Jim Wenger Underwater Tech: Scott Wohrman Video: Channin Wohrman PA/Stills: Sherryl Kamper PA/BTS Video: Blake Carmichael Retouching/Compositing: Christine Craig Special thanks to Brownie’s Third Lung and Global Underwater Explorers for providing underwater camera housings and lights, and Pompano Dive Center and Odyssey Charters for providing wreck-diving transportation and logistics support.

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What happens when you take five Miami City Ballet
dancers, drop them in water, and capture it on
camera? Breathtaking beauty.
BY MADISON FLAGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE KAMPER STYLING BY DANNY SANTIAGO
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BEAUTYAND
THEREEF

2. FLOATING AWAY Miami City Ballet opens its
29th season with a performance of “Romeo and
Juliet.” Emily Bromberg, a corps de ballet dancer, will
perform in that show when it opens at the Broward
Center for the Performing Arts on October 24.
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allet 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.
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 con-
certo by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů 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, at-
tendance 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.
“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.
B
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.”

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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.

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7. UNDER THE SEA A former competitive
diver and swimmer, dancer Chase Swatosh
returns for his third season as a corps de
ballet dancer.
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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.

10. Hair & Makeup Artist: Mark Williamson
Digital Tech: Tim Detert
Assistant: Jim Wenger
Underwater Tech: Scott Wohrman
Video: Channin Wohrman
PA/Stills: Sherryl Kamper
PA/BTS Video: Blake Carmichael
Retouching/Compositing: Christine Craig
Special thanks to Brownie’s Third Lung and
Global Underwater Explorers for providing
underwater camera housings and lights, and
Pompano Dive Center and Odyssey Charters
for providing wreck-diving transportation and
logistics support.
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