Latest news with #MiamiCityBallet
Miami Herald
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Miami City Ballet plays to win with a ‘Carmen' for our time
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 through Sunday, 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. '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. '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. 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, personifying 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.' 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.' If you go: 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 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
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Miami City Ballet's artistic director is leaving. What's next for her and the company?
Just a day after the Miami City Ballet announced its 40th anniversary season, Lourdes Lopez, only the second artistic director since the company was founded in 1985, announced she is stepping down at the end of the season. Speaking from her Coconut Grove home, Lopez says she first wanted to dispel rumors. 'I'm in totally great health. I have energy, vitality, all that. My family is great. My husband is great. My daughters are great, knock on wood.' Lopez, 66, who was hired by the Miami City Ballet in 2012 and officially became the artistic director in May 2013, had two years left on her contract and says her departure was not a decision she took lightly. However, she felt there was something more she could do for the arts in Miami. While her new vision is still in what she calls 'the hypothetical stage,' Lopez wants to be a centrifugal force in building a stronger collaborative infrastructure for all arts groups in Miami to work together. 'There's a vitality to Miami; it's an international city, and there are these pockets of neighborhoods. But there are also certain things within its infrastructure that make it difficult for the arts to truly flourish,' she says. She rattles off names of some of Miami's professional companies — Nu Deco, Miami New Drama, New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, and, of course, Miami City Ballet. 'They are producing some high-level quality work on our stages, really impressive programming,' but she concludes that everyone is fighting for the same audience. 'We have the same donors, the same boards. We're all sort of eating each other's lunch. Is there a way to pull our resources together and put all of that under one roof?' She cites an example of Florida Grand Opera presenting 'Carmen,' the first major production to be directed by its new general director Maria Todero in April and only weeks before Miami City Ballet presents its world premiere of Bizet's 'Carmen' by internationally known Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. 'But what if, in a perfect world, or a different world it would be possible for both companies to work together — some kind of shared idea where we aren't competing against each other but working together?' She sums up her new vision: 'I want to figure out the arts in Miami.' Lopez was born in Cuba in 1958. Her parents defected from the island in 1959 and she and her sisters came to the United States two years later. When she was 11, she received a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet (SAB), the New York City Ballet's official school, splitting time between Miami and New York City. At 14, she devoted to full-time studies at SAB, and, at 16 she joined the corps de ballet at the New York City Ballet. She was with NYCB for more than two decades, interpreting many of George Balanchine's and Jerome Robbins's roles as a principal dancer. The role of artistic director for the Miami City Ballet was her first time managing a large organization, she says. There was 'an extraordinary board, group of dancers and artistic team that, when I arrived and I said, 'I have a vision of what the ballet school and the company might look like,' they didn't blink.' During her tenure, she curated groundbreaking programming, including the U.S. premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's 'Swan Lake' and expanded the company's repertory with world premieres including bringing a fresh look to Balanchine's 1962 narrative masterpiece, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for the company's 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. 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
Miami Herald
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Miami City Ballet's artistic director is leaving. What's next for her and the company?
Just a day after the Miami City Ballet announced its 40th anniversary season, Lourdes Lopez, only the second artistic director since the company was founded in 1985, announced she is stepping down at the end of the season. Speaking from her Coconut Grove home, Lopez says she first wanted to dispel rumors. 'I'm in totally great health. I have energy, vitality, all that. My family is great. My husband is great. My daughters are great, knock on wood.' Lopez, 66, who was hired by the Miami City Ballet in 2012 and officially became the artistic director in May 2013, had two years left on her contract and says her departure was not a decision she took lightly. However, she felt there was something more she could do for the arts in Miami. While her new vision is still in what she calls 'the hypothetical stage,' Lopez wants to be a centrifugal force in building a stronger collaborative infrastructure for all arts groups in Miami to work together. 'There's a vitality to Miami; it's an international city, and there are these pockets of neighborhoods. But there are also certain things within its infrastructure that make it difficult for the arts to truly flourish,' she says. She rattles off names of some of Miami's professional companies — Nu Deco, Miami New Drama, New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, and, of course, Miami City Ballet. 'They are producing some high-level quality work on our stages, really impressive programming,' but she concludes that everyone is fighting for the same audience. 'We have the same donors, the same boards. We're all sort of eating each other's lunch. Is there a way to pull our resources together and put all of that under one roof?' She cites an example of Florida Grand Opera presenting 'Carmen,' the first major production to be directed by its new general director Maria Todero 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.' Early years 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. Tenure with 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. Looking ahead 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. 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
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Miami City Ballet's Artistic Leader to Step Down After 13 Years
Lourdes Lopez, the longtime artistic director of Miami City Ballet, who championed new ballets and helped to elevate the company's artistic profile, will step down from her post at the end of this season, two years before her contract expires, the company announced on Wednesday. Lopez, 66, who joined the company in 2012 and was originally scheduled to leave at the end of the 2026-27 season, said she was departing early because she had grown passionate about another project: exploring ways for Miami arts institutions to collaborate more closely. 'This has nothing to do with Miami City Ballet,' she said in an interview. 'This is really about Lourdes.' The departure of Lopez, a high-profile cultural figure who rose to fame dancing under George Balanchine at New York City Ballet, came as a surprise to Miami City Ballet's dancers, staff and some board members. While Lopez said she had been thinking about a change for more than a year, she did not make a final decision until Monday, and the news was hastily announced on Wednesday. She said she was ready for a new challenge. 'I have a lot of energy, I have ideas, I have vitality, I have urgency,' she said. 'Balanchine taught us you do it now, or you don't do it.' Jeff Davis, the chair of Miami City Ballet's board, said the company, with a budget of about $25 million, hoped to name a successor to Lopez before the start of the 2025-26 season in October. The board recently outlined a series of goals, including expanding the company's audiences and building its endowment, which is valued at about $4 million, relatively small for a company of its size. Lopez had helped raise artistic standards at the organization, Davis said. 'Her legacy is wanting to have a high-quality product that inspires a diverse crowd,' he said. During her tenure Lopez championed contemporary choreographers, and added important works to the repertory, including Alexei Ratmansky's 'Swan Lake,' which had its North American premiere in Miami in 2022 to positive reviews. In April, the company will present the world premiere of 'Carmen' by the Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Lopez also faced challenges. She helped guide Miami City Ballet through the uncertainty of the pandemic, when the company lost millions in anticipated ticket revenue. And she was at the helm last year when tensions erupted over a proposal by a group of dancers to form a union. The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union supporting the dancers, at one point accused Miami City Ballet's leaders of leading an 'aggressive, coordinated union-busting campaign.' The dancers ultimately voted not to unionize. Lopez said that in her next chapter she would work to help promote the Miami cultural scene. Too often, she said, arts groups are competing against each other. She noted that the week before Miami City Ballet's 'Carmen' in April, Florida Grand Opera is performing its own 'Carmen' at the same theater. In a time of financial uncertainty for many arts groups, Lopez said it was important to bring institutions together 'underneath one roof.' 'If you look into the future, what do you create that really protects, that cushions, the arts here in Miami?' she said. 'That's what I'm trying to figure out.'
Miami Herald
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
A nonconforming ballet heats up Miami City Ballet's ‘Winter Mix'
Speaking from her New York home base in January, choreographer Pam Tanowitz—currently held in the warmest of embraces by critics and knowing audiences—lamented the weather, confessing, 'I can't wait to come to Miami.' As the Northeast shivered through an arctic blast, she looked forward to returning to put the finishing touches on 'Coincident Dances,' the world premiere commissioned by Miami City Ballet as a red-hot component for its 'Winter Mix,' also including re-stagings of George Balanchine's 'La Valse,' a glamorous and mysterious whirl to Maurice Ravel, and 'Walpurgisnacht,' devilishly dynamic to passages from Charles Gounod's opera 'Faust.' The program opens at the Arsht Center in Miami, Friday, Feb. 14 through Sunday, Feb. 16. 'Winter Mix' continues at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, Feb. 22 and Sunday, Feb. 23 and then at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9. It's not that our subtropical climate sets the temperature for 'Coincident Dances.' But that concept amuses Tanowitz. She notes, 'Weather is like dance—ephemeral.' The choreographer further recognizes how surrounding elements seep into creation, saying, 'Life is messy, and everything can be in there.' In her case that includes motherhood and a divorce, her Jewish heritage, museum haunts and French cinema—and, yes, the environment. She references her choreography for 'The Seasons,' an opera to premiere at Boston Lyric Opera on Wednesday, March 12, the libretto by Sarah Ruhl springing from Vivaldi's concertos to tell of artists in a retreat disrupted by the weather. The collaboration, along with her concurrent MCB commission, is among the many high points on the choreographer's creative landscape. Sought-after by prominent dance companies in the United States and abroad, Tanowitz continues to head her twenty-five-year-old troupe, Pam Tanowitz Dance. Film work and a professorship of professional practice at Rutgers University extend her resume, which certifies Tanowitz as one of the busiest dance makers on the scene today. 'Though I don't need any more work, I'd feel stressed out if people stopped calling,' she admits. 'With every opportunity for me to make a dance, whether it's modern or ballet, I feel so, so lucky.' Small wonder she's mindful of self-care, faithfully putting in time at the treadmill. 'I have to do it every morning,' she says. 'It helps me focus for rehearsals.' She's been steadily holding that focus, wide and deep, to great results—two Bessie Awards, a Jacob's Pillow Dance Award, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship among her honors, all especially meaningful to a self-confessed late-bloomer. 'I'm now 55. In New York since I was 23, I'd been choreographing for a really long time before people noticed me,' points out this Westchester, New York, native and MFA holder from Sarah Lawrence College. 'I had a totally different path. I wasn't a dancer in a company who then decided to be on my own. And my company is project-based, the dancers freelance.' Various modern dance figures have informed her work, with mid-twentieth century luminary Merce Cunningham looming tall. 'I love his technique, the clean lines,' says Tanowitz. This connection comes by way of the late Viola Farber, a founding member of the Cunningham company and a force of her own, 'She was my mentor at Sarah Lawrence,' says Tanowitz about the director of dance at her college. 'She challenged me and retaught me how to dance. She changed my life.' Considering Tanowitz's trajectory, many observers single out 2019 as a wonder year. A career upswing then raised the choreographer's visibility to a starry firmament, with commissions from Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, New York City Ballet, and Britain's Royal Ballet. Contacted for the current premiere by MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez over two years ago, Tanowitz came by degrees into the company fold. At the end of 2016, to inaugurate the Faena Forum on Miami Beach, Tanowitz made 'Once With Me, Once Without Me,' a site-specific work joining her company with advanced students from MCB School. In May 2019, the same month that New York City Ballet staged 'Bartók Ballet'—its first Tanowitz piece— 'Gustave Le Gray No. 1,' a quartet created for Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet, featuring a man and a woman from each company, premiered as part of Ballet Across America at the Kennedy Center. Tanowitz explains that 'No. 1' uses ballet slippers while a 'No. 2,' for her own troupe, has the same movement base adjusted for bare feet. Tanowitz's exploration of pointe work, to be on view in 'Coincident Dances,' takes this balletic hallmark into her own territory. 'A lot of younger choreographers,' she considers, 'come into ballet to make a dance they think audiences want to see. I don't do that. I make what's interesting to me, and I always question things—an arm position or a head tilt. And I believe that's also interesting for the dancers.' MCB soloist Satoki Habuchi agrees, empowered by the choreographer's openness to contributions from the interpreters. One of seven men who, alongside eight women, make up the cast of 'Coincident Dances,' he participated as an MCB School student in the Faena project. Now more experienced in contemporary work, he's extended his talent adhering to Tanowitz's dictum 'to be a neutral version of myself. We don't have to make things bigger.' Still, even at their most natural, MCB dancers can be quite an eyeful. Habuchi tells how after Tanowitz saw him do an impactful jump in a studio class, she decided to incorporate it into her dance, labeling it the 'Satoki Special.' Principal Hannah Fischer, whose wide range in contemporary dance dates back to her days at National Ballet of Canada, appreciates how Tanowitz encourages 'honest intention.' This jives with the ballerina's belief that her art form is about mindset as much as physical exertion. 'Pam has a plan when she walks into the room, but she also lets us feel comfortable in the unknown. It's fine if we make a mistake because she might end up liking it,' she notes. Defying gender expectations, Tanowitz at one point asked if Fischer felt okay with circling the stage in a type of manège with traveling jumps usually reserved for men. Glad to take this on, the ballerina turned the opportunity into an off-the-playbook burst of excitement. Tellingly, both she and Habuchi point to a male duet—its soulfulness 'truly awesome,' says Fischer—as a standout in the dance. The choreographer is also unorthodox in not using counts in constructing phrases. Dancers take cues from the music, each other, and their internal responses. Whether in unison or in counterpoint, Fischer says she rides these currents in constant reference to the ensemble. Habuchi adds, 'We have to look at each other, and I let the music guide me emotionally.' Tanowitz is using two compositions, the scintillating 'Starburst' and 'Coincident Dances,' by Jessie Montgomery, among long-trusted collaborators—here including designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung for costumes and Brandon Stirling Baker for lighting—who bolster her conceptions. Montgomery's music, says the choreographer, 'feels very cosmopolitan—entertaining in the smartest way possible. It's very inspiring.' If you go: WHAT: Miami City Ballet's Winter Mix WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16 WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 8; 1 p.m. Sunday, March 9 COST: $25-$225, depending on show time and venue. INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or 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
