Dear Friends,

There has been a lot written about Miami City Ballet’s reimagining of George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and, from my perspective, perhaps too much. The simple truth is that I wanted to demonstrate the universality of Balanchine’s choreography (and Shakespeare’s sublime play) by revealing them in a new and richly suggestive setting.

Both the play and the ballet follow the romantic adventures and misadventures, quarrels and reconciliations, of two pairs of mortal lovers as well as of Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies. And so it is at heart a ballet about the transforming power of love.

We can’t believe it’s already been a month since the end of our 2014-2015 season. Since then, our dancers have been enjoying their first 6-week layoff before returning to the studios for rehearsals in June.

This week, we caught up with soloist Jennifer Lauren, who shared all about her recent European adventure with fellow dancer, principal Rainer Krenstetter.

Jennifer writes —

I was thrilled when Rainer asked if I was available to dance at The 6th International Dance Gala in Graz, Austria. We were chosen to dance George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes, which is one of my favorite pieces to perform. 

This week on the MCB Summer 2015 blog series, we caught up with corps de ballet member Leigh-Ann Esty, who is spending some time in NYC this month.

Leigh-Ann writes —

This spring I was asked to participate in a choreographic workshop with some of my coworkers. Ariel Rose, a fellow MCB corps de ballet member, asked me in March if I would be willing to spend a month in New York City working with him. He received a choreography fellowship through the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Who wouldn’t want to hang out in the Big Apple for a month?! 

Since closing MCB’s 2014-2015 in Broward last month, our dancers have been enjoying some much-needed time off. From teaching to traveling, this summer promises plenty of exciting adventures, which we will be sharing in our MCB Summer 2015 blog series. If you’ve ever wondered what professional dancers do off the stage, you’re about to find out.

Today we spotlight a very exciting accomplishment for corps de ballet member Samantha Galler, who recently celebrated her college graduation!

Beloved ballerina Mary Carmen Catoya’s performance in George Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations on Sunday April 19, 2015 at 2pm at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, marked the conclusion of her distinguished sixteen-year tenure with Miami City Ballet.

Following her departure from MCB at the end of this season, Ms. Catoya will continue her career as an acclaimed ballerina, appearing as a guest artist both nationally and internationally.