Ballet Hispánico at The Joyce Theater - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19
To celebrate the Company’s 50th Anniversary, Ballet Hispánico’s Artistic Director & CEO, Eduardo Vilaro has curated a two week run at The Joyce Theater that celebrates and honors generations of Latinx artists. Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s 18+1 makes its New York premiere alongside the award-winning work Jardi Tancat from Nacho Duato. Excerpts of significant works in Ballet Hispánico's history, including Vicente Nebrada’s Batucada Fantástica and Graciela Daniele’s Cada Noche…Tango return to The Joyce stage after nearly thirty years. As a gift to founder Tina Ramirez, the program will feature a duet from William Forsythe’s, New Sleep, a first-time collaboration between Ballet Hispánico and this world-renowned choreographer. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Tiburones and Sombrerísimo, featuring an all-female cast, with returning repertory from Andrea Miller, Pedro Ruiz, Eduardo Vilaro, and Ramón Oller round out the program.
Program A - April 7-11 (evening performances)
Jardi Tancat by Nacho Duato
Cada Noche...Tango excerpt by Graciela Daniele
Batucada Fantástica excerpt - Vicente Nebrada
18+1 by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano
Program B - April 14-18 (evening performances)
Good Night Paradise by Ramón Oller
Asuka excerpt by Eduardo Vilaro
New Sleep excerpt by William Forsythe
Tiburones by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Program C - April 11-12 and April 18-19 (matinee performances)
Sombrerísimo by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Nací by Andrea Miller
Club Havana by Pedro Ruiz
Ballet Hispánico’s New York Season is made possible by Jody & John Arnhold, American Express, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Frances Lear Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Samuel H. Scripps Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Inc., with public support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Univision Communications, Inc. is Media Sponsor of Ballet Hispánico.
Photo Credit: Shelby Colona and Antonio Cangiano | Photo by Rachel Neville
Choreographers Biographies
GRACIELA DANIELE is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and director. She has earned ten Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations. Her first credit as a full-fledged choreographer was the 1979 revival of The Most Happy Fella. Additional Broadway director/choreographic credits include Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Once on This Island, and Dangerous Game. Daniele worked with Woody Allen on three films, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, and Bullets Over Broadway. In addition to her work on Broadway, she has choreographed for Ballet Hispánico and served as Director-in-Residence at Lincoln Center. In 2005, Daniele was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
NACHO DUATO was born in Valencia, Spain and serves as the Artistic Director of the Ballet Company at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. He began his professional dance career with Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm and a year later, joined Nederlands Dans Theater. Recognized for his talent as a dancer and choreographer, Duato has been the recipient of many international dance awards including the Benois de la Danse, Spain’s Creative National Dance Award, the Chile Arts Critics Circle Prize, and a Golden Mask nomination. He previously acted as the Artistic Director of Compañía Nacional de Danza and Staatsballet Berlin before returning to the Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2019.
WILLIAM FORSYTHE has been active in the field of choreography for over 45 years. His work is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. Forsythe's deep interest in the fundamental principles of organization has led him to produce a wide range of projects including Installations, Films, and Web based knowledge creation.
Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt. After its closure, Forsythe established a new ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Forsythe’s works developed during this time were performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. More recently Forsythe has created works for the Paris Opera Ballet, English National Ballet and Boston Ballet.
Further to his work as a choreographer, William Forsythe is a current Professor of Dance and Artistic Advisor for the Choreographic Institute at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.
ANDREA MILLER, Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based company Gallim, is a ground-breaking artist, recognized for her visceral yet poetic approach to movement, which reflects a relentless search of the deeper meanings of physical embodiment within the human experience. A sought-after creator and collaborator in art, film, theatre, and fashion, Miller is the first ever choreographer to be named Artist in Residence of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2018). Her works have been performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Festival Grec, Grand Theatre de Luxembourg, Teatros del Canal, Tanz Bremen, BAM, The Joyce, Jacob’s Pillow, and City Center. Recent and upcoming commissions include Martha Graham, Ballet Bern, Rambert 2, NDT2, Noord Nederlandse Dans, Pennsylvania Ballet, A.I.M, Ailey 2, and her alma mater The Juilliard School. Miller is the recipient of the Guggenheim, Jerwood, and Princess Grace Fellowships. Cross collaborations include film directed by Xavier Dolan, photography at Art Basel, film starring Robbie Fairchild, and choreography for Hermès, Vogue, and Calvin Klein. Miller runs company rehearsals, workshops, and creative residencies from Gallim’s home studio in Brooklyn and has taught at Harvard, Barnard, Juilliard, and other educational institutions.
VICENTE NEBRADA was a founding member of the Harkness Ballet where he began his choreographic career in 1964. In 1975 he became the Founding Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of the International Ballet of Caracas, creating numerous ballets and solidifying his reputation as an internationally acclaimed choreographer. In 1984 he was appointed Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Caracas, which he directed until 2002. His artistic support as resident choreographer helped establish Ballet Florida in Palm Beach in the mid 1990s. His works continue to be performed around the world and have been danced by more than 30 companies such as, American Ballet Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, and Ballet Hispánico.
ANNABELLE LOPEZ OCHOA has been choreographing since 2003 following a twelve-year dance career in various contemporary dance companies throughout Europe. She has created works for sixty dance companies worldwide including Ballet Hispánico, Atlanta Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Compañía Nacíonal de Danza, Dutch National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Göteborg Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, BJM-Danse Montréal, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, English National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, to name a few. In 2012, her first full length work, A Streetcar Named Desire, originally created for the Scottish Ballet, received the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for “Best Classical Choreography” and was nominated for the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production the following year. Annabelle is the recipient of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award 2019.
RAMÓN OLLER was born in Esparraguera (Barcelona) in 1962 and studied at the Theatre Institute of the Barcelona regional government, debuting with the Gelabert-Azzopardi Company. His first choreography, Dos Dies i Mig won second prize at Tórtola Valencia Choreography Competition in 1984. He founded the Metros Company in 1985 where he premiered most of his work. He choreographed Naranjas y Limones alongside Jean-Christophe Maillot for the National Choreography Centre in Tours. He has served as choreographer for other companies such as the Spanish National Dance Company of the National Ballet of Spain. He won the best dance show award from the New York Times for his work Good Night Paradise.
GUSTAVO RAMÍREZ SANSANO was Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater (2009-2013), and now he combines his work as a freelance choreographer with the direction of Titoyaya Dansa, the company he founded in Spain with Veronica Garcia Moscardo in 2006. Sansano has received numerous awards for his choreography, including first prize at the Ricard Moragas Competition in Barcelona (1997), Prix Dom Perignon Choreographic Competition in Hamburg (2001), and Premio de Las Artes Escénicas de la Comunidad Valenciana (2005). Sansano has been commissioned to create works for many companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Compañía Nacional de Danza, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luzerner tanz Theater, Ballet BC, The Hamburg Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, and Luna Negra Dance Theater, among others.
PEDRO RUIZ was born in Cuba and choreographed three celebrated ballets during his 21-year tenure as a principal dancer with Ballet Hispánico. Choreography credits include The Joffrey, Luna Negra, New Jersey Ballet, the Ailey Professional School and the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Program. He is on the dance faculty of Marymount College, The Ailey School and Scarsdale Ballet. Awards include the Bessie Award, the Choo-San Goh Award, The Cuban Artist’s Fund, and The Joyce Foundation Award. He was profiled nationally in 2007 on PBS’s In The Life.
EDUARDO VILARO (Artistic Director & CEO and Choreographer) joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the Company since it was founded in 1970. In 2015, Mr. Vilaro took on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of Ballet Hispánico. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1985 as a dancer and educator, after which he began a ten-year record of achievement as founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of cultural diversity and dance education.
Mr. Vilaro’s own choreography is devoted to capturing the spiritual, sensual, and historical essence of Latino cultures. He created over 20 ballets for Luna Negra and has received commissions from the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet, and the Chicago Symphony. In 2001, he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography, and in 2003, he was honored for his choreographic work at Panama’s II International Festival of Ballet. Mr. Vilaro was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2016 and was awarded HOMBRE Magazine’s 2017 Arts & Culture Trailblazer of the Year. In 2019, Mr. Vilaro was the recipient of the West Side Spirit’s WESTY Award, was honored by WNET for his contributions to the arts, and most recently, was the recipient of the James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award.
