The MCB Dancers in Why We Dance

“Ballet is so hard. It’s hard on your body, and it’s hard on your mind… we’re constantly pushing ourselves.”
For its 30th Anniversary, MCB asked members from every rank of the company to tell their stories; what inspired them to devote their lives to dance.

“This career is really a race against time. It’s such a fleeting moment, but there’s nothing more beautiful or more euphoric.”

To dance in one of the world’s top ballet companies is to perform on the knife’s edge between athleticism and artistry: testing the boundaries of human performance, preserving and interpreting a centuries-old tradition, and incubating new choreographic visions while pushing the art form into the 21st century.

“That’s the challenge – hiding the pain behind the beauty. You have to maintain your body as an instrument; otherwise, everything starts to fall apart.”

Why We Dance captures private thoughts and moments from the lives of MCB dancers that audiences never see. Young artists at the peak of their physical and artistic abilities, preparing their minds and bodies for a burst of expression that exists only for a moment, and is gone.

“Right before the curtain goes up, there’s this moment of truth – you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s just you and the music and the audience, and it’s just … magic.”

Miami City Ballet’s Why We Dance premiered online January 6, 2015 at teenvogue.com.


WHY WE DANCE
The Dancers of Miami City Ballet’s 30th Anniversary Season

A film by Ezra Hurwitz
Score by Aaron Roche and Brian Petuch
DP Carlos Reyes