The recently formed multicultural dance troupe founded by dancer/choreographer and NWSA professor Peter London gets its first big local stage outing for “Spring Nights at the Arsht,” which is comprised of six new dances.

“The Best of the Classical Repertoire Gala” includes eight dances, two of which come from Marius Petipa from the 19th century. But the highlight of these performances is that many will be danced by six recent exiles from Cuba and the Cuban National Ballet, in their first U.S. performance, presented by artistic director Pedro Pablo Pena.

The Miami City Ballet Company (MCB) will close its 2012-2013 season this weekend at the Arsht Center with Broadway and Ballet, a valentine to Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine. No surprise there, since the MCB has been acclaimed far and wide for its devotion to the masters, especially Balanchine. What makes this program so delicious is the unpredictable pairing of the works as well as the works themselves.

The first part of the performance belongs to Jerome Robbins. So successful was he as a choreographer of Broadway musicals — “West-Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The King and I” are only a sampling of his handiwork — that it is easy to forget that Robbins loved ballet as well. And ballet as pure as it gets: that’s what his “Dances at a Gathering” is all about.

Originally created by Robbins in 1969 and set to the piano music of Chopin, it marked his return to more classical forms, most particularly pas de deux. The ballet has no props, and hardly any set. Five couples came together in no less than 18 movements, nearly all of them waltzes and Slavic mazurkas. This “Gathering,” in the hands of the rotating cast of MCB, which includes Jeanette and Patricia Delgado as well as Rene Penteado, is a nearly encyclopedic examination of flirtation. One may as often sigh at its sheer beauty of a piece as laugh aloud at its wit. There are the twists that Robbins was so fond of: a gesture at odds with the lyricism of a movement that manages to zap up its impact. And there are the times when flirtation becomes surrender. Look out then.

If the evening begins with elegance and a delight in non-narrative movement not ordinarily associated with Jerome Robbins, the evening ends with bawdiness and very nearly a funk not ordinarily associated with Balanchine. His ballet, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” was originally a play within a play, part of a Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit, “On Your Toes” from the 1930s. Several decades later Balanchine dusted off his work and expanded it into a stand-alone ballet filled with ladies of easy virtue, silly coppers, sly gangsters and a very deadly competition between two male dancers centering far more on their skill as dancers than any issues of romantic attachment. The real question seems to be, can a great classical dancer become a great hoofer if circumstances demand.

Yep. Especially with a little help from one’s friends, or in this case one Phillip Neil, tap-dancer, former New York City Ballet principal and current South Florida resident. Suddenly — that is after a bit of tutelage — several MCB members  including the great Yann Trividic, become the irrepressible hoofers and jazzistas   “Slaughter” demands. Patricia Delgado, dancing in very high heels, plays the love interest in a climax that could wake the dead.

If all this weren’t enough, on Friday night, the part of gangster gunman will be played by retired Major League Baseball catcher extraordinaire, Mike Piazza. He promises no errors.

Miami City Ballet’s Program IV Broadway and Ballet, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the Ziff Ballet Opera House, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300  Biscayne Blvd., Miami; tickets range from $20 to $175; www.arshtcenter.org.

This review also appears in Miami New Times.

Photo: Daniel Azoulay

Miami City Ballet closes out the season with Program IV, a combination of Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine with a special guest appearance from baseball great Mike Piazza.

In a single weekend, we will be able to see two of this country’s reputable dance companies, both selecting ballets made in the United States and in a variety of American styles, in one Broward setting.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts is offering a ticket deal — $99 to see both companies on two separate days. And, like many things American, each of the five ballets delivers a distinctive taste, influenced by a worldly palette. The red hot contemporary Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) will perform three of McIntyre’s ballets, flavored by traditional Basque dancing, Shakespeare and more, Friday and Saturday at the Center’s Amaturo Theater. South Florida’s Miami City Ballet (MCB) will present repertory of George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), and Jerome Robbins, best known for his Broadway choreography, Friday through Sunday at the Au-Rene Theater.

Local dance-goers might already have plans to see MCB, which conducts four programs plus The Nutcracker annually at the Broward Center (it will be in Miami at the Arsht Center May 3 through 5). They might also be familiar with the 10-member TMP, who performed there last year, led by the much sought-after choreographer McIntyre, who has created dances for ballet companies from Moscow to Santiago, New York to Chicago. Seeing both in one weekend, a viewer can observe how choreographers working in the United States have made different soups from the same stock — the stock, in this case, being classical ballet vocabulary.

Dancer Elizabeth Keller embodies many of dance’s histories and experimentations. Born in Dubai to Pittsburgh-native parents, she trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dance and in Houston and Philadelphia. Dancing with MCB for 10 seasons under founder Edward Villella, formerly a leading dancer at NYCB, she absorbed the speed, clarity and precision of Balanchine technique. Earlier, in Pennsylvania, she fell in love with Balanchine’s choreography by working on it with the French ballerina Violette Verdy, Villella’s colleague and one of Keller’s mentors. Keller remembers Verdy describing the circular movement rond de jamb in this appealing way: “Stir, stir the chocolate  fondu. It’s gooey.” A striking movement, frappé, was “sharp, sharp like cheddar cheese.”

Now in her first season with TMP, Keller challenges her ballet-trained body with new tasks. McIntyre’s rigorous choreography includes not only pointe work, but also weighty, grounded movement. Dancers are sometimes called upon to rotate their legs externally, as in ballet, but Keller now must also engage other parts of the body to work in a parallel stance. Additionally, Keller says, McIntyre “encourages us to be present and almost, in a way, vulnerable,” both in the studio and on stage. In rehearsal for Queen of the Goths (2007), loosely based on Titus Andronicus, McIntyre pushed Keller to investigate each moment and detail of choreography — “It has to mean something, it has to cost you something,” she recalls him saying about a series of gestures by her character, Tamora, who unwittingly eats a meat pie made from the remains of two of her slain sons.

MCB’s offering of Balanchine’s burlesque Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1968), based on the 1936 musical On Your Toes, tells a lighter story. And Robbins’ elegant Dances at a Gathering (1969) depicts human relationships through the physical expression of Chopin’s music. Keller says that, like Robbins, McIntyre encourages his dancers to engage with one another on stage, drawing the audience into their world and stirring their imaginations.

McIntyre’s Pass, Away, commissioned by the Broward Center and premiering this weekend, and Arrantza (2010), join Queen of the Goths on the TMP program.

This is the deal: for $99, you choose one night in an orchestra seat to see TMP, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday or Saturday; one night day or night to see MCB, on Friday at 8:00 p.m., or Saturday and Sunday at either 2:00 or 8:00 p.m. The Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Ft. Lauderdale; for tickets call 954-462-0222.

Photo: MCB’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”; photo: Daniel Azoulay

This also appears with Miami New Times.

In a cool collaboration of poetic fusion, MCB dancers Sara Esty, Leigh Ann Esty and Nicole Stalker are working with poet Barabara Lisette Anderson as part of the month-long O, Miami Poetry Festival, for one night.

Mixed abilities dance first occurred to Karen Peterson in 1990. She received a phone call from a wheelchair bound woman who wanted a part in a ballet.

“My direction to her was to write about her physical memories, and that gave us the direction for our duet. She gave me incredible inspiration to do something I’d never done before. I was really bored as a choreographer and she gave me something to sink my teeth into,” says Peterson, a veteran dancer and choreographer. For the next 23 years, mixed abilities dance would be the foundation of her internationally known dance company, Karen Peterson and Dancers. “It’s a force and an energy that keeps going round and round,” she says.

Known as KPD for short, the company has featured about 35 choreographies and toured throughout Florida, the United States, Europe and the Americas. About half of the works use mixed ability dancers, which includes a range of formally trained students from New World School of the Arts and Florida International University, as well as a paraplegic, a quadriplegic, and a dancer with Spina Bifida and others. Among the company’s upcoming performances, it will hold its more extensive “23^rd season” concert on April 11 and 12, before heading to Belgrade in May.

On stage, Peterson’s dancers with disabilities are tightly woven with abled body dancers and are equally supportive to execute complex, professional caliber choreography. “It’s a particular art form that has developed along the way,” says Peterson, who has collaborated with the Miami String Project, among other entities, that she said helped attract new audiences. Her clever use of lighting, shadows, backdrops, and mixed media add another element of entertainment to the company’s performances./
Peterson talked to Artburst about the special qualities of mixed-abilities dance, her upcoming performance and how this art form has transforms lives.

What is the process of turning people with disabilities into dancers?

A: I use movements that work best on their bodies. Say there’s a dancer who can only move his right elbow and his head, so you of think of how many ways you can find that uses those body parts. You find common denominators as a group. These are simple tasks. It’s almost like working with a palette and meshing together certain colors.

Your company breaks the mold of traditional dance. Therefore, what is your idea of a dancer?

Someone with an open hearted, generous spirit of physicality that needs to be shared with others. Intimate, honest and willing to be flexible and patient and willing to be part of a creative process, where you don’t know where you’re going, but at the end of the line there will be something that’s waiting for me.

How do you convince a disabled person that they can actually perform as a dancer? And how have abled body dancers embraced the concept.

My experience is that it’s not for everyone. I don’t think you really need to sell the idea. I think dancers have decided that it’s something that they want to do. They understand my vision and my work and that they are part of the creative process. Both disabled and abled body dancers balance the other out 50 percent.

What type of impact has performing had on some of your dancers with disabilities?

On March 10, we had a performance with 190 students with learning disabilities from Miami middle and high schools. The kids really love it. They usually don’t get the opportunity to train with dance instructors and it’s a very supportive day. They all love to move and dance. Despite their learning disability, there was never a moment when they didn’t want to dance and express themselves.

From where do you draw inspiration to create dance pieces?

Some are driven by music. Some are driven by visual images such as animals, water and trees. But this particular concert (April 11, 12) follows a narrative of one man and two women drinking in a café and what can happen. The dancers range in age from 28 to 63, so there’s a wide-range of abilities and a wide-range of ages. That’s a great maturity and a great weight to the work.

What are some of the most memorable experiences that you’ve had with your dance company over the years?

I feel very lucky. I’ve met some beautiful people along the way. We had a performance in New York City in 2003 at a mixed-ability festival. My first teaching residency in Brazil, which was the first thing I did by myself out of the country. We were welcomed, accepted and embraced in their country. And in 2010, when I made my dancers jump from their wheelchairs into my pool. We video-taped them underwater and the footage was used as a backdrop to one of the performances.

Karen Peterson and Dancers Season of Dance With New Work, Thursday, April 11 at 8:00 p.m. and Friday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m., Miami-Dade County Auditorium On Stage Black Box, 2901 W. Flagler St., Miami; tickets $18, $13 students; www.karenpetersondancers.org.

At 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 22, hundreds of people were descending on South Florida for Ultra Fest, the Sony-Ericsson Open, and spring break festivities on the beach. In a world apart and oblivious to the vehicular chaos, the eight members of Dance Now Ensemble (DNE) — the six dancers that make up the company and co-directors Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini — were hard at work all day on their upcoming presentation Songs of Spring, which will premiere on Friday, March 29 at The Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road.

It was the last hour of a full day of rehearsals and company class at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, where the company is in residence. The dancers were in the center of one of the building’s dance studios. In two circles of three people each, the dancers were rehearsing what looked like a blossoming flower.  “As cheesy as this might sound, this needs to be grandiose!” exclaimed Salterini. To which Baumgarten added, “imagine a Busby Berkeley musical.”

And you could picture Busby high on a crane filming the geometric explosion of a water ballet or the blossom of many a chorus girl in feathers. Once performed to satisfaction, the cast of young, sweaty talents was excused for a short break before running the whole piece. “Take your pee, take your water, and take your shoes off.  When do you want your toes to split? The night of dress or today?” And on that quip from Baumgarten, the studio emptied for a moment.

The stage may be the place where a dance is dressed in costumes and made up in light, but the studio is the real sacred space where the dance is birthed, shaped, nurtured, disciplined and then finally set free to greet the world. Songs of Spring is much like that, celebrating the triumphant awakening of all glorious and youthful things. During the run-through Salterini directs the company to “open your eyes, smile, discover the world with your bodies…see what’s happening.” Conceived to commemorate the week shared by both Passover and Easter this year, which falls during DNE’s spring concert, Baumgarten says, “both holidays celebrate life’s renewal.” Themes of spring and of flora bursting from hibernation dominate the choreographic translation.

The piece is set to one of Mozart’s most popular serenades, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik,” or “A Little Night Music,” which will be performed live during the concert by the South Beach Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Michael Andrews. Instantly recognizable from the opening fanfare, this piece of music seems to exist for the sake of music itself and rejoices in a celebratory tenor.

The four movements were danced with such commitment that one of the ballerina’s bobby pins flew from her hair like a projectile. The piece may look deceptively effortless because the dancers are so strong, but in truth it is a very difficult piece, with many quick changes in direction and petit allegro warping at full speed into lifts and quirky hip undulations. The dance could be a segment in Disney’s Fantasia with great illustrative elegance paired to flourishes of whimsy. It is reminiscent of the fleet footedness and interactions of Paul Taylor’s Arden Court with the one-to-one musical relationship of Mark Morris’ Gloria.  Listening to Baumgarten and Salterini count out a waltz beat or snap and clap the precise turns in a canon, you become aware that nothing is left to chance and every single note and rest has been mapped out, translated, and executed.

The directors prepare their dancers throughout the rehearsal process and especially in company class to become flexible, with different syncopation, qualities, and dynamics of movement and music. Their meshed backgrounds in rhythmic jazz, contemporary and classical ballet, Graham and Limon are ingredients introduced in class time that ultimately informs the rehearsal process.

And in this case in particular, Baumgarten adds, “with live musicians it becomes extremely important to know where the notes are because the tempo may change from the recorded version you get used to in the studio.” To which Salterini added an anecdote from his earlier days, “You could always tell if the Maestro of the orchestra was in a hurry because the run through and rehearsal would end about 30 minutes earlier than the night before.”

The program will also include Salterini’s 7 Duets in 7 Movements, which includes his previously choreographed duets presented together, and Baumgarten’s exploration of relationships covering new ground, in a departure from her usual edginess, in 8 Actions of Love.

Songs of Spring will be presented Friday and Saturday, March 29 and 30 at 8:00 p.m. at The Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; Tickets cost $35; dancenowmiami.org, 305-975-8489 or The Colony Theatre, 305-674-1040.

The month-long festival, organized by Momentum Dance Company, will include a wide variety of dance, from flamenco to aerial ballet, a movie and family day, along with new works from the Momentum troupe itself. Opening night kicks off with Luminario Ballet out of Los Angeles.

New works from the mixed-ability (and mixed-age) dance company, including guest artists from Sarajevo and live music from local violinist Vicki Richards.