By Madison Flager
Photography by George Kamper
Styling by Danny Santiago
Ballet dancers glide on stage as smooth as fish underwater. Fort Lauderdale audiences will see that firsthand this season with the Miami City Ballet, a troupe far from your average dance company.
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about ballet,” asserts Leigh-Ann Esty, a dancer who has been with MCB for nine years. “A lot of people think tiaras, tutus and pointe shoes, and our company doesn’t do just that.”
Though the 2014-2015 bill includes classics like “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Nutcracker,” it also features never-before-seen work commissioned by choreography phenom Justin Peck and a Jerome Robbins piece that artistic director Lourdes Lopez calls one of the funniest ballets she’s ever seen. Fort Lauderdale, get ready.
IN SYNC: Senior corps de ballet member Leigh-Ann Esty, right, says her January performance in “Hear the Dance”?is, “one of the most musical and interesting parts I’ve ever done.”
The performances are considered “more accessible ballet,” far from the stiff, uptight images sometimes conjured upon mention of the art form. Peck’s piece, which both Lopez and Esty say they are the most excited about this season, includes an eye-opening set design by Miami street artist Shepard Fairey and a piano concerto by Czech composer Bohuslav Martin? that Peck refers to as “amazing, vibrant, bright, colorful.”
For the 27-year-old Peck, who dances and choreographs primarily for the New York City Ballet, dance is anything but dated. His collaborations with contemporary artists like Fairey stem from pure interest in their work; the appeal it may bring to a younger audience is simply what he calls a “nice byproduct” of that interest.
Peck discovered Fairey’s work while exploring Wynwood, an area populated with street murals. “To me, it seemed like one of the most current, relevant happenings in Miami, and it’s such a cool mecca for this type of artwork,” says Peck, whose piece with MCB will premiere in March. “I wanted to incorporate that into the ballet in some way.”
Recent changes seem to have pleased audiences thus far. Last season, attendance increased by 17 percent across the company’s three South Florida venues, including the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Esty, who performs in each of the season’s five shows as one of 34 corps members, attributes the company’s progress and growth to outreach programs generated by Lopez. These include bringing in more teachers and outside eyes and ears, such as Peck. Esty calls the company’s technique more polished, though still retaining a movement quality she says comes from dancers, like herself, who grew up with Edward Villella, the instrumental former MCB artistic director.
HIDE AND SEEK: This season, the company will debut a piece by famed choreographer Justin Peck. Ariel Rose (left) and Lexie Overholt, both part of the corps de ballet, favor collaborations like this one.
UNDER THE SEA: A former competitive diver and swimmer, dancer Chase Swatosh returns for his third season as a corps de ballet dancer.
EDGE OF GLORY: The Miami City Ballet premieres its 2014-2015 season at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and then moves to Broward County a week later.
“He was a little bit more about style and moving as opposed to very strict technique,” Esty says. “We could make our movements huge and bigger than life, and a lot of critics have said that about our company—that we’re movers, we have this movement quality unlike any other place.”
Lopez took over in 2012 after the departure of Villella, who headed the company for 27 years. She says she aims to stay true to MCB’s heritage of Villella and the choreographers before her, while also infusing newer works into the company’s repertoire. Another goal, she says, is to increase community involvement with ballet.
“It really is a lot of fun,” Lopez says. “It’s really this powerful, gorgeous art form that’s democratic, that’s there for everybody.”
Lopez says the upcoming season’s program will take audiences through a journey of different feelings and tastes. The dancers agree. Esty herself mentions the mental and physical preparation it takes to switch between pointe, jazz and ballroom shoes, sometimes all in a single night.
But this season is centered around balance—the grace and elegance that audiences have come to expect from MCB alongside twists that show off the company’s pursuit to explore new depths.
Originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue.
