Miami City Ballet Plays To Win With A ‘Carmen’ For Our Time

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

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

 INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

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