Of Gods and Men: Pioneer Winter Collective Finds Brotherhood in ‘Apollo’
Written By Guillermo Perez April 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Miami Light Project and FUNDarte present the world premiere of “Apollo,” a new dance-theater work by Pioneer Winter Collective (PWC), on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 at Miami Theater Center, Miami Shores. (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of Miami Light Project)
Never shy about letting loose their Olympian but very recognizable passions on the world, Greek gods brought divinity into the everyday. Now, as if to show how those old myths still lay claim on the contemporary, Pioneer Winter Collective has spun an up-to-our-moment tale pulsating with ancient, otherworldly powers.
Relying on Winter’s direction and choreography, a South Florida group of collaborators—carrying on a mission forged almost a decade ago to make inclusive art under the biggest tent possible—will premiere “Apollo,” a long-evolving dance-theater piece that, from a queer standpoint, injects timelessness into the timely. Part of Out (Loud) in the Tropics and under the auspices of Miami Light Project and FUNDarte, the evening-length work comes to Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores, Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26.
In this, there will appear not just one but three experience-laden avatars of the titular god—Clarence Brooks, Frank Campisano, and Octavio Campos—along with Winter, a younger upholder of the wreath of that guardian of the arts, healing, and light.
“They come together and, very urgently within a short period of time, need to convey what the essence of being Apollo means, what the responsibility of that legacy is—its burden, its memories, even the impossibility of living out some of those expectations,” says Winter.
Pioneer Winter takes a leap with Frank Campisano , left, and Clarence Brooks, right, in back in the world premiere of “Apollo.” (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of Miami Light Project).
In alliance and confrontation, their moves, their voices, will show immediacy in strides and gestures we may have witnessed or indulged in ourselves, in praise and protestations we, too, may have heard or aired. Yet, for all that human striving, the hubbub will carry Delphic murmurs—a message, essential for marginalized groups, to safeguard continuity through self-definition.
“A mark of queer people is to re-invent themselves,” contends Winter, pointing to the intergenerational exchanges that motor the work. “It’s so necessary that we go through these processes of becoming so as not stagnate. We are constantly re-emerging.”
The visitation of worldly-wise, when not world-weary, patriarchs upon a searching youth underscores a hallmark of this community. “This is about self-birthing through past lives. Each of the elder Apollos shares characteristics with the archetypal god in amplified versions of themselves. They’re there to guide me, the new Apollo, but tension exists in the way each believes I should be taught. They don’t always agree on which memories will serve me on my godly run,” says Winter.
That drama springs from a confluence of the mythopoetic—as in metaphor-rich narratives that, molded by the ages, a bard might sing—with the autobiographical—commentary on significant events and their echoing emotions from the performers’ own lives, representative of the gay experience but bound to society-at-large.
And the mythological theme has these creators looking back at the shadow cast by George Balanchine’s 1928 “Apollo,” a great neoclassical ballet scored by Igor Stravinsky. (Miami City Ballet, by the way, has put this on their closing program for next season.) Apollo there is consecrated as a magnificent singularity, graced by the muses of mime, poetry, and dance.
“Apollo” uses dance-theater to delve into the intersection of personal history, cultural memory and mythology. (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of Miami Light Project)
Fundamentally, this reference point—esthetic glories recognized—mostly serves the PWC work, as Winter puts it, in “an urge to undo. The first spark for our Apollo came around 2014 when I wanted to tell the traditional heteronormative, one-sided story by turning it queer.”
Initially, Winter toyed with the idea that the male performers would represent the muses, and the action would be set in a disco in Hades (the first tentative title was “DJ Apollo”). This was cast aside before too long as participant testimonies enlivened the narrative and led to the work’s current shape, with the trifurcation of divinity, the fourth figure as their heir-apparent, and myth merging into memoir.
“Balanchine’s work sublimates conflict, but ours gets tender with it, holding and exposing it,” explains Winter. “Yes, some iconic images have found their way into the choreography—a fan kick, an arabesque—and even the white space typical of a ballet blanc and the god’s ascension, though that’s achieved in a different way.”
With video and prop designer Dimitry Saïd Chamy’s contribution, “a lot is either deconstructed or comments on the original. Where in Balanchine’s there’s a sash, for instance, we use about fifty feet of white fabric in our dance.”
Sound designer and composer Diego Melgar also selectively and innovatively has referenced Stravinsky’s score. “Originally this was going to have pre-recorded accompaniment inspired by dance music from different decades since the 70s. There’s still some of that, but I wanted to find something more authentic, kind of winking at Stravinsky and his really luxurious 1920s string orchestra. I love this composer and wanted to bring in that texture. But how would I get it?,” says Melgar.
Technology to the rescue, he ended up using, on an electronic keyboard, the same kind of patches—simulation of strings on the organ—he’d been hearing following the sermons at the gospel church he’s played at for ten years.
Pioneer Winter and Frank Campisano in the Pioneer Winter Collective dance-theater work “Apollo.” (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of Miami Light Project)
Interestingly enough, though Melgar professes his own secularity, that’s added a touch of mysticism. “The music has become another character in the piece,” he observes. “It feels like I’m serving some presence which watches the piece taking place and guides its emotional sense giving it a point-of-view.”
And, for Winter, Melgar’s playing the music live will unequivocally bring a vital urgency to the emotionally charged performances.
Throughout workshops and various residencies, the dancers bounded between bearing witness and baring their souls in view of life events, often covering arduous terrain: the AIDS crisis, addiction and recovery, sexual trauma, a life in the theater. Yet hopefulness and inspiration also made their mark, for instance in honoring their mentors, to be mirrored in the dance drama.
“There were a lot of lived experiences that needed to be explored.” says Winter, “and really any one could unlock the flow into the next set of narrative questions. That’s probably why this work was slower to emerge.”
That manner of working—as an intimate ensemble, through an extended creative continuum—proved transformative for all involved. Campisano, for instance, confesses, “I learned the simplest things can be virtuous, that there has to be meaning behind what we do. Parallel to my life, this work pushed so many buttons.” He credits dramaturg Karina Batchelor-Gómez for helping turn his vulnerabilities into stronger acting.
For Campos, whose notable experience in contemporary dance theater allows for an expert perspective, this project “feels precious, leading us to work with a high level of care.”
In streamlining these men’s verbal outpourings into cogent drama, playwright Juan C. Sanchez appreciated the longer gestation period unheard of in his other projects. “Stuff needs to get under your skin,” he asserts.
Pioneer Winter with Clarence Brooks in a scene from the world premiere of “Apollo,” a new dance theater work by Pioneer Winter Collective. (Photo by Passion Ward/courtesy of Miami Light Project)
As for Melgar, developing the music in such close contact with the dancers made for deeper authenticity. “It would’ve been cool to just build music for the movement,” he says. “But, adding layers, I got to learn what their lives sound like.” He’s amused to consider how Campisano evoked brass, perhaps a sonorous tuba; Campos, a bass clarinet; and Brooks, flutes and guitar.
Becoming more sensitized to existential issues remains at the heart of “Apollo” for Winter. In recognition of both the legacy of mentors and the forward-looking vigor of mentees, this exalts resilience in identity.
“There are different ways of being Apollo,” he says. “Too often people think of themselves as broken instruments. But this work aims to show there’s no instrument that’s broken — you just need to find a different approach to playing it.”
WHAT: Pioneer Winter Collective “Apollo” presented by Miami Light Project and FUNDarte
WHERE: Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2nd Ave., Miami Shores
WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26
COST: $30 general admission, $20 for students and seniors with valid IDs.
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.
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Miami City Ballet Plays To Win With A ‘Carmen’ For Our Time
Written By Guillermo Perez April 20, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Miami City Ballet’s Dawn Atkins rehearsing “Carmen.” Choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. The evening-length “Carmen” opens at the Adrienne Arsht Center on Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
Carmen, that beguiling Andalusian beauty created by a 19th-century French writer and afterwards made legendary by artists of different nationalities—in opera, dance, and film—continues to fascinate. Now another opportunity to experience her enduring magnetism enters the fold as Miami City Ballet premieres a new version conceived by high-profile Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa.
The evening-length “Carmen” opens at the Arsht Center on Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27, before moving to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for two performances Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4.
When MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez reached out to Lopez-Ochoa a year and a half ago about revisiting this standard (the company staged two different versions of the ballet many seasons ago), the choreographer eagerly agreed to the project.
Choreographer Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa rehearses with Miami City Ballet dancers for her version of “Carmen.” (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
“Of all the repertory pieces in the classical ballet canon, this has always been on my bucket list,” says Lopez-Ochoa. “I had even pitched it to another company some time before Lourdes made the offer.”
In part what drew Lopez-Ochoa was Georges Bizet’s score for his 1875 opera “Carmen,” which she considers a trove of golden hits. But this was also a great opportunity for her to keep on exploring Hispanic themes through narrative dance.
“As a Latina, the older I get, the more I want to be in contact with this culture,” confesses the Antwerp-born-and-trained artist, and the daughter of a Colombian engineer and a Belgian nurse. “My parents spoke Spanish as their secret language. Back then, when they played Mexican rancheras at home, I’d be mortified. What if the neighbors heard that? It wasn’t until I was 30 that I set out to be fluent in Spanish. Now I feel very much myself when I speak the language, and I love Latin music.”
In over two decades of prolific dance making for companies around the globe, the soon-to-be 52-year-old became fascinated with telling stories of eminent Latin figures including artists Frida Kahlo and Fernando Botero and First Lady of Argentina Eva Perón. Now the fictional world of “Carmen” has opened up new ground for her to play in, backed up by her long-trusted dramaturge, Nancy Meckler.
“Every time I go into the studio,” confesses the artist, “I feel again like that eleven-year-old who first wanted to choreograph.”
Back To The Beginnings
A meticulous planner, Lopez-Ochoa immediately plunged into research for “Carmen,” going back to the character’s origins in the 1845 story by Prosper de Merimée (1803-1870). Identified with the Romantic movement, this early practitioner of the novella and the travelog, also devoted to cultural archaeology, poured all his passions into what became his best-known work. He titled it after its most picturesque—though actually not central—character.
With a contemporary sensibility and a creative desire to pursue innovative stagecraft, Lopez-Ochoa soon realized, upon reading the story, that she needed to make changes to the literary artifact. “Why was this called Carmen if the tragedy is Don José’s?” she asks, given how the narrative is skewed toward the young soldier who, spellbound by the unfaithful Carmen, veers into criminality.
Miami City Ballet dancers rehearse Miami City Ballet’s “Carmen” with principal dancer Dawn Atkins. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
“And I didn’t like the way Carmen was presented,” says Lopez-Ochoa. “She’s a gypsy who’s a thief. And there’s all this talk about her curves and cleavage.”
Turned off by such ethnic stereotyping and objectifying of women, Lopez-Ochoa further felt distanced by conventional dance versions of the tale, which served as vehicles for particular ballerinas.
French choreographer Roland Petit’s staging from 1949, for example, spiced up the flavor of Seville with Paris-cabaret sexiness, showing off the sultry gifts of his wife Zizi Jeanmaire in the lead. Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso came up with a one-act, expressionistic treatment—passions at a peak, Spanish elements saturated in ritual—which premiered at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre in 1967, scandalizing Soviet authorities with its libertine fervor and the unorthodox instrumentation and rhythmic compression of Bizet’s musical themes in a suite by Rodion Shchedrin. He’d written the score to gift to his wife, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who possessed it with verve through Alonso’s choreography.
“But Carmen is an archetype,” points out Lopez-Ochoa. “So, I kept asking myself who she would be these days.”
Then a friend directed her to the real-life story of Molly Bloom, who ran afoul of the law for organizing underground poker games after her Olympic dreams were ruined by a skiing injury. Lopez-Ochoa watched a 2017 film based on Bloom’s 2014 memoir, Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game,” and it opened the way for her Carmen to get a backstory.
“Molly’s father was very much an authoritarian,” explains Lopez-Ochoa. “He tells her she got into trouble because she wanted to have power over powerful men. And I thought, ‘Hah! That is my Carmen.’ ”
Stepping Into Carmen’s Shoes
Having read de Merimée’s original novella—and danced in the corps for a stage version at Boston Ballet—MCB principal Dawn Atkins built her portrayal of Carmen (paired with the dramatically authoritative Stanislav Olshanskyi as Don José and Brooks Landegger, cool-guy crisp as his rival, Escamillo) attuned to the contrasts in the movie.
“Molly‘s very strong and calculating,” says Atkins. “Rarely does she fall victim to her circumstances because she’s always a step ahead. I also see that in Annabelle’s Carmen.”
Endowing the character with evolving agency, the choreographer set her ballet in the world of casinos, where—despite pursuit by FBI agents—Carmen reigns by the second act. “Here you have dice and cards—the cards of fate, as she is gambling with her life and what is and isn’t legal,” says Lopez-Ochoa.
Choreographer Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa sets her ballet in a world of dice and cards in “Carmen” for Miami City Ballet (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
This plays into the choreographer’s embrace of symbolism—beloved since childhood, when postcards of the surrealistic paintings of Dalí and Magritte fired her imagination. “There’s always room for visual poetry,” she insists.
That, along with a flamenco vibe, enlivens the design (Christopher Ash for set and lighting and Mark Eric for costumes). Large dice are movable props for the dancers to pound, sit and stand on; they unfurl fans like exclamations; red roses held on their lips seem to bloom like desires. All the while they bustle about as a sort of Greek chorus.
Lopez-Ochoa brought in her established musical collaborator, Juan Pablo Acosta. to arrange the opera’s treasured melodies and provide original music. She says, “I asked him to do anything he wanted as long as it sounded like Bizet. He’s Colombian and has a band known for bachata, so it’s wonderful for dance that he’s very good at rhythms.”
Ready For a Challenge
A figure designated as Fate here shadows Carmen, sweeping the floor with a ruffled train and sporting a skull mask, the golden horns of a bull at the end of his arms. For MCB principal soloist Cameron Catazaro, impersonating this character, especially when partnering his lead ballerina (Atkins), has been an intriguing challenge.
“Acting on stage is one of my favorite things, but here with my hands and face covered, I depend on the rest of my body to make this creature look more vital. And I have to be super aware of where I’m stepping so as not to get tangled.”
Dawn Atkins and Cameron Catazaro rehearse Miami City Ballet’s “Carmen.” Choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
In a different cast, he’ll dance Don José (opposite Hannah Fischer’s Carmen), expanding dramatic reach as his obsessive love turns lethal. “Even here there are so many special moves,” he says, “like different hand grips I would’ve never imagined.” This opportunity for artistic growth and the thrill of originating such impactful roles makes him feel privileged.
Atkins likewise recognizes this career capstone.
“The last scene especially is quite powerful,” she says. “I have to exhale when I step off at the end because of what happens in the storyline. I find it all very emotional and hope that also resonates with the audience.”
WHAT: Miami City Ballet’s “Carmen”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27
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, May 3; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4
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
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Dimensions Dance’s ‘Salon Series’ At the Moss Center Invites Audience Into Process
Written By Guillermo Perez March 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Choreographer Melissa Verdecia coaches dancers from Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami for her piece “Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separé (Vignettes on Love”), which will be presented as part of DDTM’s “Salon Series” at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center with three performances on Friday, March 14, Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)
On a proscenium stage, dance beckons with a wide focus on a bustling panorama. But up close and personal, artists in motion—through breath and pulse, working muscles and joints, even flashing thoughts registered on faces and sinew—share intimacies as if in a private domain. It’s into that privileged space—and the process of creation and interpretation—that Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami (DDTM) has been taking audiences with its Salon Series since 2017. This year’s promising edition, at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center’s cozy Lab Theater, is on Friday, March 14, Saturday, March 15 through Sunday, March 16.
“This format builds a stronger connection between our dancers, our choreographers, and our audiences, exposing them to new pieces before the official premiere,” says Jennifer Kronenberg, who along with Carlos Guerra is co-artistic director of DDTM. “Introducing works in progress really gives people a behind-the-scenes peek into what we do on a daily basis. Supporters never fail to let us know how blown away they are by this.”
Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami dancer Chloe Freytag rehearsing “Valley of Shadows,” choreography by Selah Jane Oliver. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre)
With the present show, where the artistic directors serve as moderators, Kronenberg and Guerra further fulfill their foundational goal — to support work by women choreographers. Adding family value to the endeavor, three among the four creators on the bill are company insiders. DDTM dancer Selah Jane Oliver and frequent guest artist Melissa Verdecia (previously with New York’s Ballet Hispánico) represent the home front—respectively with “Valley of Shadows” and “Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separe (Vignettes on Love)”—as Miami natives and New World School of the Arts graduates. Emily Bromberg, a former principal soloist at Miami City Ballet and a steady anchor performing with Dimensions for more than two seasons, will contribute her second work for the troupe. “Found But Not Lost” is attuned to her psychology background and familial interactions in addressing elder-memory loss and preservation.
“The point of this experience isn’t to put competitive pressure on these choreographers. We just want them to have a space to create freely and temporarily step into a leadership role. And that’s not always easy—choreographing for your peers,” says Kronenberg.
Choreographer Melissa Verdecia works with Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami dancers on her piece “Hasta Que La Muerte Nos Separé (Vignettes on Love),” which will be presented as part of DDTM’s “Salon Series.” (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)
Here Dimensions also reaches across North America to include a choreographer who lays evidence before our eyes for the thriving future of dance. In recent seasons, the South Florida company turned to Quebec native Helen Simoneau, a Salon Series participant, to enhance their repertoire with gripping, in-synch-with-our-times choreography. And the upcoming program again looks up to Canada by featuring Alysa Pires.
A native of the traditional W̱SÁNEĆ territory in British Columbia, Pires received her college education in Toronto and her works have been produced by several companies in her country, including the National Ballet of Canada. In 2023, New York City Ballet commissioned her “Standard Deviation,” making her the first Canadian woman to create a work for NYCB.
Alysa Pires works with Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami dancer Rafael Ruiz del Vizo in her ballet “In Between.” (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)
It was just before she served as choreographic associate at National Ballet of Canada from 2019 to 2022 that Pires developed, over two years through the company’s Choreographic Workshop, her career-threshold creation. “In Between” premiered in 2018 and will debut in the United States as part of this DDTM season.
“In the salon programs, we are really choosing the choreographers and not the pieces per se,” says Kronenberg. “We want to provide a creative platform and exposure to those artists, some being locals who stand to benefit from the workshopping opportunity. In the case of Alysa, who’s an established choreographer, we seize the opportunity to introduce our audiences to a fantastically inspiring artist and human, letting her share a bit about her work before the public sees it on the Moss main stage in July.”
With a reminder of dance’s ephemeral nature, Pires says, “It’s a privilege to bring a work back to life. Each one I make is a sort of time capsule. My memories live inside the movement. Remounting a work is like getting into a time machine. And ‘In Between’ is special because it marked a huge turning point for me. My first rehearsal was just two weeks after my wedding. Revisiting this dance returns me to that feeling of great hope and excitement.”
Dimensions Dance Theatre’s Chloe Freytag and Eric Paz rehearse “Valley of Shadows,” choreography by Selah Jane Oliver. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre)
It’s not rare for choreographers to alter a work with each of its incarnations, and Pires says, “Though I didn’t make any major edits this time, I always tweak and tinker, often to better suit the cast of dancers. The beauty of staging a work on a new group is seeing how the same steps can be interpreted differently by artists who breathe new life into them. It’s like hearing a great cover of a song you love.”
At its origin “In Between” immersed a small group of dancers in a physical exploration. “It was my first time working with pointe shoes,” says Pires.
But that crossing of borders between the contemporary and the classical meant more than just technical fluidity for Pires. The work arises from a spirit that is longingly split between regions—a very recognizable situation for many South Floridians.
“Even when I’m making something purely abstract in the studio,” says Pires, “I can’t help being who I am in everyday life, and that comes into the work. I grew up on Vancouver Island but have lived in Toronto for nearly two decades. Calling both places home, I am equally comfortable in each, but while I am in one place I always feel homesick for the other. “In Between” is full of images of water and waves, the ebb and flow of the tide like the constant push and pull between two places.”
Dimensions Dance Theatre’s Jessica Arechavaleta and Ariel Morilla rehearse “Valley of Shadows,” choreography by Selah Jane Oliver. (Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami)
The piece has an original score by Pires’s husband, Adam Sakiyama, whose own Vancouver Island upbringing lets him identify with her geographical impressions. He’s manifested these through violin, piccolo, glockenspiel, and rumbling percussion suggestive of rolling surf, lighting strikes, and thunder. A calm sea awaits in a piano solo.
“Adam and I have a unique way of working together,” says Pires. “Often, I’ll create movement with no music or with a temp track, and he scores the videos of our rehearsals like a film. He’ll sometimes send short ideas for sections that I can use while creating in the studio. But the full score isn’t written until after I’ve made most of the movement. The back and forth is logistically challenging. Yet we’ve found this conversational collaboration is best for us.”
The possible vistas “In Between” evokes can attract any viewer, contends Pires. “Contemporary ballet has a reputation for being less accessible than narrative, but I think abstract work can actually be more so.”
Eager to hear what viewers think, the choreographer anticipates they’ll connect to the dance through its musicality, athleticism, and changing structures—and, yes, even through relationships among the dancers so as to imagine a storyline.
“It’s like you’re choosing your own adventure,” says Pires.
WHAT: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami “Salon Series”
WHERE: The Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211 St., Miami
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 16
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.
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Karen Peterson Dancers’ Forward Motion Festival: Champions Of Inclusion
Written By Carolina del Busto March 4, 2025 at 9:11 AM
“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.
Dancers Penelope Huerta and Jesus Vidal show how chair and non chair dancers can create something beautiful together in “The Axis.” (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson Dancers)
“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.”
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.
South Korea-based dancers Sunsik Yoo and Jeonghoon Kim perform “The Moving Mountain”. (Photo by Raquel Alvarez)
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.”
Karen Peterson Dancers Penelope Huerta, Sun Young Park, and Jesus Vidal perform “The Axis”. (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson Dancers)
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.
In the collaborative piece, “The Axis,” dancers from both the Karen Peterson Dancers and the Light Sound Friends come together. (Photo courtesy of Karen Peterson Dancers)
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.”
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
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Intense bonds, fiery chemistry fuel Flamenco Festival Miami XVI
Written By Helena Alonso Paisley February 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM
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.”
Patricia Guerrero in a new work, “Alter Ego,” which will be presented on the final night of Flamenco Festival Miami XVI on Sunday, March 9. (Photo by Beatrix Molner, courtesy of the Arsht Center)
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.”
Eva Yerbabuena says that “Yerbagüena (Dark Bright)” is “an exploration of light and darkness, rigidity and flaccidity, that is, everything that is opposite”. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).
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.
In “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante),” Eva Yerbabuena shares the stage with seven musicians, four of them first-class singers. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).
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 seven dancers of Manuel Liñán’s company will open the XVI Flamenco Festival on Wednesday, March 5, with “Muerta de Amor,” which was awarded as the best show of the Seville Biennial 2024. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).
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.”
In “Muerta de Amor,” which opens the Miami Flamenco Festival 2025, on Wednesdsay, March 5, Manuel Liñán breaks with the stereotypes of flamenco to reveal his authentic “self.”‘ (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).
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”
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.
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At the Moss Center: Twyla Tharp Talks About Her Company’s 60th Anniversary
Written By Sean Erwin February 25, 2025 at 8:26 PM
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.
From left, Twyla Tharp dancers Molly Rumble, Miriam Gittens and Reed Tankersley perform “SLACKTIDE,” choreography by Twyla Tharp. (Photo courtesy of Studio Aura)
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 60th 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.
Twyla Tharp dancers, Miriam Gitten and Oliver Greene-Cramer. (Photo by Mark Seliger, courtesy of Twyla Tharp Dance Company)
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 Twyla Tharp Dance Company performs in its 60th Anniversary Jubilee on Saturday, March 1 and 3 p.m., Sunday, March 2. (Photo by Mark Seliger, courtesy of Twyla Tharp Dance Company)
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.
Twyla Tharp dancer Oliver Greene-Cramer performs “SLACKTIDE,” choreography by Twyla Tharp. (Photo courtesy of Studio Aura)
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.”
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.
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Dance NOW! Miami’s Partnership With Portuguese Co. Takes On Oppression, Resistance
Written By Guillermo Perez February 24, 2025 at 11:06 AM
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.
Kirsten Velasco in rehearsal for Dance NOW! Miami’s “Blue Pencil.” (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier/courtesy of DNM)
“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.”
Choreographers and artistic directors, Solange Melo (Dança em Diálogos), Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten (Photo courtesy of Dance NOW! Miami).
“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.”
Dance NOW! Miami’s “Drawing Circles.” From left, Anthony Velazquez, Benicka J. Grant, Allyn Ginns Ayers and Luke Stockton. (Photo by Jenny Abreu/courtesy of DNM)
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.
The dancers of Dance NOW! Miami (DNM), from left, Austin Duclos, Alexander Campbell and Anni Browne in rehearsal for “Blue Pencil.” (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier courtesy of DNM)
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.
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Review: STYX The Company’s irresistible charm comes through in ‘Not a Ballet’
Written By Orlando Taquechel February 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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.
STYX The Company dancers in “Fallen Swan,” choreography by Daniela Cepero. (Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company)
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.
Mika Santo in “Loophole,” choreography by Jade Mesa. (Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company)
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.
Brianna Campbell in “Forgetting Coda,” choreography by Rachel Abelenda.(Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company).
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.
Rachel Abelenda and Clarissa Castañeda in “I Am Plant,” choreography by Brianna Campbell. (Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company).
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.
STYX The Company dancers in “Not a Variation,” choreography by Brianna Campbell. (Photo by Juan E. Cabrera, courtesy of STYX The Company).
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?”
Euphoric closing (confetti and standing ovation included) for the successful performance of STYX The Company at the Seminole Theater in downtown Homestead. (Photo: Video screenshot taken by the author)
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.
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Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez Is Leaving The Miami City Ballet, So What’s Next?
Written By Michelle F. Solomon, Artburst Editor February 14, 2025 at 6:15 PM
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.”
Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez rehearsing with Miami City Ballet dancers. (Photo by Daniel Azoulay/courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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.
Lourdes Lopez became artistic director of Miami City Ballet in 2012. (Photo by George Kamper/courtesy of 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.
Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez and Stanislav Olshanskyi rehearsing “Swan Lake” for Miami City Ballet. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev/courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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 30th 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.
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A Nonconforming Ballet Heats Up Miami City Ballet’s ‘Winter Mix’
Written By Guillermo Perez February 11, 2025 at 2:52 PM
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.
Miami City Ballet’s Steven Loch rehearses “Coincident Dances” by award-winning choreographer Pam Tanowitz for Miami City Ballet’s “Winter Mix” opening at the Arsht Center on Friday, Feb. 14. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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.
Choreographer Pam Tanowitz with dancer Ethan Rodrigues rehearsing “Coincident Dances,” having its world premiere with the Miami City Ballet. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
“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.
Adrienne Carter in rehearsal for Pam Tanowitz’s “Coincident Dances” for the Miami City Ballet’s “Winter Mix.” (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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.”
Hannah Fischer and Ashley Knox rehearsing the Miami City Ballet of Pam Tanowitz’s “Coincident Dances.” (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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.”
Choreographer Pam Tanowitz with dancer Hannah Fisher rehearsing “Coincident Dances,” having its world premiere with the Miami City Ballet. (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)
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 Jungfor 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
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.
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Peter London’s ‘After Landing’ Ponders Resilience, Legacy and What’s Ahead
Written By Sean Erwin December 23, 2024 at 2:14 PM
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.
Clinton Harris and Sierra Taylor dance “Touch Me One Last Time” with choreography by Kashia Kancey. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)
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.
From left, dancers Armand Young, Carlos Realegeno, Camilo Toro, Clinton Harris and Sierra Taylor perform “Inner Ritual,” choreography by Peter London. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)
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.”
From left, dancers Carlos Realegeno, Yanil Pabon and Camilo Toro perform “Carmen” with choreography by Peter London. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)
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.”
Dancers, at bottom, Carlos Realegeno, Armand Young and Clinton Harris; standing Camilo Toro with Sierra Taylor in “Ascension” choreography by Peter London. (Photo courtesy of Gregory Reed)
“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.
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.
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Reimagining Tradition: Dance NOW! Miami’s Bold Take on ‘The Nutcracker’
Written By Sean Erwin December 17, 2024 at 3:25 PM
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.
Dance NOW! Miami performers, Julia Faris and Austin Duclos perform, “Clara,” choreographed by Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)
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.
Dance NOW! Miami performers Allyn Ginns-Ayers, left, and Rae Wilcoxson perform “Clara,” choreographed by Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)
“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.
From left, Dance NOW! Miami performers David Jewett and Anthony Velazquez perform, “Clara,” choreographed by Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)
“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.
From left, Dance NOW! Miami’s Anthony Velazquez, Luke Stockton, Allyn-Ginns Ayers and Benicka Grant perform, “Drawing Circles,” choreographed by Diego Salterini. (Photo courtesy of Simon Soong)
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
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.
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