‘Peck: In Motion’: One Choreographer, Three Dances in MCB’s Season Opener

Shimon Ito in “Heatscape” choreographed by Justin Peck. It is one of three ballets that make up Miami City Ballet’s season opener, “Peck in Motion.” (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

Dances can be a temporary dwelling for performers to inhabit and audiences to gaze into, the push and pull, yield and resistance on stage as intense as it is contained. As such, the works on the opening program of Miami City Ballet’s 40th anniversary season welcome some to a homecoming and others to a housewarming.

“Peck: Miami in Motion” features the local return of three ballets by a choreographer whose history is intimately entwined with Miami City Ballet. Performances are at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center Friday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 19 and Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Saturday, Nov. 1 and Sunday, Nov. 2. Whether fixed in memory or about to be discovered, each piece offers the pleasure of artistic continuity.

Tricia Albertson, right, performed for 26 years with MCB. Here’s she’s shown in “Chutes and Ladders” with with Renato Penteado, choreographed by Justin Peck. Albertson now serves as rehearsal director for the season-opening”Peck: In Motion.” (Photo by Alexander Iziliaev)

Justin Peck, New York City Ballet’s resident choreographer for the past eleven years, received his first major commission outside his home company from MCB (in collaboration with New World Symphony) in 2013. That duet, “Chutes and Ladders,” was followed in two years by MCB’s world premiere of “Heatscape” to Bohuslav Martinů’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Its references to South Florida’s environment and personality, laid out in a contemporary but classically informed esthetic, marked a high point in the company repertory, which gained more Peck panache in 2016 with “Year of the Rabbit,” which premiered at NYCB four years earlier.

Peck recognizes the special nature of the MCB commissions early in his career. He found not only the right creative conditions here but also personal connections.  Many MCB dancers shared the formative influence of his time at New York’s School of American Ballet and its Balanchine foundation, a few among these even bonded to him in friendship.

Peck has praised the eager attitude and sprightly talent of the MCB originators, pointing to their “very distinct personalities that came together in a balanced way”—something which importantly holds true for the current casts.

Adrienne Carter in rehearsal for “Heatscape,” choreographed by Justin Peck. (Photo courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

In the bouquet of praise he offers the company, a prize rose must go to former MCB principal Patricia Delgado, who contributed Miami-native radiance to her role in “Heatscape,” a ballet inspired by the Miami sunshine, especially as it streams over the murals at Wynwood Walls.

It was Shepard Fairey’s bold creations that impressed Peck enough for him to have this street artist design the mandala backdrop that spreads spiritual luminosity over “Heatscape.”

Artistic admiration between Delgado and Peck blossomed into romance, and they went on to get married. Today she’s part of a team that helps set Peck’s ballets. The two also collaborate on other film and stage projects. This year, they won the Tony Award for best choreography for the musical “Buena Vista Social Club.“ It was Peck’s third, after winning the award in 2018 for “Carousel” and last year for “Illinoise.”

Along with Peck and Delgado, the current MCB re-staging of the choreographer’s works has been under the care of Patricia’s sister, Jeanette—another former MCB ballerina who put her special stamp on roles—and company rehearsal directors Arnold Quintane and Tricia Albertson, who was a lead in the original productions.

Given that most dancers in the present program have no previous experience with the works, Albertson emphasizes the importance of veterans who guide newcomers toward their own claim in Peck’s colorful, bustling, and sometimes sanctuary-like spaces.

While making sure everything is resonating in each ballet, she explains, “I like to let the principals settle into the steps with their own take, while more often with the corps I try to clarify intention. I emphasize the differences among the ballets to show clearly, for example, how the energy behind ‘Year of the Rabbit’ differs from that of ‘Heatscape.’ It’s pretty cool to rehearse all these ballets from just one choreographer—this sort of evening isn’t common—realizing how even when certain steps repeat, they register so differently in each context.”

With her insider’s perspective on each work, Albertson describes how “Chutes and Ladders,” to Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 1, with the musicians seated upstage from the dancing couple, “creates a very intimate force field. There are energetic pops, but you almost get into a meditative state. Justin has such a great way of using the arms, adding to the impression that the dancers have become instruments themselves.”

After a two-year absence from Miami City Ballet dancing at Carolina Ballet, Shimon Ito makes his return. (Photo courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

“Year of the Rabbit” moves to the orchestrated score based on a Sufjan Stevens electronica album, its dance segments labeled according to animals in the Chinese zodiac. While not explicitly mimicking their moves, from scuttling to pounces the choreography does have a vigor that drives friendly and fierce moves into the fantastic.

“It’s high intensity,” says the rehearsal director, “and then Justin puts in a duet as beautiful as moving through water. This state feels very sacred yet leads into a finale that’s really aggressive.”

Albertson agrees that in Peck’s “Heatscape,” sunshine and sociability are the keys, something she was happy to see even members of Finnish National Ballet grasp—though cultured in those never-ending Nordic winter nights—when she and a colleague worked with the Finnish dancers a few years ago on the piece.

According to Albertson, the challenge lies in maintaining precision in acceleration. Quick switches, she says, “can be really difficult. Your body always has to be on alert just to stay on track.”

One dancer more than ready for this is Shimon Ito, whose detailed physicality stood out when the ballet debuted at MCB. After a two-year absence from MCB dancing at Carolina Ballet, Ito feels he can bring a deeper understanding and more comfortable calibration to his trio (with first-timers Anabel Katsnelson and Guillermo Dominguez) interwoven throughout “Heatscape.”

“The choreography immediately challenges the dancers,” says Ito. “The movements are so big, so quick, and that defines Justin’s piece as we play off each other.  In the end, there’s a stronger relationship among the group.”

Such camaraderie extends off-stage as he now gets to share his long view. He says, “It’s nice to reciprocate and pass what I’ve learned from others on to the new dancers.” Among these, soloist Satoki Habuchi stands out as a former student of his in Japan who’s been initiated into Ito’s “Heatscape” role for the second cast.

Anabel Katsnelson rehearsing an intricate pose with Guillermo Dominguez and Shimon Ito in “Heatscape” trio. (Photo courtesy of Miami City Ballet)

This kind of networking through art enthuses MCB’s newly appointed artistic director Gonzalo Garcia, which he made clear on a recent panel in Wynwood, steps away from murals like those that gave impetus to “Heatscape.” During his own time at NYCB, Garcia danced in Peck’s “Rodeo” and was further drawn into the choreographer’s circle through Ezra Hurwitz, a retired MCB dancer turned filmmaker who is Garcia’s husband.

A present thus informed by the past creates a sturdy springboard toward an exciting future.  As Garcia puts it, “This is an important time to raise expectations for all the years to come—an opportunity to reinvent and open doors to fresh initiatives.”

 WHAT:  Miami City Ballet’s “Peck: Miami in Motion”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17; 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 18, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19.

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, Nov. 1; 1 and 6:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 2.

COST: $45, $67, $90, $100, $106, $118, $134, $140, $205, $214, $225, $263, depending on showtime and venue.

INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or miamicityballet.org

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