Miami City Ballet 25th Anniversary Season: A Celebration of Hard Work and Elegance

By Veronika Pozmentier….
The 2010 – 2011 dance season is an important milestone for the Miami City Ballet co-founded by Toby Lerner Ansin and Edward Villella in 1985.

Today Miami City Ballet is recognized as the 8th largest dance company in the US and as one of the world’s leading ballet companies with 50 dancers, a repertoire of 88 ballets mostly by George Balanchine and the MCB School will enroll more than 320 students from all over the world this year.

The classical ballet company opened its 25th Anniversary season in South Florida on October 15th, 2010 with a performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts featuring a Company Premiere of Jerome Robbins called Fanfare and two Georges Balanchine pieces: the Japanese inspired sensual Bugaku and the breathtaking ballet theme and variations.

All night long in a packed theater standing ovations and waves of applauses kept coming from the audience showing admiration, joy and recognition to the amazing ballet dancers and the talented Edward Villella appearing many times on stage to explain the show.

Recently I met with Edward Villella in his office overlooking the Bass Museum and Collins Park, he explained to me how thrilled he was by those past 25 years and what had been achieved since he first started with a small company of 19 dancers sometimes having trouble to pay the rent for the studios on Lincoln Road. It is now an internationally acclaimed company.

The founding artistic director talked about his long career with the New York City Ballet (1957-1975), his memories with modern dance creator Balanchine, his satisfaction in teaching choregraphy and discovering new talent.

At the end of the interview the Ballet Master, awarded by President Clinton in 1997 with the National Medal of Arts and recently elected at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, told me “ I want to thank every individual that helped the Miami City Ballet grow to one of America’s finest dance companies and especially the City of Miami Beach for all the support for our work, the gift of this beautiful building and the trust in our coming successes.”

Indeed the Miami City Ballet a cultural jewel hidden within the wall of a modern curvy building has put the cultural spotlight worldwide on the City of Miami Beach and on the quality of its cultural institutions.

For more information go online at http://www.miamicityballet.org/

Veronika Pozmentier is a free-lance journalist, she serves on The Wolfsonian-FIU Museum’s Visionaries Executive Committee, the MDPL Education and Programs Committee and is proud to be a Sister Cities International Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Miami Beach.


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