Global Recognition Comes to Arts Ballet Theatre

If there is any doubt about the global impact of local ballet, just check out the upcoming schedule of the Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida It even has Poland, Russia and Austria in its spotlight,

Arts Ballet Theatre was founded in 1997 as the only classical Russian-style ballet company in South Florida. Arts Ballet Theatre is a young, vibrant dance company focusing on becoming a force in the ballet community of South Florida. The company incorporates both a professional division and a junior division to train young dancers. Under the direction of Russian-born Ballet Master and choreographer Vladimir Issaev, the company made its debut with The Nutcracker in December 1997. 

Its repertoire includes works by such Classical Ballet Masters as Petipa, Gorsky, Saint-Leon, Chabukiani, among others. Arts Ballet Theatre’s performance repertoire includes original choreographic neo-classical works by its director, Vladimir Issaev including “Firebird,” “The Nutcracker,” “Chipollino,” “Paquita,” “Le Corsaire,” “Don Quixote,” and “Esmeralda,” among others.

It has been performing at the North Miami Beach Theatre and The Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Since its inception, Arts Ballet Theatre has offered its educational programs to the public schools of the community. It visits schools several times during the school year to offer Arts Ballet goes to School program, and the students also attend performances and special events. Along with the Education Committee of the Aventura Marketing Council, Arts Ballet Theatre participates in programs for the at-risk children.

Special educational programs are held in its dance facility, and more than 50 students have participated in Dancing with Disabilities, which promotes dance instruction and performance opportunities for persons with disabilities. 

The company has undertaken the exceptional creative risks of staging classical Russian-style performances with characters and stories that are largely unknown to American audiences.  “Our success in presenting them has shown the receptiveness of the audiences in Miami-Dade and Broward,” said Issaev, “One reason that our audiences have grown is that they enjoy finding these new treasures.  As we continue to stage new productions, which will creatively challenge our dancers and Artistic Director, we will retain the interest of current patrons and develop new audiences. 

Ballet Master and Director Issaev, (originally from Siberia) has received several awards for his choreographic works.

This coming June Issaev will be honored by the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg Russian (Formerly Kirov School) under the direction of prima ballerina Altinay Asylmouratova, when they will perform his new choreography “The Seasons” at the Mariinky Theater in Russia.

Ballet Etudes Maintains Tradition

by Richard Phillips
Contributing Writer

Ballet Etudes Company, founded by Susana Prieto in 1975, is continuing in the tradition of the world's great classical ballet companies, Prieto remains true to her Cuban heritage.

Prieto took her first ballet classes in Cuba, which has a rich history of the ballet. The first ballet in the Americas was performed in Havana in the 1790’s. From that cultural legacy, Susana continued her ballet training in Coral Gables with Sonia Diaz and Martha del Pino. Prieto was a soloist with Ballet Concerto Company, but answered the call to teach and direct her own company.

She struck out on her own and founded Ballet Etudes, her ballet school, in the City of Hialeah. Not long after, the Company was born. From the earliest, Prieto and Ballet Etudes Company danced at various venues in Miami-Dade County. As Director, Prieto gained valuable experience in direction, staging and lighting as well as business expertise in running a ballet company. Ballet Etudes Company focused on the classic ballets, Giselle, Sylphides, and The Nutcracker. As the company grew, the repertoire expanded to take on full-length productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia. Ballet Etudes Company’s performances are full-length productions, complete with a live orchestra.

During the early days, Prieto danced in her company’s performances in Dade County Auditorium. In 1984 Susana Prieto made two momentous decisions. Both carried tremendous risk. The first was to move Ballet Etudes Company to The Jackie Gleason Theater, which had hosted American Ballet Theatre for two week engagements as well as Broadway touring companies. Susana Prieto became the first Cuban-American woman promoter at the Jackie Gleason Theater.    

Prieto’s next move was to invite soloists from American Ballet Theatre to dance with Ballet Etudes Company. Ballet in America was enjoying great popularity. The motion picture, The Turning Point, dazzled audiences with ballet’s top stars. Mikhail Baryshnikov was starring in New York City and had appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. 

Alina Hernandez, Yoko Ichino, Janet Shibata, Ethan Brown, David Cuevas, Peter Fonseca, Robert La Fosse, David Loring and Roger Van Fleteren were the first to dance with Ballet Etudes, once they learned of the quality of professionalism and production values of the company’s performances. Friendships were forged, and soon other stars came to dance with the company. Merrill Ashley, Cynthia Gregory, Amanda McKerrow, Magali Messac, Marianna Tcherkassky, Gil Boggs, Michael Cusumano, Joaquin de Luz, Marcelo Gomes, John Gardner, Robert Hill and Johan Renvall have appeared with Ballet Etudes Company.  Another milestone in Ballet Etudes’ history came when Rudolf Nureyev, one of the greatest danseurs of the twentieth century, appeared with Ballet Etudes Company in Giselle.

Cheryl Yeager and Wes Chapman starred in several engagements for with the company. Charles Askegard, principal dancer from New York City Ballet, has performed frequently with Ballet Etudes in recent years, first with Dagmar Moradillos and in the past two seasons with New York City Ballet co-stars Maria Kowroski, Sofiane Sylve and Darci Kistler.

With attention to every detail from big name stars, demanding choreography, lavish costumes, spectacular scenery, to the thrill of live music from a full orchestra, Ballet Etudes Company’s productions are memorable. What does the future hold for Prieto and Ballet Etudes Company? The answer is in the classics. Prieto and Rodolfo Rogriguez, Ballet Etudes Company’s Artistic Advisor want to stage other famous ballets. The company has the talent and the people to do so.  

For more information regarding performances, call 305-827-1345.

Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance Readies for 2006 Schedule

When Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros left his position as resident choreographer for Miami City Ballet in 2000, dance lovers in South Florida were loathe to lose the talented choreographer they considered their own to a far off European city. So, in response to a community request two and a half years ago, Ballet Gamonet incorporated, formed an executive Board, and put out its shingle. After merging earlier this year with Maximum Dance Company, the newly named Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance. Company is now here.

Under Gamonet’s passionate leadership, Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance is poised to become the premiere ballet company of Miami of the Americas, by virtue of the diversity of the dancers and their high level of professional training. Beloved ballerina Iliana Lopez, who charmed audiences for eighteen years during her tenure at Miami City Ballet, joined  the company as Ballet Mistress. This local legend launched her award winning career from her home country of Venezuela, performed abroad for many years, has been celebrated at the White House and has graced the cover of all the major dance magazines, including the industry leading Dance Magazine. The stellar coalition of dancers under her tutelage hails from far and wide - Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Japan, England, Cuba, the Dutch National Ballet Company of the Netherlands, and the United States.

“Transporting the audience through a journey of dance” is our goal according to Gamonet, and this transcendent experience demands the highest level of technical artistry from his dancers while accentuating individual expression. Gamonet describes his approach to choreography as “a neoclassicist with a contemporary sensibility” which allows him the freedom to experiment with new trends in choreography while preserving classics from the canon of traditional dance. Infusing classical forms with textures, colors and patterns classical choreographers could not have foreseen allows Gamonet to create original movement with his own singular  style themselves.

From his early training in a theater family in Lima, Peru, Gamonet rose to the top ranks of Peruvian dancers, and then cast his fortunes with young dancers from all over the world in New York. He describes the culture shock he experienced there as “… moments that really called me to take leaps of faith, but when you're a dancer you have to take leaps,  right?” One of those leaps landed him in Miami.

Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance will perform in both Dade and Broward counties. Program II --- January 27 & 28, 2006, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Miami; Program III -- February 11 & 12, 2006 at Bailey Concert Hall, Davie and February 24 & 25, 2006 Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Miami and Program IV  -- May 12 & 13, 2006 at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Miami and May 20 & 21, 2006 at Bailey Concert Hall, Davie.

Tickets to Ballet Gamonet Maximum Company's performances range from $25-$60, with discounts offered to seniors, students and to groups of 20 or more and can be purchased on-line at maximumdancecompany.com, or by calling the box office at 305-259-9775.

PHOTO IDS

1. Migdalia Martinez & Simon Silva, principal dancers of Ballet Gamonet / Maximum Dance, performed a duet in Coeur De Basque at the company's debut at Gusman Theater for the Performing Arts
2. DeAnn Petruschke & Britt Juleen principal dancers of Ballet Gamonet Maximum Dance perform a duet in Purple Bend one at the company's debut on Oct. 7 at Gusman Theater for the Performing Arts

Photo by Mitchell Zachs /MagicalPhotos.com

Momentum Dance Company Features World Premieres

This is Momentum Dance Company’s 24th season. Continuing its dynamic tradition of creating new work, 2006 will mean the modern dance troupe’s, Artistic Director Delma Iles, will present a season schedule of over sixty performances and related events throughout Florida.

The season actually began in November, 2005, and has a number of “firsts” for the South Florida dance season, The November premiere -- Five Journeys and a Laugh -- is typical of Momentum’s applauded works and a harbinger of the coming season.

Five Journeys and a Laugh premiered two new works by Iles: Highway, in Iles’ distinctive architectural/intellectual style takes on the great American tradition of the Road Trip – a frequent theme in literature and cinema, but not previously done in dance. The dance celebrated open spaces, limitless freedom, quirky locations, offbeat adventures and bonding experiences between travel companions. Music was by Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, and Bob Dylan. In a completely different direction, Iles developed a unique solo for principal dancer Barbie Freeman, who was five months pregnant when she performed it. ‘Parsing the Curve looks at the pregnant body as an opportunity for new lines and shapes to emerge that are different from those we normally see on dancers. Soloist Odman Felix joined Momentum last season and rocked the Miami Beach Dance Festival with his introspective, emotional solo, Cheers, Darling. He perform ed it again by popular demand, but also created a new work entitled Rain, influenced by his broad dance background of Brazilian, Afro-Brazilian, modern dance and Capoeira. It celebrates the joy that rain brings in a dry climate where the struggle with nature is constant in its beauty and inexorable demand.

Momentum also brings back an important work from 1928, Water Study, choreographed by modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey. It is one of the most seminal works in 20th-century dance history. The dance depicts the ebb and flow of tides, the splashes and currents of flowing water. It is performed with no music, only the breathing of the dancers, which evokes the sound of wind over water. Though created more than 80 years ago, the dance remains astonishingly contemporary in look and feel. Art Deco aficionados will see the influence of the Deco style through dance in Water Study’s swept-back lines and concentric curves.

Other programs lauded are the critically acclaimed Birds Flying in Warped Time, which premiered in spring 2005 at the Miami Beach Dance Festival.

Assistant Artistic Director Irmah DelValle’s work this season is represented by Sentimentos Profundos (2000). Set to music by the Buena Vista Social Club, the dance draws on her Cuban roots. The sensual duet is woven from the traditional Cuban folk dance called “son”. Then there is the comic A Dance With Balls. Created by Iles in 1995 with input from the dancers, this sports-oriented, often hilarious work employs a variety of balls used in sports (tennis balls, basketballs, ping pong balls, etc.) to great effect.

For information on the upcoming season, call 305-858-7002 or visit www.momentumdance.com.

PHOTO IDS

1. Dancers in Sentimentos Profundos
2. Water Study