George Balanchine

Review: Fall for Dance Opens With Miami City Ballet

Luring new dance audiences, through cheap tickets and crowd-pleasing variety, has been a goal of Fall for Dance since its inception in 2004. The 12th edition of the festival opened on Wednesday at City Center, and the program, one of the most memorable in recent Fall for Dance history, must have produced at least a few converts. “Did you fall for dance?” asks a discount voucher in the program, urging ticket buyers, a little desperately, to come back for more.

If you can relax into that evangelical atmosphere, and the crowds, Fall for Dance is potentially a lot of fun, even for the already dance-obsessed.

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Exploring the Art of Michele Oka Doner

In this recent article published in The Wall Street Journal, we get an inside look in to Ms. Oka Doner’s NYC loft, as well as glimpse at the costumes she is designing for Miami City Ballet’s reimagined production of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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George Balanchine’s ‘Dream’ highlights Miami City Ballet’s 30th season

Miami City Ballet has announced an ambitious slate of programming for its 30th anniversary season in 2015-2016. It features four company premieres, highlighted by the most significant George Balanchine work the troupe has done in years: the choreographer’s evening-length version of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A host of major and popular dances from the company’s repertoire are also featured.

Dream, on Program Four, promises to be one of MCB’s most ambitious productions ever. Balanchine choreographed the original 1962 ballet with MCB founding artistic director Edward Villella as the fairy king Oberon, and the cast includes 24 children and six vocalists. MCB will bring in two collaborators to help re-imagine the work in a South Florida context: acclaimed Miami playwright and director Tarell Alvin McCraney, who will do the dramatic direction, with renowned Miami Beach-born visual artist Michele Oka Doner creating new costumes and sets.

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Open Barre: Inside Glimpse of Ballet

Miami City Ballet’s Open Barre dance series returns to its intimate studio theater in South Beach on March 13 and 14 with a rarely-seen glimpse into the lifetime of training, discipline and artistry practiced by aspiring professional ballet dancers.

Open Barre: Practice Makes Perfect; The Evolution of a Dancer will feature performances from the MCB School Ensemble, including excerpts from Harald Lander’s Études, a one-act ballet that begins with traditional ballet exercises at the barre and ends with spectacular displays by advanced students,and will close with George Balanchine’s colorful and exuberant Western Symphony.

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MCB’s Balanchine, Tharp and Alston Come Off Beautifully

Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez’s vision for Miami City Ballet was apparent in the tasteful programming of Saturday’s performance at the Kravis Center, with the de rigueur Balanchine work leading off the evening followed by two company premieres.

Lopez who has been “shopping” for new works that would flatter and challenge the company, has been successful. For Program III: Passion and Grace, she brought a rarely seen contemporary work by avant-garde choreographer Tywla Tharp and a sleek contemporary take on the tale of Carmen by British choreographer Richard Alston. Like Balanchine, both of these dance-makers are known for their extremely musical choreography.

The program, ruled by the Delgado sisters, Patricia and Jeanette, with a welcomed sprinkling of new faces doing lead roles, was appealing, well-balanced and well-danced. The company looked strong and confident. The Opus One Orchestra played with gusto and aplomb and the production values were polished and refined.

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Miami City Ballet School Ensemble to Dance at Open Barre

Miami City Ballet’s next generation of dancers will be featured in the company’s Open Barre studio performance series, with the troupe’s new MCB School Ensemble performing.

The show, entitled Practice Makes Perfect: The Evolution of a Dancer, will feature the ensemble performing George Balanchine’s exuberant cowboy and dancehall girl romp Western Symphony, as well as excerpts from Harald Lander’s Études, which evokes the life of a young dancer from exercises to accomplished solos. The evening also includes a talk with MCB School director Darleen Callaghan and faculty member Maria TorijaMCB principal dancer Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg will sign copies of her book So, You Want to be a Ballet Dancer?

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Secouer le Cocotier du Miami City Ballet

Réputé pour ses danseurs surentraînés, rompus aux chorégraphies de George Balanchine, le Miami City Ballet (MCB) revient en force à Ottawa dans un triple programme après plus d’une décennie d’absence.

«Encourager le changement», c’est la raison que Cathy Levy, productrice en danse du CNA nous avait donnée pour justifier ce retour en scène canadienne, dès demain soir et jusqu’à samedi.

L’histoire de sa nouvelle directrice Lourdes Lopez, à la barre du MCB depuis 2012, c’est avant tout celle d’une réussite à part entière dans le monde de la danse. Née à LaHavane, elle n’a pas deux ans quand la révolution cubaine éclate. «Nous sommes arrivés à Miami avec mes proches en tant qu’immigrants, sans argent, rappelle-t-elle. Les États-Unis nous ont permis de repartir de l’avant et de progresser.»

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Miami City Ballet Takes Vancouver

This month our dancers left behind the warm South Florida weather and headed to Vancouver, British Columbia for a weekend of special performances. Hosted by Ballet BC, the Company presented a full program of masterworks by George Balanchine with performances of Serenade, Symphony in Three Movements and Ballo della Regina. The performances, which received rave reviews, marked the company’s debut in Vancouver.

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Carmen by Miami City Ballet

Miami City Ballet proudly presents the American premiere of Richard Alston’s critically-acclaimed Carmen, a flamenco-fueled, modernist take on the classic tale of passion and betrayal. Plus, the company premiere of Twyla Tharp’s Sweet Fields, and George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante. The venue to enjoy this performance will be our Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, season home of Miami City Ballet.

The 18th-century hymns and egalitarian beliefs of the Shakers were Twyla Tharp’s inspiration for Sweet Fields – a joyous, ethereal celebration of innocence and simplicity.

George Balanchine’s dazzling Allegro Brillante is a testament to the beauty, strength and grace of the human spirit, set to a vigorous Tchaikovsky score. As Balanchine once said, “It contains everything I know about classical ballet in thirteen minutes.”

Alston/Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite adapted from Bizet, will be widely acclaimed for its brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere and orchestration. Miami City Ballet, one of America’s Most-Beloved Dance Companies, will reward ballet enthusiasts in the Greater West Palm Beach with a new production of the story of seductive, defiant Carmen in a show of neo-classical dancing with traditional costumes.

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Miami City Ballet aptly tells Balanchine’s stories

When Balanchine stated that two dancers on stage make a story, he opened up new possibilities in storytelling and in ballet choreography. In Vancouver, Miami City Ballet presents three of Balanchine’s most succesful stories spanning over forty years — Ballo della Regina (1978), Symphony in Three Movements (1972) and Serenade (1934).

The evening opened with Ballo della Regina, created as a virtuoso ballet for then-principal dancer of New York City Ballet, Merrill Ashley. The pomp of Verdi’s score and the choreography set high expectations, that were met with a few challenges in this performance.

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