Miami City Ballet to debut at New York’s Lincoln Center

Miami City Ballet will make its debut at New York’s Lincoln Center next April, capping off its 30th anniversary season by performing in one of the most storied and important theaters in the world.

The shows were announced Tuesday by the Joyce Theater Foundation, which will present MCB at the David H. Koch Theater, home to the New York City Ballet.

“It’s a landmark season, and to go to New York and celebrate this great company with New York audiences is a confluence of events one could only dream about,” MCB executive director Michael Scolamiero said Tuesday.

The troupe will perform April 13-17 in two programs that will include the three major original ballets that MCB has commissioned since 2012: Justin Peck’s Heatscape, Alexei Ratmansky’s Symphonic Dances, and Liam Scarlett’s Viscera.

The full Miami company has not performed in New York since their Manhattan debut at New York’s City Center in 2009. (MCB dancers have performed several times, most recently last month, at City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, also presented by the Joyce.)

Linda Shelton, the Joyce’s executive director, said she proposed the Lincoln Center season to MCB artistic director Lourdes Lopez, who danced with New York City Ballet for more than two decades, approximately two years ago.

“We said, you let us know when you’re ready,” Shelton said Tuesday. Positive reviews of MCB by New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay have helped stoke New Yorkers’ interest in the troupe, Shelton said, as have the new dances by some of the most acclaimed artists in ballet. Peck is resident choreographer at NYCB, while Ratmansky and Scarlett are artists in residence at American Ballet Theater and England’s Royal Ballet, respectively.

“They have a [repertory] that hasn’t been seen here, new works commissioned by the company,” Shelton says. “The company looks really great right now; all of the dancers stand out to me. Justin Peck has done work here, but the work he’s done in Miami is quite good.”

Scolamiero says MCB’s leaders finally felt the time was right. “We wanted to put our best foot forward,” he says. “[Lopez] wanted to do it at the right time in the way that would best showcase the company.”

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