Ballet Hispánico is the leading Latino dance organization in the United States.
Ballet Hispánico Apollo Theater 2019
Ballet Hispánico presents its Fall 2019 season at the Apollo Theater on Friday and Saturday, November 22-23, 2019 at 8pm.
Get tickets from $13 at apollotheater.org
This season includes the world premiere of Anabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Tiburones (Sharks), and the return of Andrea Miller’s Nací (I was born) and Michelle Manzanales’ Con Brazos Abiertos (With open arms).
Tiburones (Sharks)
This Annabelle Lopez Ochoa world premiere considers how discrimination and stereotypes diminish the voices of Latin artists. Lopez Ochoa attempts to reauthenticate icons of Puerto Rican culture that have been appropriated by the entertainment industry.
Lopez Ochoa is a multicultural artist. She is Colombian-Belgian and works internationally. She has been everywhere lately and is one of the leading Latin choreographers working in the world today.
This is likely a response to West Side Story which is coming to Broadway in December and to theaters in 2020 in a Steven Spielberg remake. The Puerto Rican gang in West Side Story is the Sharks (Tiburones).
The whole identity game is tricky. We tend to get really wrapped up in it, even though we are all just human.
It’s important to know who you are because that provides the grounding you need to reach your full potential. Many Latin artists tried to be someone else first, but only found success after they accepted themselves.
But it’s important to not spend too much time worrying about your identity because the worrying keeps you from achieving your potential. Part of the game is to get you confused about your identity in order to take advantage. Don’t let anyone else define you. Define yourself.
Nací (2009)
In “I was born,” Brooklyn-based choreographer Andrea Miller explores the Sephardic culture of her Spanish–Jewish-American roots. The Sephardic community shares a Moorish influence and the strong sense of family and community that is typical across the Latin world.
Sephardic is the oriental branch of Judaism which thrived in Spain and the western Mediterranean until the expulsion of 1492. New York City’s first Jewish community was Sephardic.
Miller is the Artistic Director of Gallim Dance and an international choreographer. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and a teaching artist.
To say, “I was born” is another way to say, “Soy Humano” (I am human) – just like you.
Con Brazos Abiertos (2017)
In “With Open Arms,” Manzanales explores what it means to be Mexican-American or American-Mexican. She plays with symbols of Mexican culture that she avoided as a child, but values as an adult.
Michelle Manzanales is the Director of the Ballet Hispánico School of Dance.
All three choreographies speak to questions of identity and touch upon the playfulness and strength of Latin families and communities. At the end of the day, we have to learn to not let anyone else define us. We define ourselves through our own character and behavior.
The challenge is to stop being defensive about it and express our Latin identity in positive, contributory terms, like a business case. In its own way, that is what Ballet Hispánico is all about.
Get tickets from $13 at apollotheater.org