UP ON YOUR TOES AT THE ARSHT CENTER:

A spectacular array of dance forms that will leave you breathless!

Forget “Dancing with the Stars!” If you want to see real A-list professional dance stars performing, dance (pardon the pun) on over to the Arsht Center in the next few weeks for fabulous dance programs, one for everyone’s taste whether it is classic, modern, bold, comedic or anything in between.

Start your adventure by attending the L.A. Dance Project on February 16. The group will present a bold and dynamic performance hailed by the New York Times as unexpected and feeling “serendipitously right. “The performance is a triple bill including a world premiere ballet by Benjamin Millepied, choreographer of the film The Black Swan and founding artistic director of L.A. Dance Project. Not to be missed!

L.A. DANCE PROJECT

February 16, 2018
Part of Knight Masterworks Dance Series
Ziff Ballet Opera House
Tickets: $35 – $90*

Performing a powerful triple bill including a world premiere ballet by Benjamin Millepied, founding artistic director of L.A. Dance Project, the program is highlighted by bold musicality and dynamic movement. The New York Times says “[…] everything is unexpected, and everything feels serendipitously right.”

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Our very own hometown grown Miami City Ballet presents Program III from February 9-11. They are classical, adventurous and comedic. A real treat for the whole family!

MIAMI CITY BALLET presents PROGRAM III

February 9-11, 2018
Ziff Ballet Opera House
Tickets: $25 –
Theme and Variations (Balanchine / Tchaikovsky)
World Premiere by Brian Brooks (Brooks/Gordon)
The Concert (Or, The Perils of Everybody) (Robbins / Chopin)

Theme and Variations
Set in a spectacular 19th-century ballroom to the soaring music of Tchaikovsky, this is classical ballet at its grandest. The cast is large, the costumes lavish, the dancing technically demanding yet joyous and serene — and with a thrilling finale. Long recognized as a Balanchine masterpiece.

World Premiere by Brian Brooks
Known for his contemporary work in dance and theater, choreographer Brian Brooks expands his adventurous collaborations with classically trained dancers in his first piece for Miami City Ballet. This new work is conceived and choreographed by Brooks, Inaugural Choreographer in Residence at Chicago’s Harris Theater for Music and Dance, with a commissioned score by Michael Gordon, American composer and co-founder of Bang on a Can.

The Concert (Or, The Perils of Everybody)
Jerome Robbins’ The Concert (Or, The Perils of Everybody) is universally acclaimed as the funniest of all comic ballets, a light-hearted exploration of human relationships – and the surprising tricks the mind can play while enjoying the simple pleasures of an outdoor concert, complete with folding chairs, rain that comes and goes and an enraged pianist.

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On February 13 get ready for a heart wrenching, breath-taking dance show presented by the amazing Travis Wall and SHAPING SOUND. If you were lucky enough to see them when they were in Miami before, you will once again be dazzled with a story and performance audiences will not forget.

TRAVIS WALL’S SHAPING SOUND: AFTER THE CURTAIN

February 13, 2018
Ziff Ballet Opera House
Tickets: $39 – $99*
Directed by Travis Wall

Travis and SHAPING SOUND are back with their brand-new show, After the Curtain. These visual musicians continue to dazzle audiences as they tell the story of a man fighting to find his creative voice after the death of his one true love. Heart-wrenching, breath-taking and ultimately uplifting, this is one dance show that audiences will remember forever.

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Get ready to be energized when the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater rolls into the Arsht Center from February 22-25. This critically-acclaimed modern dance company based in New York and founded by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey returns to Miami for the 10th year with a premiere piece by Miami’s own Jamar Roberts. Ten time’s the charm. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind performance.

ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATER

February 22-25, 2018
Part of Knight Masterworks Dance Series
Ziff Ballet Opera House
Tickets: $29 – $119*
Directed by Robert Battle

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to Miami for its 10th consecutive year to premiere dancer Jamar Roberts’ first piece with the company – Members Don’t Get Weary, an abstract look at what it means to have the blues, set to music by John Coltrane. In addition, the production will feature Alvin Ailey’s signature masterpiece Revelations.

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Artistry meets hilarity when Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo performs on March 4. The highly skilled all-male dance troupe playfully frolics around the stage parodying traditional, and classical ballet with the mastery of great ballerinas. Loads of fun!

LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO

March 4, 2018
Part of Knight Masterworks Dance Series
Knight Concert Hall
Tickets: $30 – $100*

Recognized for their inspiring blend of a loving knowledge of dance, impeccable comic approach, and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without falling flat on their faces, this all-male dance troupe is guaranteed to delight Miami when it returns in March. Don’t miss this playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form and en travesti!

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Join in the excitement of Spain’s greatest art form when the Arsht Center presents FLAMENCO FESTIVAL MIAMI 2018 featuring BALLET NACIONAL DE ESPANA in their ONLY Florida performance this year. Guaranteed you won’t be able to sit still in your seat when music and dance combine for a weekend of feverish footwork from Spain’s most beloved dance company.

FLAMENCO FESTIVAL MIAMI 2018: BALLET NACIONAL DE ESPAÑA SUITE SEVILLA

March 8-10, 2018
Part of Knight Masterworks Dance Series
Knight Concert Hall
Tickets: $35-$100*
Directed by Antonio Najarro

The biggest festival of flamenco dance and music in the Southeast returns for its 11th season with the world’s greatest exponent of Spanish dance – Ballet Nacional de España. The company’s famed director, Antonio Najarro, brings a new choreographic creation to life with the spectacular “Suite Sevilla.” Najarro blends classic Spanish dance with cutting-edge trends in music and dance, displaying that artful language so characteristic of his personal style as a creator. Flamenco guitars join forces with the other flamenco instruments to paint an aural picture of southern Spain in this one-weekend-only experience!

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Miami City Ballet once again shines from April 13 to 15 when they present PROGRAM IV – three dramatic ballets that will have you cheering for more.

MIAMI CITY BALLET presents PROGRAM IV

April 13-15, 2018
Ziff Ballet Opera House
Tickets: Start at $25*

Apollo
Apollo, George Balanchine’s first great masterwork, literally transformed the art of 20th-century ballet. With its neoclassical approach to dance, this narrative ballet follows the young god of music, beauty and light, and three muses — Calliope, Polyhymnia and Terpsichore, the muse of dance – who compete for his attention as they dance to Igor Stravinsky’s supremely elegant score.

Concerto DSCH
About this amazingly inventive and exciting ballet, set to a seething Dmitri Shostakovich piano concerto, Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times had this to say: “Its dances pour forth in a continuous stream of galvanizing excitement and affectionate intimacy … The most captivating classical ballet I have seen in years.”

La Valse
In a dark and mysterious ballroom, 34 dancers waltz to gripping music by Maurice Ravel that projects a mood of impending doom. The haunting, gripping work culminates with the appearance of a dark figure of Death, who claims the life of a woman in white as the horrified onlookers swirl about her upraised body.

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Thank you Arsht Center for bringing us such exciting, beautiful and world-class dance programs. We are so lucky that we have such a fine facility in our own backyard. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us dance aficionados in the 2019 season. We will surely be there!