“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.

Russian director and choreographer Vladimir Issaev leads his company in a classic Russian version of the most classic of Christmas performances, with a 15th anniversary gala to kick it off.

‘Tis the season. Those sugarplum folks are turning up all over South Florida. Among the most festive of their appearances will be an early evening show at the Jackie Gleason Theater on Sunday, Dec. 9 (and then at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center Dec. 14-16). This is the night the Art Ballet Theatre of South Florida will present its Nutcracker, and not incidentally also celebrate its 15 years of dance in the South Florida community.

What makes this Nutcracker unique? The answer is simple: its director. Russian born Vladimir Issaev  grew up amid the world’s most traditional Nutcracker performances and is committed to keeping that classicism alive and well. “No dancing on semi-point, a la Balanchine,” Issaev says, referring to the Nutcracker of the American neo-classical choreographer. Every dancer in Issaev’s version of the  ballet is rigorously on point. That includes a many great children. Here too, Art Ballet’s  presentation is unique. “I don’t know any other South Florida performance that casts so many children,” says Issaev. “My Nutcracker is full of children and it is danced for children; after all, isn’t Christmas most especially a season for our children? ” He continues: “My most treasured reviews come from the parents who tell me that their entire family, including perhaps a three or a four year old, sat spell-bound throughout the entire ballet.”

If this Nutcracker prides itself on engaging even the youngest members of its audiences, small surprise that Issaev has asked puppet-master Jan Hammond to come join the celebration. Hammond is familiar to South Florida audiences as designer of the puppets from the touring Lion King production. What can audiences expect from him in Nutcracker? “Sheer beauty,” Issaev says as he sighs.

So how did Issaev end up in South Florida? He had the degrees and the work experience of both a choreographer and a master teacher of classical ballet before he left Moscow at the age of 33. “When I became 33 I was suddenly sure that this was a year when I should change my life. It is strange, sometimes, how these feelings come over one.” Issaev went first to Venezuela where he worked for 10 years with the Ballet Nacional de Caracas. A great love brought him to Miami 15 year ago.

Since then he has established a school of dance with 400 pupils, who range in age from 3 to 18. He has also established a dance company with members coming to him from literally over a dozen of countries, from Europe to Latin America to the Far East. Why do they seek him out? “So many companies focus exclusively on modern or neoclassical dance. My dancers are looking for a repertoire company with deep classical roots.” Issaev’s Arts  Ballet has toured recently in Indonesia, Poland, and Mexico. They presented Stravinsky’s Fire Bird in Japan.

That same dance company as well as South Florida’s children can be seen in Issaev’s Nutcracker, and not only at the Jackie Gleason Theater, but in Aventura and Fort Lauderdale as well.

But only at the Jackie Gleason will the Arts Ballet Theatre offer its VIP patrons a chance to mingle with its dancers, sugar plums and the rest of the gang at a pre-performance reception.

The Nutcracker comes to The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 7:00 p.m. (VIP Gala at 6:00 p.m.). Tickets are $82.50 (VIP), and $47.50 – $52.50; 305-673-7300. Then to Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, 3385 NE 188th St., Aventura, Dec. 14-16, 7:00 p.m. Tickets: $35.00; 954-462-0222. And at Parker Playhouse, 707 NE 8th St., Fort Lauderdale, Dec. 22 at 7:00 p.m. and Dec. 23 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $35.00; 954-462-0222. Visit www.artsballettheatre.org.

Every spring they come back to Miami to dance together. Cuban classical dancers so exceptional that a few years back Time Magazine devoted an article to them entitled:  “Psst! The Cubans Are Coming! Latin Ballet Dancers are storming the stage creating a revolution of Russian proportions.”

Rolando Sarabia, likened by many to a young Baryshnikov, will be dancing. So will Lorna Feijoo and Nelson Madrigal, principal dancers at the Boston Ballet Company, and Hayna  Gutierrez, principal dancer of Canada’s Alberto Ballet. All of them have come together to perform at the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason this weekend.

They are here at the invitation of another Cuban dancer Pedro Pablo Peña. He  had dreamed for years of bringing together those who once graced the stages of  El Teatro Colon  in  Havana, those who had matured in Cuba under the watchful eye of  George Balanchine’s favorite, Alicia Alonso, she who taught the maestro something about the expressiveness native to Cuban dancers.

“I knew just how extraordinary Cuban dancing was, especially at this time when so many great American and European dancers have been trained towards the cool end of the emotional spectrum,” says Peña. “I knew how much audiences anywhere, but especially audiences in Miami, would appreciate this dancing. But I also wanted to create an opportunity for Cuban dancers to once again experience each other and their roots full strength.”

It was six years ago that Peña actualized this dream, giving the gathering he had wished for a name: Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. A 2006 Miami premier was sold out, and so it has been each year ever after.

This year, in a tribute to those Cuban roots, the dancers will present a  program entitled “Spanish Classical Night,” a pastiche of the favorites of classical Spanish repertoire including  “Carmen Suite,” “ Don Quixote” and “Paquita Pas de Deux,” among a handful of others. Peña and his dancers have set out to explore the relationship between Spanish dance, especially the Bolero School from the 19th and 20th century and its classical counterparts.

If all this wasn’t promising enough, Spanish bolero/flamenco legend Lola Greco will take her place alongside her Cuban counterparts.

Still, this weekend’s performances and the annual performances of Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami are only part of what Pedro Pablo Peña has brought to Miami.

A dancer and choreographer held in considerable esteem by the dance community in Havana, he came to Miami with his family as part of the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Peña may have been one more exile wrestling with survival, still he realized for him that meant dance. He gave classes here and there. He searched for rehearsal space.

By the mid-1980s, Miami had begun to pay more attention to the arts. There was an international film festival, an international book festival. Why not an international ballet festival, he wondered.

It wasn’t easy; it was a long decade after he first conceived the project, but in 1995 the first International Ballet Festival was inaugurated in Miami. This festival, his festival, now 17 years old,  one which prides itself  on its diversity of dance — last year stars from India and Europe were in residence, as well as those from Brazil and the Caribbean –    will be presented in Miami from August 31 to September 16 of this year.

But first things first.

The Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, Saturday June 16 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, June 17 at 5:00 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; tickets cost $31.50 to 68.50; www.fillmoemb.com.

This article first appeared in the Miami Sun Post.

Featuring fragments of repertoires from Swan Lake to the Carmen Suite, under the direction of Pedro Pablo Pena, with six principal Cuban and Spanish dancers.

Cuban-flavored classical ballet takes the stage at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater May 14 and 15. Led by guest stars of international repute hailing from top-tier companies including the San Francisco Ballet and the English National Ballet, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (CCBM) presents traditional ballet at its most grandiose. “The new Russia is Cuba,” remarks CCBM Artistic Director Pedro Pablo Peña, referring to his company’s potential to woo an audience of balletomanes with carefully reconstructed story ballets and wow the public with virtuosic and expressive dancing.

Proudly upholding ballet’s centuries-old tradition in their stagings of “Paquita Suite” and the company premiere of “La Fille Mal Gardée,” two works of French origin,  Peña believes it is Cuban cultural influence that has primed residents of Miami to appreciate this art form that’s deeply beloved and understood in his country of origin. With principal dancers Lorena Feijóo, Rolando Sarabia, Fernanda Oliveira, and Arionel Vargas leading the cast, which includes dancers born in Cuba and trained at the Cuban National Ballet School, CCBM offers a prime sampling from the rich and diverse artistic contributions of the Cuban diaspora.

“Small island but big art” summarizes Peña’s view on why so many Cubans love ballet, which has a proportionally much smaller following in the United States. Compared with other countries big on ballet, though, Cuba has a more compact history cultivating the form.

In 1948, prima ballerina Alicia Alonso (who will celebrate her 90th birthday this December) co-founded the company now called Ballet Nacional de Cuba, which gained the patronage of Fidel Castro’s government in 1959. Alonso had already reached international stardom as a dancer by the time she founded the Havana company and, a couple of years later, school. Retiring from the stage at the remarkable age of 74, she continues to direct the Ballet Nacional de Cuba today.

Numerous graduates of the school who have left Cuba populate the highest ranks of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies. Why are these Cuban dancers so desirable?  “Because the technical excellence is important for [any] company. Strong technique, strong artistic quality, strong emotion,” Peña says.  “This is important, the feeling when you’re dancing. Fuego — fire in the body.”

Peña wishes to expand and strengthen the reach of the Cuban ballet tradition established by Alonso and others through his own vision.  He trained at Alonso’s school and danced with her company, but also worked in opera and musical theater in Cuba and for seven years choreographed dances for the Univision TV show Sábado Gigante Internacional. The tireless Peña also directs the International Ballet Festival of Miami.

Through CCBM, Peña aims to preserve the classical ballet repertory and showcase the talent and distinctive artistry of Cuban dancers.

Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami’s Program I-II runs at 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, May 14 and 15, at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Call 800-745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com.

First published in Miami New Times.

The all-male Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s comedy doesn’t stop with the gimmick of ballet-in-drag. Nor does it rely solely on the novelty of heavy things trying to be light, or the inherent humor of classical ballet’s unnatural manners. Thorough research from artistic director Tory Dobrin, rehearsal directors, and dancers leap inside the form’s history, from Imperial Russia to the Soviet Union and beyond, illuminating jewels of cultural details.

“We’ve gone deep into the libraries of Russian classical ballet,” says dancer and ballet master Paul Ghiselin (alternately the ballerina Ida Nevasayneva and danseur Velour Pilleaux). “We’ve brought things on stage that no companies are dancing anymore.”

The Trocks simultaneously mock and indulge in over-the-top stage presence while staying faithful to the thin storylines characteristic of most classical ballets. They play with backstage dramas, including an historic four-way rivalry among the prima ballerinas of the original “Pas de Quatre” (one of the works being presented in Miami). An audience member need not be well-versed in the ballet canon—or even familiar with it—to get the jokes, though.

In order to pull off the humor, the professional dancers comprising the Trocks must maintain excellent ballet technique as well as expert comic timing. With coaching help from ballet mistresses including prima ballerina Iliana Lopez, the company’s pointe work stays in tip-top shape. Lopez joined the team in 2005 while she was still working with Miami City Ballet, then as a ballet mistress. Ghiselin describes the Trocks’ pairing with Lopez as “a perfect relationship right from the beginning.”

The company formed in 1974 and was soon after reviewed in the New Yorker by the esteemed critic Arlene Croce, who praised its artistic integrity and warned, “It’s so damned all-seeing that I don’t think anything in ballet can be safe from it for long.” Her prophecy has been fulfilled: the Trocks now take on the work of 20th-century ballet giants George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins as well as modern dance icons Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Pina Bausch. Catch the their take on Cunningham’s “Patterns in Space” alongside four tutu classics during their one-night Miami engagement.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo performs Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Tickets cost $23-$73. Call 800-745-3000 or visit livenation.com.

First published in Miami New Times

Two works from Tsakos, “Omen” and “Climax” featuring Ana Mendez, Dilcia Munoz, and Alain Marquez, that rides through 50,000  ill ion years of history in 20:12 minutes.