The International Ballet Festival of Miami begins today its twenty-third edition, the first without its founder, the late Pedro Pablo Peña, and with the participation of dancers from Austria, the Dominican Republic, Holland, Mexico, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Uruguay and the United States.
The Colombian Eriberto Jiménez, dancer and choreographer with 30 years of career and who was trained by Cuban teachers, is the artistic director of what is considered the most important ballet festival in the United States, which this year runs until August 19.
“A bit hard to do the festival without Pedro Pablo Peña, founder and director of the event for 23 years, but it is being achieved because it is an event created a long time ago and the machinery works,” the current artistic director told Efe .
Organized by the Miami Hispanic Ballet, the event begins tonight with a reception where the poster of the festival, created by the Cuban artist Javier Dubrocq, will be displayed, and the exhibition “Dancing between canvases” by the same artist will also be inaugurated.
Jimenez confessed his pride that the first function of the festival, which will be held on August 4 on a campus of Miami Dade College, consists of a gala promotion to young talents, among which could be “the stars of the future.”
“Boys who usually take classes with me and now they proposed a piece, ‘Crash’, which is part of the program and talks about the personalities clash in a couple,” he said about some of the presentations starring young talents to be seen in this festival .
He also emphasized two galas based on contemporary productions scheduled for next August 11 at the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana, as well as the pas de deux of classic pieces such as “Don Quixote”, “The corsair” or “Diana and Actaeon. ”
The new director of the festival did not want to ignore the presence in the edition of this year of the Austrian dancer Rainer Krenstter, after “several years communicating with us to participate, since he appeared in the Ballet of the Berlin Opera”, as he pointed out Efe.
As in every edition, the “A life for dance” award will be presented, a statuette inspired by the first Maya Plisetskaya dancer and created by the Mexican artist David Camorlinga, and this year will fall on the deceased founder and director of this festival , Pedro Pablo Peña.
The other award this year, “Critique and culture of ballet”, will be awarded to the long-running US publication Dance Magazine, whose first issue was published in 1927, and which will be picked up by its current editor Jennifer Stahl.
The historic headquarters of the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, another of Peña’s legacies, will house a display of ballet costumes and props as part of the festival’s activities.
The event also plans a Grand Gala on Saturday, August 18 at the Fillmore Miami Beach Jackie Gleason Theater and, the next day, the closing at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium.
