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DAY IN THE LIFE OF DANCE: Works & Process Presents Miami City Ballet: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa & Pam Tanowitz
By Miranda Stuck
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Published on February 14, 2025
Miami City Ballet in "Carmen."Photo: Works & Process/Elyse Mertz
Moderator & Curator of Jerome Robbins Dance Division, NYPL: Linda Murray
Choreographers: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Pam Tanowitz
Miami City Ballet Dancers: Dawn Atkins, Adrienne Carter, Cameron Catazaro, Andrei Chagas, Rui Cruz, Mayumi Enokibara, Hannah Fischer, Satoki Habuchi, Juliet Hay, Ashley Knox, Steven Loch, Taylor Naturkas, Stanislav Olshanskyi, Ethan Rodrigues, Matilda Solis, Chase Swatosh, Damian Zamorano
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2025
Venue: Peter B. Lewis Theater, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
There is a certain thrill of curiosity which occurs while watching choreographers work in real time.
On January 25, Works & Process at the Guggenheim shared insights into two new ballets created by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Pam Tanowitz which will premiere at Miami City Ballet in spring 2025. Bouncing between never-before-seen excerpts and thoughtful questions from curator Linda Murray, the program, held at the Museum’s intimate Peter B. Lewis Theater, shares the creative process from studio to stage.
The program opens with excerpts from Tanowitz’s work Coincidental Dances, set to music by composer Jessie Montgomery. The dancers, color-blocked in bright shades of blue, red, and green leotards begin the first excerpt of the work with focus. The audience learns that the excerpt’s initial footwork phrase derives from movement Tanowitz set on her own company in bare feet, exploring the possibilities of pointework regarding weight transfer and percussive sound. Montgomery’s abrupt, cosmopolitan strings accompany identifiable ballet and tap moves, ranging from swift grand battements to shuffle ball steps.
In process, Tanowitz expresses the value of experimenting with her dancers to give them agency over ideas and decision-making. “I want the dancers to be able to take charge,” she says to Murray in conversation. The dancers’ confidence and attack is particularly visible during the second excerpt from Coincidental Dances, which expresses grandiose sensations through pounding drums and freefall in the dancers’ bodies.
Following the excerpt, the audience gets an inside look into Tanowitz working one-on-one with Hannah Fischer, principal dancer with Miami City Ballet. As she begins to workshop new angles of the arms, the idea of throwing tension away, and quickening certain rhythms, we see the dancer’s articulation and persona transform. “Don’t be so polite,” Tanowitz says after watching Fischer perform a staccato manège solo en pointe. In this process, the choreographer challenges both herself and the dancers to stretch their skill sets in order to make new discoveries.
Following excerpts of Coincidental Dances, Ochoa sits across from Murray to offer a conversation about her new work, Carmen. Set to a combination of the traditional Carmen score by Georges Bizet and newly commissioned music by Juan Pablo Acosta, Ochoa shares how she approached a reimagined version of the classic opera tale. “Dance becomes uninteresting when it is too literal,” says Ochoa in conversation. To her, Carmen is not just a love story; it is about a woman fighting for independence at work, in society, and in love. In addition to combining classical ballet, contemporary acting, and newly created mythological figures, Ochoa’s choreography embraces strong influences of flamenco, a style in which she trained for over seven years.
In the first excerpt from the opening of Carmen, Ochoa informs the audience that the curtain will only be raised knee-high for the first couple of minutes. As music strikes, dancers appear in black form fitting attire, lying down facing away from the audience with vivid red roses in their mouths. Their backs arch sharply, revealing a striking image of their faces upside down and roses pointed directly at us. Their arms and legs create an array of parallel shapes, all while dancer Dawn Atkins is revealed, poised upstage in a large, black-brimmed hat. She begins to lengthen her limbs in a silky, unhesitating fashion, gliding her extensions along the floor like water.
One of the most dynamic visions onstage is principal soloist Cameron Catazaro playing a bull, which Ochoa explains is a symbol of fate, among other characteristics. “I want to bring new stories… to new audiences and new perspectives on a traditional story,” says Ochoa. In her new story, symbolism occurs in characters as well as props, as she explains how red roses are considered the “flower of love,” which the chorus dancers hold and manipulate while dancing. Ochoa’s Carmen balances tradition and innovation through striking imagery, characters, and movement style, all with her characteristic dramatic flair.
Overall, the program’s combination of dialogue and composition proved to be an inquisitive and thoughtful experience, especially witnessing the creative processes of artistic leaders such as Tanowitz and Ochoa. Works & Process shows that an artist’s rough draft is just as exciting as the final product.
