The South Florida dance season for 2013-14 looks a good deal like it has been since the demise of Palm Beach County’s own Ballet Florida: One major company, a host of excellent touring out-of-towners, and many smaller troupes.
The difference in the past couple years has been that some of the smaller companies are creating a lot of original dances, so fans of this athletic art can be rewarded with happy surprises if they know where to look.
Miami City Ballet: The Miami Beach-based company offers its first season completely designed by its new artistic director, Lourdes Lopez, who adds the kinds of modern work to the troupe she felt was missing, while still hewing to its core of classics by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
As always, the company can be seen in three different cities and counties: the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.
The first program, titled First Ventures, includes the first of four company premieres, Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia, set to piano music by Gyorgy Ligeti; Lopez and Wheeldon were the founders of the New York-based modern dance company Morphoses. Two Balanchine ballets fill out the program: Ballo Della Regina, set to the ballet music from Act II of Verdi’s opera Don Carlo, and Serenade, choreographed to the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. (Oct. 18-20, Arsht; Oct. 25-27, Broward; Nov. 15-17, Kravis).
New York City Ballet choreographer Justin Peck, whose commissioned work for MCB had a one-night premiere last season, sees that work, Chutes and Ladders, added to the regular repertory (the music is Britten’s First String Quartet) in the second program, called See the Music. Another ballet created for MCB, Alexei Ratmansky’s Symphonic Dances (Rachmaninov), returns to this program, along with a company premiere: Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat (Closed Garden), in which three couples dance to Catalan folksongs sung by the Majorcan chanteuse Maria del Mar Bonet. Rounding out the show is Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, to the Concerto for Two Violins by J.S. Bach. (Jan. 10-12, Arsht; Jan. 24-26, Broward; Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Kravis)
Two more company premieres are on the third program, Triple Threat, including what is likely to be the most eagerly anticipated one, West Side Story Suite, drawn from the Leonard Bernstein musical by Robbins and Peter Gennaro (the dances also include singing, perhaps another company first). The other premiere is a Balanchine ballet, Episodes, accompanied by the music of Webern. Another Balanchine work, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, will also be seen; the music is from an extra number Tchaikovsky wrote for Swan Lake that was later discarded and forgotten. (Feb. 14-16, Arsht, Feb. 21-23, Broward; Feb. 28-March 2, Kravis)
The final program of the season is devoted to a classic ballet, Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote, with choreography by Alexander Gorsky and music by Ludwig Minkus. Inspired by the great 17th-century novel of Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote has been a staple of ballet companies since its premiere in Moscow in 1869. (March 21-23, Broward; March 28-30, Kravis; April 11-13, Arsht)
No Christmas season would be complete without Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and MCB has reliably presented the Balanchine version of this most popular of all ballets for years. This is an opulently traditional production that will be presented 19 times during the holiday season. (Dec. 19-24, Arsht, nine performances; Dec. 27-30, Kravis, six performances; Jan. 3-5, Broward, four performances)
Unlike the majority of dance companies these days, MCB is accompanied live; conductor Gary Sheldon leads the Opus One Orchestra in all performances. (Tickets start at $20; call 305-929-7010 or visit www.mcb.org, or buy tickets through the venues)
Duncan Theatre: The regular dance season at Palm Beach State College’s Duncan Theatre has been a must-see for dance fans for a number of years now, and regularly welcomes major troupes. Shows are presented twice, on Friday and Saturday nights.
First up is the Paul Taylor Dance Company, one of the nation’s finest groups, run by a man who in his 80s is still producing new work. For the Duncan show, Taylor’s company performs Esplanade (Bach), Funny Papers (“novelty tunes” such as I’m Popeye the Sailor Man), and Dante Variations (Ligeti) (Jan. 17-18)
Next up is an annual visitor to South Florida in the winter season, the shape-shifting dance company Pilobolus. There’s nothing quite like this Connecticut troupe, for whom artistic expression using the human body, often in how-did-they-do-that living sculptures, is not just the core of their art but a way of life. (Feb. 14-15)
Founded in 1964, the Utah-based Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company has expanded from its Western base to international performances, and this summer welcomed a new artistic director, Daniel Charon, a former member of the Doug Varone and Limon Dance Company organizations. Ririe-Woodbury has been dedicated to original work and to keeping the dances of the late American master Alwin Nikolais in the repertory. (March 14-15)
The Duncan season concludes with another returning group, the Koresh Dance Company of Philadelphia. The company, which features a mix of modern, jazz and ballet styles, will present Koresh’s own version of Bolero (Ravel) as well as Come Together, The Heart and dances set to music by Beethoven and J.S. Bach. (March 28-29)
Tickets for the Duncan Theatre dance shows are $37. Call 561-868-3309 or visit www.duncantheatre.org.
Ballet Palm Beach: Colleen Smith’s Palm Beach Gardens-based company, formerly known as Florida Classical Ballet Theatre, renamed itself at the end of last season with its performance of Wonderland, a new take on Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice stories. Smith is an inventive choreographer whose ability to instill discipline and polish in her many child dancers is clearly evident; at its heart, Ballet Palm Beach is a teaching institution.
The company opens its five-performance season at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens with The Curtain Rises, a poptpourri of four dances, three of them set to tangos by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, and the fourth to Glenn Miller’s big-band staple In the Mood (Oct. 25).
Four performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) come next, followed Feb. 14-15 by two performances of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, appropriately enough for Valentine’s Day weekend. The Petipa-Minkus ballet Don Quixote follows on April 4 and 5, and the season closes May 11 with a mixed-repertoire program called Tales My Mother Told, featuring dances suggested by childhood stories recalled by troupe members.
The company actually starts its work Sept. 26-28 with 10-minute “flash ballet” performances at venues around the county: the Morikami Museum, the Norton Museum of Art, the Palm Beach Zoo, the Jupiter Lighthouse and several other places. (Tickets start at $15 for the seasonal shows; call 561-207-5900)
Reach Dance/O Dance: Two local dance organizers, jazz dance choreographer Maria Konrad and former Ballet Florida standout Jerry Opdenaker collaborate frequently on productions from their bases in Palm Beach Gardens.
The companies have planned Dracula for Oct. 12-13 at the Eissey Campus Theatre. It’s a retelling of the classic horror story, set to a 1920s jazz score, in which the makers of a silent film about the legend are unaware that they have cast an actual vampire in the lead role. (Tickets are $15-$20; visit www.reachdancecompany.com)
Boca Ballet Theatre: Dan Guin and Jane Tyree’s Boca Raton-based company is now in its 23rd season. Also a teaching institution, it offers young dancers a chance to perform alongside professionals from major companies such as New York City Ballet.
The troupe opens its season Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at the Olympic Heights Performing Arts Theater at Olympic Heights High School with four performances of The Nutcracker. On March 5, NYCB’s Daniel Ulbricht, founder of a company called Stars of American Ballet, joins with Boca Ballet for a night of dance at Spanish River High School.
The troupe plans a mixed-repertory recital May 3-4 called Dance Fest, featuring classical and contemporary works and guest artists. Its summer program Aug. 1-3 will feature three performances of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. (Tickets range from $20-$35; call 561-995-0709 or visit www.bocaballet.org)
Harid Conservatory: Boca Raton’s own conservatory of dance (whose music division was taken over by Lynn University), founded in 1987, offers tuition-free dance instruction to talented students, and has placed many of them in dance companies throughout the world.
The conservatory offers two performances this year, starting Dec. 14-15 with Act II of The Nutcracker and assorted dances from other ballets as well as modern character dances. The class of 2014 will present a mixed program of dances May 23-25 from the classical and contemporary repertoires. Performances take place at the Countess de Hoernle Theater on the campus of Spanish River High School in western Boca Raton, not far from the Harid campus. (Tickets are $22-$28; call 561-998-8038 or visit www.harid.edu)
Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida: Vladimir Issaev’s troupe plans four performances this season, primarily at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, but also expanding into other venues in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
The season opens with a double bill of Vicente Nebrada’s Pentimento and Stravinsky’s The Firebird (Oct. 12-13, Broward; Oct. 19-20, Aventura Arts and Cultural Center), followed by six performances of The Nutcracker (Dec. 8, Fillmore Miami Beach; Dec. 13-15, Aventura; Dec. 21-22, Parker Playhouse, Fort Lauderdale).
Issaev’s Dr. Ouch!, a family-friendly story about a veterinarian called to the wilds of Africa to aid some ailing monkeys, returns to the company’s repertory March 8-9 (Aventura) and March 15-16 (Broward Center). The season ends with a Spring Ballet Gala featuring a mixed repertory of classic and contemporary dance selections (May 3, Aventura; May 4, Broward). (Tickets start at $25; call 954-462-0222 for the Broward and Aventura programs; call 305-947-3998 for more information)
Kravis Center: Modern tap master Savion Glover brings STepZ to the Kravis on Nov. 7, which will be followed Nov. 22 by Tango Fire, an evening of dances from this popular Argentine tradition. On Dec. 14 and 15, the Haitian dance company Ayikodans offers two performances of dance melding the island nation’s folkloric culture with contemporary dance expression.
The Martha Graham Dance Company, carrying on the legacy of the legendary choreographer, plans dances by Graham, Lubovitch and Duato (Jan. 14), and the contemporary New York ensemble of Keigwin and Company brings its high-energy style to the Rinker Playhouse Feb. 14 and 15. On Feb. 24, the eminent Alvin Ailey Dance Theater makes a return appearance to the Kravis with a program that closes with Revelations, usually considered Ailey’s finest work. (Call 561-832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org)
Broward Center: The South Florida Ballet Theater presents a program called Great Pas de Deux (Series VII), featuring duets from Le Corsaire and Scheherazade, and Act II of Prokofiev’s Cinderella (Sept. 29), while the New World School of the Arts’ dance students perform a mixed program Oct. 30 (two performances at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center), and the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Ballet Theatre presents Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty (Nov. 23-24). Step Afrika, billed as the first professional dance company devoted to African-American stepping, comes to the Parker Playhouse from Jan. 17-18 for three performances.
Arsht Center: Pilobolus performs twice (Oct. 25-26) at the Ziff Ballet Opera House, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is in residence for three nights from Feb. 20-22. Stars of Flamenco, an evening devoted to this colorful Spanish folk dance tradition, is scheduled for Feb. 27, followed Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Carnival Studio Theater by Rhaw, Rennie Harris’s street-dance company from Philadelphia, which will give three performances. Ballet Hispanico, Eduardo Vilaro’s Latin dance troupe, arrives June 6-7. (Tickets vary; call 305-949-6722).