist Martin Bejerano; Andrea Murillo’s intimate duet “Cisne”; and Kashia Kancey’s solo “It’s Far Away Today,” performed alternately by Stephanie Franco and Michel to Cristina Moya-Palacios’ evocative composition, “Through an Increasing Distance.”

“Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for some fabulous dancing choreography and movement,” advises Cobb. “Peter has trained some of the top dancers in world and country – come ready to enjoy the program because it is going to be amazing.”

WHAT:  Peter London Global Dance Company Presents “After Landing”

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

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 29.

COST: $50

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org/tickets

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Reimagining Tradition: Dance NOW! Miami’s Bold Take on ‘The Nutcracker’

Dance NOW! Miami ensemble performs “Clara,” choreographed by Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini, on Saturday, Dec 21 at Sanctuary of the Arts, Coral Gables. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)

Choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov crafted a ballet of the story of young Clara Stahlbaum’s magical Christmas Eve journey to the Land of Sweets, guided by the mysterious family friend, Herr Drosselmeier from E.T.A. Hoffman’s novella and set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s score. In 1892, it made its premiere in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Though initially panned by 19th-century critics for its child-centric roles, bad pantomime and questionable choreography and in later years by modern critics for its heavy reliance on cultural stereotypes and militaristic themes, “The Nutcracker” remains a financial lifeline for many North American ballet companies generating a good percentage of their annual revenue.

In 21st century Florida, the arts face an uncertain future. In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in state grants for cultural programs, leaving many organizations struggling to fill the funding gap.

Against this backdrop, Dance NOW! Miami’s co-artistic directors, Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini, see both an artistic and financial opportunity with a redefined version of “The Nutracker.” In 2022, they created a bold, adult-themed adaptation of “The Nutcracker,” presenting “Clara” at the Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores in 2022. Now, it restages the performance at the Sanctuary of the Arts in Coral Gables on Saturday, Dec. 21.

“As a modern/contemporary dance company, we never had the holiday cash-cow of ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” explains Baumgarten. “Two years ago, we were joking with our PR Director Robert Rosenberg about a sexy, spicy Nutcracker. Once the joke was over, we realized it was a great idea, the right time, and the right place to bring this concept to our audiences.”

Their adaptation, “Clara,” presents a one-act reinterpretation of the ballet geared to young adult audiences. While retaining key characters from the original like Clara, performed by Dance NOW!’s Amanda Davis, Baumgarten and Salterini rewrote the theme as a journey of sensual self-discovery where Clara overcomes obstacles placed on her path by sexually conflicted frenemy, Drosselmeier, danced by David Harris.

Notably absent from their adaptation is the role of the Nutcracker Prince.

“Our version is really about Clara’s loss of innocence and empowerment,” says Baumgarten. “We no longer need the prince by her side to guide her through Candyland. Clara questions what the adults are hiding behind their vanilla veils and discovers that life offers many possibilities.”

In Florida’s politically charged climate, where arts funding cuts have targeted events deemed “inappropriate,” staging an adaptation of “The Nutcracker” that explores non-binary and pansexual identities might seem risky. DeSantis’ veto of state arts grants last summer specifically cited concerns over taxpayer money supporting events he referred to as “sexual festivals”; the four Florida “fringe festivals” he was referencing were influenced by the long running Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Fringe festivals have gained traction throughout the U.S. and the world, and feature performances of storytellers, dancers, comedians, theater troupes, and poets, and are not specifically sexual in nature.

Baumgarten and Salterini still see an environment as fertile ground for artistic expression.

“Contemporary art allows the democratization of art,” says Baumgarten. “It provides a platform to respond to social and political climates, to protest, inform, educate, and express the human condition beyond governmental, cultural, and political norms.”

Though traditional versions of “The Nutcracker” typically see theaters packed with children both onstage and in the audience, “Clara” is recommended for audiences ages 16 and older.

“While there are no graphic scenes, there are explorations and deeply sensual moments between consenting adults,” notes Baumgarten.

“There are also moments of anger, war, and death. It’s not risqué or violent but is certainly not intended for children.”

The Sanctuary for the Arts for the upcoming performance, offered a distinct staging challenge from the initial production.

“This is a thrust stage with no wings, so we will rely on our ability to create visible and hidden moments on stage,” explains Salterini. The production incorporates “boxography,” a term coined by the duo to describe the use of colored boxes of various sizes to shape different kinds of spaces.

At 50 minutes long, “Clara” includes space for the December program to include additional works. The evening program also features a selection of short pieces ranging from 3 to 11 minutes.

“For our 25th anniversary season, we are revisiting beloved works,” says Salterini. ” ‘Drawing Circles’ was at the top of my list,” adds Salterini referring to his 2007, 11-minute piece for four dancers, set to the music of minimalist composer Philip Glass and performed by Kirsten Velasco, Rae Wilcoxson, David Harris, and Austin Duclos.

In “Drawing Circles,” Salterini presents an homage to the iconic MiMo post-war architectural style of dozens of South Florida buildings from the Miami Beach Bandshell to the Vagabond Motel on US 1.

“The awnings with those holes that allow a tall palm tree to grow right through them,” says Salterini.  “The famous cheese holes and the repetitive designs that those cheese holes create when hit by the sun just at the right time. So much movement in that stillness, already a dance.”

The program also includes two works by Baumgarten that present two different takes on love: her 2006 trio, “Speaking Softly,” set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, explores the different phases of falling in love and will be performed by Anneliese Browne, Amanda Davis, and Julia Faris.

Also included is Baumgarten’s 2018 solo work “All Shook Up,” danced by newcomer Sophia Pfitzenmaier to the 1957 Elvis Presley classic of the same name.

“This piece (‘All Shook Up’) is about not wanting to feel something for someone, but being unable to escape the excitement, terror, and thrill of it,” says Baumgarten.

The evening concludes with an eight-minute excerpt from Baumgarten and Salterini’s celebrated 2022-2023 work, “Gli Altri” (“The Others”), featuring the entire company and an opening solo by Alexander Campbell.

Set in a train station, the work weaves together individual backstories of anonymous travelers, unfolding through vignettes that explore personal moments of connection and separation. The piece highlights the delicate balance between solitude and community in a transient space.

“This piece has become a favorite among audiences,” notes Salterini. “It has narrative depth, fantasy, joy, and a touch of social commentary—everything we value in our work.”

WHAT: Dance NOW! Miami Presents “Clara”

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

WHEN: 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21

TICKETS: $18 and $28 includes $3 convenience fee.

INFORMATION: 305-975-8489  or dancenowmiami.org/events/clara2024

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Miami City Ballet’s Swan Song For A Sugar Plum Fairy In ‘Nutcracker’

In 2007, Jennifer Lauren joined Miami City Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet and became a principal dancer in 2017. In the company’s production of “George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” she’ll perform her final role as Sugar Plum Fairy.

Weeks ahead of “George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” the Sugar Plum Fairy is getting ready to entertain. Her wand at hand, she has magic to command. At her palace in the Land of the Sweets the decor glows, a caravan of dance is about to be received.

Since 1990, Miami City Ballet has brought a number of noteworthy ballerinas into the story’s lead.  But the upcoming shows feature an incomparable Sugar Plum Fairy at a special juncture. After 27 seasons as a professional dancer, the last 18 at MCB, principal ballerina Jennifer Lauren is retiring from the company.

Miami City Ballet will present “George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker,’ ” opening Friday, Dec. 13 through Tuesday, Dec. 24 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. (Lauren dances the role at the Arsht at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17 and noon on Sunday, Dec. 24. Before she performs in Miami, Lauren will be a guest artist dancing the role in her hometown of Tuscaloosa. Other dancers performing at MCB as Sugar Plum Fairy include Dawn Atkins, Hannah Fischer, Samantha Hope Galler, Ashley Knox, Jordan-Elizabeth Long and Taylor Naturkas.)

Impish projections by Wendall K. Harrington along with designers Isabel and Ruben Toledo’s costumes and set are the hallmarks of MCB’s production with its made-for-Miami look sparked by company artistic director Lourdes Lopez in 2017. Peter Tchaikovsky’s score, often the soundtrack to our yuletide chores and cheer, will sound livelier than elsewhere coming from the company orchestra.

Need a rundown on the Sugar Plum Fairy —or most things “Nutcracker?” Lauren’s history with the ballet makes her an encyclopedia of such knowledge.

“When I talked to Lourdes about retiring,” says Lauren, “we looked over the season, and ‘The Nutcracker’ stood out as near and dear to my heart.” The role of Sugar Plum Fairy loomed perfect for a farewell.

Familiar and meaningful—Lauren likes to compare “The Nutcracker” to cherished visits from a loved one—the work has the status of a cultural ritual. And while studying ballet in her native Alabama and participating in Tuscaloosa Community Dancers’ annual “Nutcracker,” the young dancer fell under the fairy’s spell.

“I’ve looked up to this ballet since I danced as a Polichinelle at the age of eight,” says the Tuscaloosa native. Having watched countless shows and moved through different roles in the Christmas favorite, by the time she performed the role as a professional at Alabama Ballet—the Birmingham-based company among a select few to do the Balanchine “Nutcracker,” the same one as MCB —Lauren says she “knew the choreography, the music, inside out.”

She carried that know-how joining the corps at MCB in 2007. Many Snowflakes, Flowers, sweets and dancing dolls later—all merry roles throughout “The Nutcracker”—Lauren plugged back into her wand power in 2013, when director Lopez—just entering her second year at the helm—assigned Sugar Plum Fairy to the ballerina for the first time at her current company.

“This opportunity felt huge and I was ecstatic,” says Lauren, appreciative that Lopez paired her with Cuban-born principal Reyneris Reyes as the Cavalier, his experience and affability bolstering the ballerina’s artistry.

Other Cavaliers thereafter joined forces with Lauren to put luster on the pas de deux, which is the culmination of “The Nutcracker,” imposing without being bombastic, a silky bespoke fit for the ballerina.

Former MCB principal Renan Cerdeiro, a long-time dance partner of Lauren’s in many memorable ballets, says, “The way Jennifer approaches her Sugar Plum had an influence on me. I used to go for a more stern, regal look. But she’s so sweet and lighthearted that taking her hand and looking into her beautiful blue eyes on stage let me put more sparkle in the dance. After all,” he says with a laugh, “the Cavalier is probably made of candy.”

It’s not that dance technique here brings empty calories but that it indulges the illusion of a sugar high. As Cerdeiro points out, “Balanchine’s choreography (created in 1954) is packed with steps, a greater challenge for me than more traditional versions.”

In this, Lauren’s interpretations have evolved. “When I was younger, I was just thrilled to get out there and do what I’d dreamed of since I was a little girl.  As I grew into the dancer I am today, it became less about executing steps and more about presence, how I carried myself. Sugar Plum Fairy is not simply about a smile and looking pretty. I’m there to tell a story. With so many eyes on me, it’s a huge responsibility.”

The character initially sets a tone of wonder mingling with angels—here it’s children from MCB School—opening her realm, her heart, soon to welcome Marie and the prince into a world alien to discord. Sugar Plum Fairy oversees dances with regional flavors which are treats for the soul as much as the senses. When she takes center stage in her iconic pas de deux, says Lauren, “The music is quite luxurious, and that’s where she confirms her leadership.”

And the ballerina must beam with generosity, and for that, Lauren tells us, she draws inspiration from her mother. Betty Quarles has always been there for her younger daughter: to drive her to dance classes without a miss while encouraging academics; to not just attend shows from day one but, at some points, to make them look better by sewing production costumes; to greenlight her apprenticeship at a young age away from home and eventually to cheer on her daughter’s career—hand in hand with Jennifer’s late father, Ronnie, —with trips to Miami to watch many a “Nutcracker.”

“It was always so much fun afterward to spend Christmas with her in her small South Beach apartment,” says Quarles, their dear company including Blake, her daughter’s husband since 2009 and Jennifer’s pug Sophie, once even featured in “Pointe” dance magazine.

Though Quarles realized ballet was Jennifer’s oxygen early on, she maintains she’s mostly wanted her daughter “to be a well-rounded human being.” That’s what she communicates to all those ballet mothers who often ask her how best to support their children in the art form.

For her farewell, Lauren is dancing Sugar Plum alongside Stephen Loch, her Cavalier since only last season. Yet he underscores his deep level of comfort with the ballerina. Both dancers grew up in Southern towns (he’s from Denton, Texas) and worked hard for their ballet dreams away from glamour hubs. Tackling choreography, they’re highly attuned (he came to MCB as a principal in 2021 from Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet, another Balanchine-based company), and their temperaments harmonize.

He says, “When we’re in the studio, there’s no pretense. Jennifer is very grounded, and there’s great energy between us. It’s been magical to find a partnership like ours at this time in my career.”

In a delightful turn of planet ballet, on Dec. 1— Lauren’s 43rd birthday—they performed Sugar Plum and the Cavalier as guests at Lake Cities Ballet Theatre in Lewisville, Texas, where Loch as a five year old first took the stage in the party scene.     Likewise marking a homecoming, Lauren has often returned to dance Sugar Plum with Tuscaloosa Community Dancers. She returns in its production as headlining artist from Thursday, Dec. 12 through Sunday, Dec. 15 where her Cavalier is Rainer Krenstetter, another former MCB principal.

And that part of her farewell seems like a signpost in a future direction.

“Dancing Sugar Plum has allowed me to be a positive role model for many young, aspiring dancers,” says Lauren. “And over the past five years, I’ve been teaching a lot more. Now I can enhance that. No matter what I do, I’m going to be sharing my knowledge.”

WHAT:  Miami City Ballet’s “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker”

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13 and Saturday, Dec. 14; 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17-Saturday, Dec. 21 and Monday, Dec. 23; 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 22; 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Friday, Dec. 20, Saturday, Dec. 21, and Monday, Dec. 23. 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 22; noon, Tuesday, Dec. 24.

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

COST: $43-$264

INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.

Five Years Strong: ‘Men Who Dance’ Festival Showcases the Best of Male Dance

Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida dancers in“Vuelo” by ABTF artistic director and choreographer, Vladimir Issaev. The company will be part of this year’s “Men Who Dance” festival at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale, and featuring more than 40 dancers representing more than 20 counties on Saturday, Nov. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 1. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong).

In 2020, Rafi Maldonado-Lopez, artistic director of the “Men Who Dance” all-male dance festival and founder of the Inter-American Choreographic Institute, introduced the inaugural program as a bold initiative to challenge stereotypes surrounding male dance.

Starting with a modest group of 15 performers, the festival has grown into a prominent event. This year’s program at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Arts, which features many Miami-Dade County companies, features more than 40 dancers accompanied by a chamber music ensemble and opera singers.

Just back from Mexico, Maldonado-Lopez speaks passionately about his vision for the South Florida dance scene. “I want artists to be able to raise families,” he says.  “When I worked in dance in New York, Boston and Minnesota, I didn’t have to do anything else – just dance.”

For Maldonado-Lopez great art takes both shrewd business instincts and artistic talent.

“I feel we had to educate the artist on how to speak about why art is important.  How are you going to convince others that art is important if you don’t know how to explain how it is necessary?” explains Maldonado-Lopez.  “We are challenged with creating a new narrative and to look at this differently.  Let’s face it – artist rich communities enjoy higher real estate values.”

This year’s festival features an impressive lineup of groups and dancers representing more than 20 countries. Highlights include performances by Miami City Ballet, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, AV Dance (Anthony Velazquez), The National Dance Company of Mexico, Tango Out, Dance NOW! Miami, Florida Grand Opera, and the Sanctuary of the Arts Ensemble.

Reflecting on his own journey, Maldonado-Lopez says, “I’ve been lucky at the Sanctuary of the Arts,” referring to the fine arts campus in Coral Gables he co-founded in 2019 with lawyer and President of Colson Hicks Eidson, Mike Eidson. “What we’ve been trying to do is keep people here and keep them from leaving. We’re still this gig-based economy (in South Florida dance), and other than dancers at Miami City Ballet, think of one (South Florida) organization where you can get a salary for being a dancer.”

Although a few South Florida companies provide stipends for performances, most dancers in the area must take on additional jobs to cover their living expenses.

The fifth iteration of the MWD festival offers Maldonado-Lopez a dual opportunity: to expand its reach and revisit highlights from its formative years.

“For the first time, we’ll have five men from the National Company of Mexico performing,” he says. “Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida is bringing back one of their larger pieces, and I’m reviving ‘The Sixth Day,’ the original opening work from the first festival, symbolizing the day man was created.”

He enthusiastically says that Gabriel Lorena will be featured.

“(He’s) a former student of mine from Miami City Ballet who now dances at Kansas City Ballet. He’ll be premiering a new work choreographed specifically for the festival.”

Jennifer Kronenberg and husband Carlos Guerra, co-founders and co-artistic directors of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, form another cornerstone of the festival. Former principal dancers with Miami City Ballet, Kronenberg and Guerra have been integral to the festival since its beginning.

Fresh off their company’s season opener at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay, Kronenberg is frank about the challenges South Florida dance companies face with unexpected state cutbacks in arts funding and the high cost of living here that impacts the availability of male dancers.

“There’s a shortage of male dancers in South Florida,” says Kronenberg. “Men in this field are hot commodities and it’s hard to keep people here when the cost of living is so high.”

Kronenberg sees in the festival an ongoing opportunity to shift people’s perceptions around male dance and to prod audiences to acknowledge that ballet is an artform for both genders.  “I think that just like anything else it (the festival) helps open people’s eyes to what dance is in the 21^st century and where we are trying to evolve it – the men are a big part of that.  People go to the ballet thinking that ballet is woman, and the MWD experience provides something different than what most people are used to.”

Like Kronenberg and Guerra, Miami City Ballet soloist and choreographer Ariel Rose has been a founding and ongoing contributor to the festival.

“I think everyone who contributes to the show contributes what they think male dancing means to them,” says Rose about the festival’s value. “I’m still dancing professionally, and so I choreograph what I think is wonderful about male dancing with its musicality, grace and strength.”

This year, Rose brings his newest work, “Duo Tasso”, to the festival, a piece that premiered in March at the New World Center during the symphony’s “Cello and Dance” program and was originally performed by Miami City Ballet dancers, Renan Cerdeiro and Satoki Habuchi.

Rose set this pas de deux to the third movement of a cello duet by contemporary Italian composer Giovanni Sollima, titled  “Il Tasso” (“The Badger”). Inspired by the cello duet’s interplay, where the instruments alternately claim the melody and bass lines, Rose crafted his work to mirror this musical exchange.

“It sounds like a race to the finish, and so I have the two dancers chase one another during the piece,” explains Rose. “One dancer is one count behind the other, and then the roles shift, with the other dancer taking the lead.”

Rose sees in the festival as a space for presenting diverse expressions of male dance. “I am very proud of where this show has grown from, and I get such good feedback from fathers who bring their sons to the show. This is as wide a genre show as you can get. You are probably going to walk away loving at least one thing.”

WHAT: “Men Who Dance” produced by the Inter-American Choreographic Institute

WHERE: The Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts,  201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale

WHEN: 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 30 and 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 1

COST: $25, $35, $45

INFORMATION: (954) 462-0222  or BrowardCenter.org

 ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.