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the Everglades and en-dangered Key Deer at theKey Deer Refuge on BigPine Key.

“I kept everything Ishot,” said Chapman, 65.“There are thousands ofprints and color slides anddigital images, and I cata-loged almost everything.”

This meticulous record-keeping ended up bene-fiting HistoryMiami. Theretired newsman donatedhis files to the museum in2013 — about 750,000images, including somepersonal ones, which is asignificant addition to the

For 40 years, photo-journalist Tim Chapmanchronicled the fits andstarts of history for theMiami Herald, a career thatsaw him capturing indelibleimages of Hurricane An-drew and the Cocaine Cow-boys, the Jonestown Mas-sacre and the Mariel Boat-lift. But Chapman alsocaptured the small mo-ments that texture life inSouth Florida, including alargemouth bass jumping in

museum’s archive of 1.5million images.

On Friday, some of thosephotographs will be ondisplay as HistoryMiamiopens “Newsman: ThePhotojournalism of TimChapman,” an exhibitionthat captures four decadesof local and regional histo-ry. Curated by anotherlongtime Herald photog-rapher, Al Diaz, the collec-tion also includes presspasses, notebooks, camerasand other news artifacts.

For Chapman, who nowlives in a house he built onBig Torch Key, the exhibit

is both a retrospective and athank you. Many of hiscolleagues will be comingFriday, and columnist andauthor Carl Hiaasen will behosting an opening nightconversation with him.

“It’s a way of honoring allthe great journalists whocame through there [theHerald] and the ones whoare still there trying to dotheir jobs under incrediblecorporate pressure,” hesaid.

Chapman began takingpictures at 7, when his dad,who served under Gen.George Patton in WorldWar II, turned over hisKodak box camera. His firstpicture: a heron in the Ever-glades, a wilderness thatwould become one of hisall-time favorite places. Hecontinued clicking away atHialeah High, Miami DadeJunior College North andthen the University of Mia-mi. By 1972 he was workingat The Miami Herald, arecent graduate launching acareer that would witnesssome of the most dramaticevents of his hometown.

In 1978, he was one ofonly four photographers tocover the JonestownMassacre in Guyana, wheremore than 900 people diedin a mass suicide-murderunder orders from cultleader Jim Jones. He figuredthat one year, during theera of the Cocaine Cowboysand civil wars to the south,he probably shot photo-graphs of about 300 bodies.

“I feel like I covered theevents that made the head-lines that made Miami whatit is today, for better orworse,” he said.

Retired in 2012, Chap-man is no longer takingphotographs. He spends alot of time on his restored1981 Boston Whaler dockedbehind his home, and withhis son, an emergency roomphysician in Naples, and a17-month-old granddaught-er. “I had the most fun youcan have under some brutalconditions, and it was stillthe best job in the world,”he said. “But I’m done. I’vemoved on to another phasein my life.”

McDonald Johnson lived along Loop Road in the Big Cypress Swamp in 1973. Chapmansays this is one of his favorite photos

Miami’s stormyand dazzling story,told in photosBY ANA [email protected]

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Adonis Losada, the com-ic who once dressed as awhacky old lady on a Span-ish-language variety show,put on another over-the-top performance on Thurs-day — this time at trial, onaccusations that he down-loaded child pornography.

He spoke defiantly, oftenwaving his hands insistinghe only went online look-ing for sex with men, notas a pervert with a fetishfor toddlers and infants.

“No sir, I do not like it,”Losada cried in Spanishbefore weeping loudly,dramatically. “You have toenjoy that garbage. Youhave to be a very sick per-son to like that.”

Losada, a former actoron the Univision showSábado Gigante, is chargedwith 51 counts of havingchild porn at his MiamiBeach home. He is alreadyserving a 10-year prison

term for similar crimesafter losing at trial in PalmBeach County.

If he is convicted in Mia-mi, the 52-year-old actorcould face the rest of hislife behind bars.

Jurors heard that in 2009,he entered a disturbing chatroom called “Baby ToddlerLove,” where child pornog-raphers trade illegal images.Losada, speaking in Span-ish, insisted he liked toenter many gay chat roomsbut swore he did not under-stand English well and didnot know the meaning ofthe chat room name.

When a man named Paul— actually an undercoverdetective — began messa-ging him, he played alongonly to try and “conquest”him.

“If he had told me helikes roaches and rats, Iwould have said that I likethat, too,” Losada said. “I’veencountered people onchats that say they likemaking love to dead bod-ies.”

But Losada was at a losswhen confronted with evi-dence that he sent the un-dercover detective an illegalimage. “So this photo justmagically appeared in thechat,” prosecutor Tom Hag-gerty asked.

“I have no idea,” Losadasaid.

One by one, the horrificimages were shown to thejurors Thursday. The jurorsmostly averted their gazes,some looking down as

though shell-shocked,others appearing outragedby the abuse depicted in theimages.

Losada suggested thatother people who stayed athis Miami Beach apartmenthad access to the computer.

“I never have passwords,”Losada said. “Never.”

After closing arguments,Miami-Dade jurors areexpected to deliberate onFriday.

‘Sábado Gigante’ comic defends self in Miami child-porn trialCOURTS

BY DAVID [email protected]

A An article on Page12A of Saturday’s editionabout Sen. Marco Rubiobacking the Obama admin-istration’s request for $1.9billion to fight the Zikavirus stated that Miami-Dade does not have vectorcontrol staff. Miami-Dadeemploys 17 people formosquito control.

A An April 14 articleabout the Aventura com-

mission meeting on April 5gave the incorrect purposeof an upcoming specialelection. On Nov. 8, voterswill decide whether allfuture Aventura charterquestions recommendedby the city’s Charter Revi-sion Commission will bescheduled for a vote duringregular or special city elec-tions, eliminating the needand additional costs forspecial mail-in ballots.

CORRECTION

Miami City Ballet hasdanced in Paris, at Wash-ington’s Kennedy Center,and, yes, in Manhattanbefore. But to walk acrossthe vast plaza of NewYork’s world-renownedLincoln Center, past thefamous fountain unfurlingin the sunset, and see“Miami City Ballet” embla-zoned above the entranceto the center’s David H.Koch Theater is a thrillunlike anything else in thearts world.

“Yeah Miami!!” beamedSue Kronick, the company’schairwoman, stridingacross the theater lobbyWednesday evening, join-ing other Miami supportersgathered for the openingnight of a slate of MCBperformances that runsthrough Sunday. Theyincluded founder TobyAnsin, the arts patron wholaunched the company withfounding artistic directorEdward Villella, glowing atthe company’s passage“from Lincoln Road toLincoln Center” — fromthe Miami Beach storefrontwhere the then 17-membertroupe started in 1985 tothe center of the danceworld.

Miami City Ballet’s rous-ingly successful 2009 Man-hattan debut at New York’sCity Center, the theaterwhere New York City Bal-let and dance legend Villel-la started out, was a mile-stone for the Miami troupe.The Lincoln Center shows,at the grand theater built tobe the home of NYCB, area new marker for the Mia-mi company and for cur-rent artistic directorLourdes Lopez, the Miami-raised ballerina whodanced with NYCB at thistheater for 24 years.

“We loved Edward; hewas a game-changer,” saidMargaret Selby, who repre-sents major dance troupesand choreographers forColombia Artist Manage-ment. “But this is a differ-ent game.”

Beverly D’Anne, a form-er American Ballet Theatreballerina who ran thedance program for the NewYork City Council on theArts, was also eager to seethe new MCB.

“I saw Miami City Balletunder Eddie,” D’Anne said.“It was terrific, beautiful.Now I’m anxious to see itunder Lourdes.”

Wednesday eveningfeatured a reception andfundraising gala for theJoyce Theater Foundation,the nonprofit behind one ofNew York’s leading dancevenues, which is presentingMCB here.

The combination of animportant arts organizationand a company that hasn’tperformed in New York insix years brought out aninfluential crowd of artspatrons, critics and bookingagents and other taste-makers and movers andshakers who gathered onthe mezzanine before theshow.

On hand were NYCBartistic director Peter Mar-tins and two of ballet’smost renowned choreog-raphers: NYCB’s JustinPeck, whose ballet Heat-scape MCB performs Fri-day; and ABT artist in resi-dence Alexei Ratmansky,whose Symphonic Dances,another MCB commission,was featured Wednesday.Philanthropic luminariesincluded Sarah Arison, theheiress who heads Miami’sArison Arts Foundation,who was honored at thegala, and New York’sAgnes Gund. Less glitterybut just as key for MCBwas Bill Lockwood, a long-time former programmerfor Lincoln Center whobooks Princeton Universi-ty’s McCarter Theatre.There was excitement overthe arrival of New YorkTimes fashion columnistBill Cunningham. But moreimportant to MCB was thepaper’s powerful dancecritic Alastair Macaulay,whose enthusiastic reviewsof MCB’s performances inSouth Florida have whettedthis city’s interest.

“The New York danceworld is very curious aboutwhat’s going on in Miami,”said Pia Catton, coveringthe event for the WallStreet Journal.

“There is such a buzz,”former dancer AlexanderDube said. “Lourdes isbeloved here.”

The artistic significanceof this theater gave thecompany’s debut an emo-tional and artistic meaningfar beyond the venue’sprestige.

As the curtain rose onSerenade, the first pieceBalanchine made in Amer-ica, with the ranks of Mia-mi dancers lifting theirpalms high toward theaudience filling the thea-ter’s golden tiers, theyseemed to be saluting Ba-lanchine, the audience andthe honor of taking theirplace in ballet history.

“When I heard ‘onstagefor Serenade’ for rehearsal Iburst into tears,” Lopez,whose first New York per-formance was in that bal-let, told radio stationWNYC on Thursday. “Itwasn’t nerves. It was aboutbringing these dancers tomy home.”

Her dancers werethrilled. “It’s a gift to danceon the stage where Edwarddanced, where Lourdesdanced, where Balanchinecreated all these works wedo now,” MCB principaldancer Patricia Delgadosaid last week. “There’s afeeling of the ghosts of thepast who help you do whatyou do.”

When MCB performed atCity Center, dancer Jea-nette Delgado gave a star-making performance inBalanchine’s Square Dance.On Wednesday youngBrazilian soloist NathaliaArja had a similar kind ofbreakout moment. She wasthe electrifying center ofSerenade and the fierce“war girl” in Ratmansky’sgrand, dramatic SymphonicDances, earning particularlywarm applause.

Miami City Balletmakes a splash inLincoln Center debutBY JORDAN [email protected]

irene.tai

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The Miami Herald, 2016-04-17 Cropped page Page: 1M


ALEXANDER IZILIAEVMiami City Ballet dancers Emily Bromberg, Simone Messmer and Chase Swatosh dancing in ‘Serenade’ at Lincoln Center.

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Arts & Entertainment

M iami City Bal-let’s debut atLincoln Centerwas a triumph

on every level, with enthu-siastic ovations from aseasoned dance audienceWednesday and Thursdaynights and a glowing reviewfrom New York Times leaddance critic Alastair Ma-caulay.

For a dance company, itdoesn’t get any better thanthis.

Yet Miami City Ballet has

been here before. It had anenthusiastically received,sold-out run in Paris in2011. It received rave re-views and standing ova-tions for its Manhattandebut at New York’s CityCenter in 2009. The pat-tern goes all the way backto 1995, when MCB burstonto the national scene atthe Kennedy Center inWashington, just nine yearsafter it first stepped onstage in Miami (followedby more successful outingsthere in 2000 and 2003).

Each time the troupereturned home glowingwith achievement and

hoping that out-of-townaffirmation would trans-late to more love fromSouth Florida — biggeraudiences and donations,more respect and atten-tion. Each time success onthe road seemed to havelittle practical effect athome.

But Lincoln Centercould be different. Danc-ing at City Center, whichwas the original home ofNew York City Ballet andwhere MCB foundingartistic director EdwardVillella was a star, washugely meaningful to thetroupe artistically. But thattheater is significant pri-marily to dance insiders.There is no more famousvenue than Lincoln Cen-ter, or the David H. KochTheater, where MCBperformed there — whichNew Yorkers know betterby its original name of theNew York State Theater. Itwas built for legendaryNYCB choreographerGeorge Balanchine as histroupe became the emble-matic American and NewYork ballet company; tomost, this is “Balanchine’shouse” and NYCB’s truehome.

For current artistic di-rector Lourdes Lopez, wholeft Miami at 14 to studyat NYCB’s school anddanced in the companyfor 24 years, rising toprincipal dancer, to gofrom being one of manyon the Koch stage to pre-senting her own troupehas to be a profoundlymeaningful moment.

“I’ve been trying tofigure out how all of thishappened,” she said in aspeech Wednesday.

This week also promisesto be transformative forMCB’s dancers. The Kochtheater stage is biggerthan those at the venueswhere they dance in SouthFlorida; dancer PatriciaDelgado said that in re-hearsal the company hadto figure out how to takeup more space with thesame steps.

“It feels a lot biggerthan Miami,” MCB ap-prentice Alaina Anderson,who performed Thursdayevening, said at intermis-sion. “My heart was rac-ing.”

Indeed, the physicalstretch pales next to theartistic expansion re-quired. “To perform … onthat stage — I don’t havewords,” soloist NathaliaArja said last week. Shedidn’t need to speak — theintensity she brought toseveral leading roles thefirst two nights, amplify-ing her already sparklingdancing, exemplified thewhole company’s per-formance. They dancedwith a projection, heat andenergy that lit up the thea-ter.

And they did it their way.Miami’s distinctive stylewas a draw for Linda Shel-ton, executive director ofthe Joyce Theater, whichpresented MCB in NewYork.

“To me the dancers arerefreshing, they have adifferent kind of energy,”Shelton said. “They looklike they love what they’redoing.”

Shelton’s evaluationseemed borne out by thereaction in New York.

“It’s not [New York] CityBallet — it’s Miami CityBallet,” choreographerSean Curran, head of thedance department at NewYork University TischSchool of the Arts, saidThursday. “They have anaccent. It’s like seeing Ba-lanchine through a differ-ent lens. It was thrilling.”

The company’s manyLatino and Latin Americandancers, who seem so nor-mal in South Florida, werealso striking to New Yorkers.

“It’s refreshing to see theethnicity,” dancer DonaldShorter said Thursday.“That’s Miami onstage.”

MCB’s choreographicprofile is also different thistime from in 2009. Then itfocused on the Balanchineheritage so central to Villellaand the company under him,with five out of six pieces bythat great choreographer.This time the Miami compa-ny did just two Balanchineworks, Symphony in ThreeMovements and Bouree Fan-tasque in their two regularprograms (plus Serenade onWednesday, a perk for at-tendees of a Joyce fundrais-er). Instead, the programemphasized commissionedpieces that famous choreog-raphers made for MCB:Alexei Ratmansky’s Sym-phonic Dances, Justin Peck’sHeatscape, and Liam Scar-lett’s Viscera.

Taking a big unwieldyentity like a ballet companyon the road is an expensiveproposition that usuallyrequires extra fundraising.That was not the case thistime, since the Joyce waspresenting MCB, underwrit-ing costs (including art-istically crucial live musicfrom the NYCB orchestra) inexchange for ticket revenueand having the Miamitroupe as the sexy center-piece of its annual fundrais-ing gala Wednesday. But theattitude on the part of thecompany’s leadership to-ward touring, and its poten-tial to boost MCB’s status,also seems different now. Atthe end of Villella’s tenure,tense clashes with someboard members and donorsled to deep financial stressesand an attitude that putsolvency over artisticachievement. The companyreturned from Paris to finditself in the red.

Now board membersseem deeply appreciative of

the value of visiting NewYork.

“It’s an important affir-mation of the value of thecompany,” says MCBboard member CharlesAdelman, a retired NewYork attorney and longtimedance lover who is on theJoyce board and is anNYCB supporter. “It hasgreat symbolic and practi-cal importance. Even in itshome it’s important for[MCB] to have nationalrecognition.”

MCB executive directorMichael Scolamiero said hehopes Lincoln Center suc-cess will lure new donorswho could underwrite visitsto Europe, where the com-pany hasn’t returned sinceits Paris triumph, and LatinAmerica, where its Miamibrand and Latin Americandancers would presumablymake it a natural draw.

“The potential is there asthe community’s confidencein what we’re doing contin-ues to grow,” Scolamierosays. He points to the SanFrancisco Ballet, the leadingAmerican ballet companyafter NYCB and AmericanBallet Theater, whose boarddecided the cost of touringwas worth the boost in repu-tation.

“The [San Francisco]board committed to under-write the deficit — they saw[touring] as integral toestablish San FranciscoBallet as a company thatrivaled any company in theworld,” Scolamiero says.“You don’t get there bystaying in California.”

This week in New Yorkmarked the end of MCB’s30th season, which togetherwith the departure oflongtime leading dancers,feels like a key turning pointfrom the Villella to the Lo-pez era. Some remarked thatit was a pity that Villella,who left in 2012 after acontroversial and acrimo-nious season, was not onhand to witness this newachievement of the compa-ny he built. But there wasalso a sense that change wasinevitable.

“My deepest wish is thatEdward could see this,”Nicolle Ugarriza, a formerpublicist for MCB whotraveled from Miami forthe shows, said Wednes-day. “But companies have acertain trajectory, and theirpath takes them on certainmilestones. Now the com-pany has really arrived.”

ALEXANDER IZILIAEV

A New York State of Mind

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miami City Ballet makesits Lincoln Centerdebut.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Enthusiastic receptionat world-famoustheater could be agame-changer forMiami troupe.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

New York shows mark aturning point fromEdward Villella toLourdes Lopez era.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BY JORDAN [email protected]

DANCE

‘‘TO PERFORM ONTHAT [LINCOLNCENTER] STAGE —I DON’T HAVEWORDS. soloist Nathalia Arja

Renan Cerdeiroand Miami CityBallet dancers in‘Symphony inThreeMovements’ atLincoln Center.

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BALLET’S BOYS CLUBARE TODAY’S TOP CHOREOGRAPHERSOVERUSED?

READERS’ CHOICETHE BEST OF 2015

KICKLINES & COOKIESHEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPES FROM THE ROCKETTES

SimoneMESSMER

On Her Uncompromising Journey & Starting Over

at Miami City Ballet

THE NAKED TRUTH:

THE 2O15 DANCE MAGAZINE AWARDS

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It’s not just another new job; it’s the right new job. Messmer, the latest principal with Miami City Bal-

let, seems to have found it. As she told her new boss, artistic director Lourdes Lopez, the other day, “I’ve never been in a company with such mentally healthy people in my life.”

Of course, that’s not the only reason the company is such a brilliant fit for this transcendent, but not exactly mild-mannered ballerina. Messmer, a former soloist with American Ballet Theatre and, briefly, with San Francisco Ballet—she only lasted a season—has found herself where she’s always wanted to be: in an environment full of rigor, in which studio exploration is as valued as a performance.

“Every single person in the company is in ballet class every day,” she says. “I’ll do a pas de deux, and they stay in the room just to watch. Everyone is on board. I’m working for someone who actually really believes in what I’m doing, so I’m going to run with that.”

Messmer, who wrote to Lopez in May, was offered a principal contract with Miami City Ballet shortly after. Though the budget was already wrapped up,

Lopez obtained special permission from her board to add another dancer to the roster.

But while it all happened quickly—she started on June 1—getting to this point hasn’t been easy for Mess-mer. In San Francisco, she quickly realized that “it was not an environment that I was working well in. I wasn’t dancing well. But other people have really flourished there. It depends on something I’m not sure I have.”

She did get little pearls of wisdom from certain people, including Sofiane Sylve and Yuri Possokhov (dancing his Firebird was a highlight, as was tackling a new role in Alexei Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy). “But in general I was floating on the ether because I wasn’t a focus of the staff, therefore my rehearsals were almost nonexistent,” she says. “I think it was a combi-nation of the wrong place for me and also the first time in a brand-new environment. I was at Ballet Theatre for over a decade. It was the only thing I knew.”

In leaving ABT, a company in which she felt she had little room to grow, her aim was obvious: more meaty dancing roles. When that didn’t seem to be hap-pening in San Francisco, Messmer told artistic director Helgi Tomasson that the company wasn’t the right fit. According to Messmer, she asked him if he wanted her to remain for the Paris tour, and he told her that he was planning on having her dance Choleric in George

At Miami City Ballet, the new principal has found her sweet spot.B y G i a K o u r l a s

The Reinvention of Simone Messmer

What does it take to make Simone Messmer happy?

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At Miami City Ballet, the new principal has found her sweet spot.B y G i a K o u r l a s

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Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. For Messmer, that would mean missing out on auditions, but the role was worth it.

Yet she never got to dance it. “I was never called to a rehearsal,” she says. After the Paris season, she left. “Very quickly.”

Shortly after, she returned to New York City, where she got in touch with her ballet teacher Wilhelm Burmann and resumed Gyro-tonic training. “They got me back to a place where I was comfortable being seen again,” she says. “It was more of a mental thing.”

But it took time. In between San Francisco and Miami, Messmer experienced several difficult months when, in order to save money, she and her boyfriend, Mike Diaz—he’s the master carpenter at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater—lived with his sister in New Jersey. “All of a sudden, I was unemployed,” she says. “Stagnant is not a place for an artist. I don’t think I’ve ever had a struggle like that. It’s a toll on your relationship, it’s a toll on your ego, it’s a toll on everything.”

Even though she was depressed, she didn’t fall back into old pat-terns. Ten years ago, Messmer took a leave of absence at ABT after

going down what she calls “a self-destructive path.” She declines to talk specifics, but will say that she couldn’t live with herself if she’d done that again. “It would have made it worse, and it couldn’t have gotten worse, because I maybe would have quit.”

Burmann, who admires Messmer’s rare qualities—she is both a ro-mantic dancer and one suited to contemporary works—and has worked with her since her ABT days, has had the opportunity to study her, then and now. “She is calmer,” he says. “She is more focused, and that makes a big difference.”

But it is hardly surprising that Lopez says she needed to first believe that Messmer was interested in Miami City Ballet for the right reasons. “I was very open with her. I said, ‘You’ve left Ballet Theatre and you’ve left San Francisco, and those are major companies that any young dancer would give an eye and a tooth to join. So what’s going on here? Because something’s going on.’ ”

Messmer recalls that she was nervous. “In all honesty, I don’t want to place blame—I was unhappy in San Francisco, but it’s not my place

“They all said that she’s really talented, but has a very strong personality and asks a lot of questions. I wondered: If we were talking about a male dancer, would you have the same reaction?” —Lourdes Lopez

Lopez is coaching Messmer in Balanchine’s Swan Lake this season.

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to speak about the company that I know so little about,” she says. “It was difficult to answer questions like ‘Why didn’t it work?’ It’s not a simple answer.”

Even though Lopez was already a fan of Messmer’s dancing, she watched her in Burmann’s class and spoke to friends who had worked with her. “They all said that she’s really talented, she’s a workaholic, she’s very focused and present, she delivers onstage, but she has a very strong personality and asks a lot of questions and wants to know the answers,” Lopez says. “There was a part of me that made me wonder: If we were talking about a male dancer, would you have the same reaction?”

Lopez explained to Messmer that her sense of her was that she needed to find a place where someone would take her into a room and say, “Let’s make you a better dancer.” She told her that could happen in Miami. “I said, ‘We leave our egos at the door and it’s really all about working—but I can’t do that on my own. You’re going to have to meet me halfway. What I’m talking about is no BS, no attitude, no diva, no overthinking a situation, no under-thinking it.’ ”

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To Lopez’s delight, there has been none of that. Messmer likes to work. She’s professional and serious. “She’s been wonderful,” Lopez continues. “And it hasn’t been easy for her because the technique is different, it’s faster. The Balanchine style is very different and she has not fought it. Quite the opposite.”

Now Messmer is learning a slew of thrilling parts, including Odette, in Balanchine’s Swan Lake, in which Lopez is coaching her, along with Janie Taylor’s luminous role in Justin Peck’s Year of the Rabbit and Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements, Serenade and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (both Titania and the divertisse-ment pas de deux). While it hasn’t been easy to master the speed and intricacy of the Balanchine approach, Messmer, who has been able to work with Suki Schorer and Susan Pilarre—Lopez brought both School of American Ballet teachers to Miami to work with the company in separate visits—says that she may be more of a Bal-anchine dancer than she realized.

“Playing with the music the way I naturally do is geared well for this,” she explains. “There’s a big difference in the dynamic of every step. A tendu is a tendu, but in Balanchine the out–in is

not even. You can do out–hold; in and out; or you hold the in. It’s that playing that makes you such a dynamic dancer.”

Now Messmer, who moved to Miami with Diaz, lives three blocks from the beach. It helps to have a carpenter-boyfriend; he is planning on building a sprung floor in their extra bedroom. She’s also grateful to her mother for sending her to Spanish-immersion school from kindergarten through eighth grade. And the Delgado sisters—Jeanette and Patricia, two of Miami City Ballet’s most treasured principals—are, in her words, “like a ray of sunshine. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” she adds. “I mean really.”

Messmer doesn’t think she’s ever danced as well as now—or been as confident. “I have a ton of things to work on, but I know clearly what I want to say,” she says. “It’s humbling to be in that position. And I’m super-grateful to Lourdes for taking this risk. There’s no words that can actually say thank you enough, so I just have to be that person in the company. I have to say my thank-yous through my dancing.” n

Gia Kourlas writes about dance for The New York Times and other publications.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream rehearsal with Kleber Rebello

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Taking ChargeToo often when we talk about the lack of female leaders in ballet, we focus on the unfairness of the glass ceiling. But in a �eld where so few careers are based on what’s fair or not, fairness seems almost beside the point. The real issue is what the dance world misses out on when we don’t have a diversity of experiences and perspectives among those who make major decisions.

This distinction hit home for me in this month’s cover story on Simone Messmer. Miami City Ballet artistic director Lourdes Lopez explains to writer Gia Kourlas that before hir-ing Messmer as a principal, she questioned the dancer’s reputation for having what colleagues called a “strong personality.” Lopez asked herself, “If we were talking about a male dancer, would people have the same reaction?” If it were a male director doing the hiring, would he have thought to ask that same question? Maybe, but maybe not. Having lived that life herself, Lopez knows �rsthand the kinds of limitations that female ballet dancers face, how they’re expected to always smile and do as they’re told while men

typically have a bit more leeway to assert them-selves. That vantage point gave her a unique outlook, encouraging her to take a chance others might have passed on.

It’s by asking these kinds of questions and taking bold risks that dance will thrive. This month, Dance Magazine honors �ve luminaries who have done just that: We present 2015 Dance Magazine Awards to �amenco star Soledad Bar-rio, American Ballet Theatre principal Marcelo Gomes, National Ballet of Canada artistic director Karen Kain, dance historian and archi-vist David Vaughan, and Urban Bush Women founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. We salute not only their outstanding achievements, but their endless drive to push our �eld forward and make dance an even more meaningful and mov-ing art form—one that doesn’t shy away from strong personalities.

Jennifer StahlEditor in Chief

[email protected]

“I’m working for someone who really believes in what I’m doing, so I’m going to run with that.”

—Simone Messmer, on Lourdes Lopez, page 38

THE VOTES ARE INTurn to page 80 to find out what readers chose as their favorite performances of 2015.

Lopez expects her dancers to leave any egos at the door.

Editorial

DANCE MAGAZINE

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The Christmas ballet tradition means so much to young aspiring dancers – as one

Miami City Ballet dancer knows.BY ERIK PETERSEN

TheNutcracker

Growing up with

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DetailsThe Nutcracker is at the Broward Center from December 11 to 13 with a 7:30 p.m.

performance on the 11th, 2 p.m. and 7:30

p.m. performances on the 12th and 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. performances

on the 13th.

For tickets or more information:

Visit browardcenter.org or miamicityballet.org.

The Nutcracker runs from December 5 to 29 and also goes to Naples, Miami and West Palm Beach.

FLMag.com | December 2015 71Find us on:

THE NUTCRACKER has loomed large in Ella Ti-tus’ journey to becoming

a professional ballet dancer. So has Miami City Ballet.

Titus’ first experience of profes-sional ballet was a Miami City Bal-let performance of The Nutcracker that came to her hometown, Clear-water. She was a little girl, but she knew what she wanted.

“Right away I was like ‘Oh, I want to do that’ to my parents,” she says.

Now she’ll be a part of a show that might just do that for other young aspiring ballet dancers in the audi-ence. For most of the year, Miami City Ballet offers a diverse program of dance – new and classical, chal-lenging and culturally expansive.

But in December, nobody wants new, avant garde or unfamiliar from their favorite ballet company. They want The Nutcracker – and Miami City Ballet is happy to oblige.

Tchaikovsky’s fanciful Christmas trip through a land of toy soldiers, troublesome mice, princes and lit-tle girls gets brought back to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts this year. They’ll do the George Balancahine version, easily the most famous modern Nutcracker.

“Whenever I think of Nutcracker, I think of this version,” Titus says. “A lot of other companies do other Nutcrackers, but I personally fell in love with this one.”

As with many ballet dancers, The Nutcracker brings back memories for Titus. After that initial announcement to her parents, they signed her up at a local dance studio. When Miami City Ballet re-turned, she auditioned for one of the chil-dren’s roles the company reserved for local kids. She got it, and that started a run of holiday performances with the company.

“I did it for five years there,” she says. “It was the best part of my childhood; ev-erybody loves being in Nutcracker. I went up through the ranks of Nutcracker. It was the best part of the year for the family.”

That led into a move to Miami as a teenager for high school and a spot in the company’s pre-professional division. Then came graduation - and this year, Ti-tus will for the first time dance The Nut-cracker as a fully professional member of Miami City Ballet.

“This is my tenth year of do-ing Nutcracker with Miami City Ballet, but my first year with the company,” she says. “It’s just really, really special because all the kids from the school are involved. It’s really just a family tradition for so many families.”

With performances through most of December including a number of two-per-formance days, it’s a demanding schedule. But it’s worth the tiredness, Titus says.

“I think The Nutrcracker is an excit-ing time for the whole company because everybody gets to try a lot of roles,” says Titus, who plays a handful of roles. “(It’s) not just the same two couples – there are three or four casts for most of the prin-cipal parts. People get the opportunity to see their friends as well.”

And then there are the children – as-piring dancers in the same position she was once in.

“I just love watching them dance,” she says. “It makes everyone excited about do-ing a million shows. You’re tired and then you look over and see the excitement.” P

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ABOVE: Ella Titus and Luiz Silva in Les Sylphides.

BELOW: Ella as a child in Miami City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker.

GuideEVENT PROFILE



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Tropical SundayPEOPLEVANESSA WILLIAMSTAKES THE STAGE, 4

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Arts & Entertainment

But the esteem forBalanchine’s vision, ex-tending to the smallestchoreographic and musicaldetails, and the strongoversight of the GeorgeBalanchine Trust, whichmust give its permission toperform his works andoversees their staging,makes Lopez’s venture withDream highly unusual. (TheTrust has signed off on theproduction.)

Midsummer Night’sDream is one of Balan-chine’s rare story ballets.(Another was Prodigal Son,the Biblical tale that madea star of MCB foundingartistic director EdwardVillella. He was also fa-mously Balanchine’s origi-nal Oberon in Dream andwanted to stage it in Miamibut was stymied by costs.)The choreographer, whodied in 1983, came to lovethe play by performing in itas a young dance student inRussia and could still reciteShakespeare’s lines in En-glish and Russian when hemade the ballet. He spent22 years compiling musicby Mendelssohn, includingthe Midsummer Night’sDream overture.

Though Balanchine wasknown for avoiding com-plex plots (one of his fa-mous aphorisms was “thereare no mothers-in-law inballet”) he swoops adroitlythrough Shakespeare’stangled tale of love andmagic in the first act. Obe-ron and Titania, a fairy kingand queen, quarrel andOberon has his servantPuck enchant Titania intofalling in love with vulgarworkman Nick Bottom,whom he crowns with adonkey’s head. Two pairsof lovers are also set atodds, and then set right. Inthe second half he turnsShakespeare’s relativelybrief resolution into agrand dance celebration,with a beautifully lyricalpas de deux.

John Clifford, a Balan-chine choreographic proté-gé who danced with NYCBfrom 1966 to 1974, fre-quently as Oberon andPuck, says Dream showsthe complexities of Ba-lanchine’s genius. Thechoreographer told Clif-ford, for instance, thatTitania and Oberon are nota couple, but rival forces ofnature, and envisionedOberon as a fierce-tem-pered demi-God based on aTeutonic legend. But thoseideas are in the choreog-raphy.

“He didn’t talk muchabout it — he said, ‘Dear,it’s a ballet,’ ” Clifford says.“He had his own privatesubtext of a story, he justdidn’t want it to be tooliteral. He didn’t want the

I f changing a work byone artistic geniustakes chutzpah, rein-terpreting one from

three geniuses might be aleap from a metaphoricalcliff.

But that is what MiamiCity Ballet is doing for thefinal show of its 30thseason, opening Friday. Itwill present a new produc-tion of George Balanchine’srendition of Shakespeare’sA Midsummer Night’sDream, set to music byFelix Mendelssohn.

The choreography, musicand story are the same. ButMCB’s production givesthis beloved balletic in-terpretation of the tale offairy mischief and be-witched lovers a radicallydifferent and distinctivelyMiami character by placingit not in an Elizabethanforest but in a mysteriousundersea world and theCoral Castle in South Mia-mi Dade.

MCB artistic directorLourdes Lopez engagedtwo Miami-bred creativeluminaries, visual artistMichele Oka Doner anddirector and playwrightTarell Alvin McCraney, toreimagine Balanchine’spopular 1962 ballet for theNew York City Ballet.

“I wondered if it waspossible to find that chore-ography in another placeand time,” Lopez said lastmonth at Open Barre, anMCB discussion series.Lopez, who danced manyroles in Dream during her24 years at NYCB, called it“one of those works wherethe physical productionhasn’t aged as well as thechoreography.”

Theater and film direc-tors have often updatedShakespeare. Some exam-ples are Baz Luhrman’s1996 film of Romeo andJuliet, with punk beachsidegangs, and Julie Taymor’srecent fantasy staging ofDream. The dance worldhas occasionally seen re-workings of classics likeSwan Lake, which MatthewBourne reimagined in anall-male version in 1995.

dancers to know because hedidn’t want them to in-terpret … it’s all there in thesteps and pantomime. Hedidn’t do the play. He didhis own interpretation ofthe play.”

The $2.1 million produc-tion is the most expensive,and one of the most elab-orate, in MCB’s history. Itwill use all the troupe’s 51dancers, as well as 10 ad-vanced teenage studentsand 25 children, ages 9 to13, from the company’sschool, while six singerswill join the orchestra.Costumes and sets weremade at four studios inNew York and Chicago.Balanchine Trust repetiteurSandy Jennings spent sevenweeks at MCB teaching andrehearsing the ballet, andformer NYCB dancers IbAndersen, Suki Schorer andcurrent artistic directorPeter Martins coachedindividual parts.

Doner came up with theundersea idea after she andMcCraney saw the NYCBproduction with Lopez inearly 2014. The two Miamiartists saw the ocean re-placing the woods as afantastical, but potentiallydangerous, place.

“Michele said … our for-est is the sea,” McCraneysays. “If we think of goinginto an unknown placewhere magical things hap-pen, it’s the sea for us. In alot of Shakespeare playsthey go into the forest andweird things happen. We gointo the sea and all bets areoff.”

Doner, 70, who grew upin Miami Beach, has oftenworked and spent timehere. Her sculptures andother work, such as her AWalk on the Beach muralembedded in the floor ofMiami International Air-port, are often inspired byor incorporate naturalforms, which she was excit-ed to bring to a new medi-um.

“I knew instinctively Iwanted to set the ballet inMiami,” Doner says. “Thereal Miami which nurturedme gave me a distinct lan-guage which was invisibleto most people. … I’m draw-ing people’s eye to the truenatural beauty of this city,which trumps anything else— the light, the sunset, thelimestone that holds every-thing together, the gifts thewater brings up on thebeach.”

Doner’s costumes areinspired by seaweed, shells,coral and mangroves. Thesets incorporate projectedphotos of marine creatures.The hounds that accompa-ny Hippolyta, the queen ofthe Amazons, are now sea-horses — which Doner sayswas Lopez’s idea. And Bot-

tom becomes a manateeinstead of a donkey.

That last change meantaltering the movementslightly, to reflect a creaturethat swims, instead of walk-ing on hooves — a potential-ly radical idea that Donersays Lopez hesitated over.

But Doner says it was arisk worth taking. “Withoutthat letting go, that decon-struction, we did not stand achance of allowing thiswonderful magical piece …to speak to a new generationin a fresh way,” she says.

Lopez’s belief in howBalanchine was inspired byShakespeare led her to bringMcCraney on board.

“I had the feeling thatBalanchine choreographednot just to the music but tothe text,” she said at OpenBarre. “I wanted Tarell towork with the dancers sothey understood it.”

McCraney, who has beena playwright in residence atEngland’s Royal Shakes-peare Company and direct-ed experimental stagings ofShakespeare’s plays thereand in Miami, read the play,discussed its themes and didacting exercises with thedancers. And he was thrilledto discover how deeplyShakespeare’s ideas res-onated in the ballet, fromthe poetic rhythms of thetext to the ecstasy, pain andabsurdity of love.

“Things began to changein front of my eyes,”McCraney says. “They tookthe information and it beganto inform what they did.”

Clifford said there wereconcerns with using thiskind of theatrical analysis.

“I’m worried [the danc-ers] might bring things [Ba-lanchine] didn’t want,” hesays. “Because if he wantedthem to be there, they’d bethere.”

Whatever dancers andaudiences will discover inthis new vision of A Mid-summer Night’s Dream willbe revealed this weekend,when they venture not intothe woods but under thesea.

Miami City Ballet dancers Chase Swatosh and JenniferLauren pose for the troupe’s new undersea productionof “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Below are sketchesof sea-themed characters in the play. From top:Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons; the servant Puck;and one of the ballet’s male lovers. The sketches are byMiami visual artist Michele Oka Doner.

A ‘Dream’of a balletfor Miami

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Miami City Ballet premieresnew undersea setting forBalanchine’s “A MidsummerNight’s Dream”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miami visual artist MicheleOka Doner and directorTarell Alvin McCraneycollaborated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Evening-length productionthe most expensive andelaborate in troupe’shistory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

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If You GoWhat: Miami City Ballet in“A Midsummer Night’sDream.”

When: 8 p.m. Friday andSaturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Adrienne ArshtCenter, 1300 Biscayne Blvd.,Miami.

Tickets: $20 to $204 atmiamicityballet.org or305-929-7010.Program repeats April 1-3 at the KravisCenter in West Palm Beach and April 9-10 atthe Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale

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Miami City Ballet’s newproduction of A Midsum-mer Night’s Dream is ashimmery, shadowy, mag-ical jewel box of a show.Artist Michele Oka Doner’sset and costumes, whichtranspose George Balan-chine’s beloved renditionof the Shakespeare playfrom its traditional forestto the depths of a fantasyocean, are not just visuallyenchanting. They add alayer of ominous mystery(and some charming whim-sy) that suit this tale ofmagically tangled loversand fairy royalty, and strik-ingly affect the ballet’satmosphere.

Add Balanchine’s bril-liant choreography, vividperformances by the danc-ers, a flock of eager chil-dren, delicious Mendel-sohn music in a brightperformance from the

Opus One Orchestra, andtogether they make MiamiCity Ballet’s Dream, whichpremiered Friday night atthe Ziff Ballet OperaHouse at the AdrienneArsht Center, a captivatingpackage.

Doner sets shifting imag-es (Wendall Harrington iscredited with projection

design) on the back walland a transparent scrim inthe front of the stage,layering enormous, ethere-al sea plants and creatures,which change with eachscene and even undulateslightly, creating a shifting,cinematic atmosphere.John Hall’s shadowy light-ing adds to the surrealmood. The intricate cos-tumes combine silvery,shimmery unitards, feath-ery seaweed skirts, swoop-ing coral headdresses; theymake the dancers seemlike darting fish in the darkdepths.

Balanchine is known forhis abstract ballets, but thespeed and assurance withwhich he relates Dream’scomplicated plot andmeshes storytelling andcharacter with musicalinspiration and composi-tional coherence, is aston-ishing. He packs the firstfour acts of the play intojust one. An early scenewhere the lovers maketheir case before Theseus(Carlos Guerra) transposesa verbose exposition intofour quick gestures: Helena(Emily Bromberg) lovesDemetrius (Renan Cerdei-ro), who rejects her forHermia (Jennifer Lauren),who’s happily united withLysander (Chase Swatosh).Segments like the onewhere Titania (SimoneMessmer, with a newlyluxuriant, precipitousgrace) dances with a regalCavalier (Reyneris Reyes),while her flock of fairiesrepel Puck (Shimon Ito) ashe tries to steal her tinyPage (Olivia Quintane,daughter of ballet masterand mistress Arnold Quin-tane and Joan Latham), arecontained compositionaljewels. Puck and the be-wildered lovers chase eachother at a breakneck pacethat wonderfully expressestheir delirious predica-ment, simultaneously fun-ny and frightening.

As the fairy king Oberon,Kleber Rebello added newauthority to his familiartechnical facility, simulta-neously capricious andregal, skimming throughbeats and leaps at dragon-fly speed. Nathalia Arjawas a sparkling, quicksilverdelight as the lead butter-fly. Ito also emerged in anew way, giving a vivid,adroitly comic and gracefulportrayal of the mischie-vous Puck. Didier Bramazwas effectively funny asthe bumbling Bottom, andthe idea of turning himinto a manatee (instead ofa donkey), swaying hishead in search of seagrasswhile Messmer cavortsadoringly around him,works. (Although the scenewas marred by a manateemask that looks like acheap plush toy.) Cerdeiroand Bromberg gave a com-pelling portrayal of theemotionally agonized un-dertones that darken theircomically fraught conflict,a sign of director TarellAlvin McCraney’s effortsas Shakespeare coach anddramaturge.

Gary Sheldon led theorchestra in a rippling,crisply nuanced perform-ance of Mendelsohn’smusic, with the addedpleasure of six singers in acrystalline rendition of twoShakespearean songs.

The second act is primar-ily a grand, formal divertis-sement, with ranks ofdancers in gorgeously elab-orate, glittering costumesof pale lavender, seafoamand gold. It’s centeredaround an exquisitely lyr-ical pas de deux, dancedFriday by Tricia Albertsonand Rainer Krenstetter.Their performance wasbeautifully shaped andfinished, but cool, re-strained — a sense of emo-tional release would havegiven it more depth. JordanElizabeth Long was un-comfortably tense in whatshould be the powerful roleof Hippolyta.

Yet these weaker ele-ments did not ultimatelytake away from the climaxof Dream, as the fairies,glimmering in white, silverand gold, gather — in fare-well, but also to remind usof the magical, disturbingpossibilities that lie be-neath the surface.

DANCE REVIEW | MIAMI CITY BALLET

HECTOR GABINO [email protected]

Miami City Ballet dancers perform in the company’s newproduction of Balanchine’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

MCB’s ‘MidsummerNight’s Dream’ an undersea fantasy


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If you goWhat: Miami City Ballet in“A Midsummer Night’sDream”

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Adrienne ArshtCenter, 1300 Biscayne Blvd.,Miami

Info: $20 to $204 atmiamicityballet.org or305-929-7010Program repeats April 1 to 3 at the KravisCenter in West Palm Beach and April 9 to 10at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.

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Big names like Usher,Janelle Monae and Babyfaceare expected to perform atthe 11th annual Jazz in theGardens, but two luckySouth Florida singers —LaVie and April RaQuel —were chosen to perform onthe same stage as the stars.

Charline Murphy, alsoknown as LaVie, whichmeans “the life” in French,says her music encompassesall of life. She was expectedto perform Sunday.

LaVie has been singingfor 15 years and hasn’tslowed down. Inspired bythe likes of Jill Scott and PJMorton, her sound is influ-enced by R&B, pop and jazz.

After applying four times,she was finally acceptedinto the festival on her fifthtry. She credits God’s divinetiming for her luck, and she

is set to perform Sunday.“A lot of times we think

we’re ready for something,and there’s still some moregroundwork, some moregrowing, and some more

learning to do,” LaVie said.“The fact that now I get theopportunity means now isthe time — and it’s a perfecttime.”

Born and raised in NorthMiami to Haitian parents,LaVie says her family is herfoundation. Her husband,Stephane Murphy — who isalso her producer and mu-sical director — was ecstaticto hear the news of heracceptance because he isher biggest supporter, shesaid. Together they writeher music, and they re-leased her latest single,Alive. Its message: to staygrounded in God and tohave faith that everythingwill fall into place, no mat-ter what tribulations lifemay throw. “I know that I’mnot here by myself,” LaViesaid, adding that “every-thing around me was fallingapart, and I still kept going.”

“I know what that is, andit’s God,” she said. “Let’sdwell in what’s positive inour lives — as long as youencounter LaVie you’regoing to encounter love.Let’s just enjoy life.”

RaQuel also knows aboutthe power of timing.

In 2006, RaQuel returnedto Florida from Los Angeles,where she had worked intelevision, and she foundher niche in urban, rock,soul and funk music.

Blending those genres,she brings a unique elementand sass to the stage, in-cluding instruments likebass, drums, keys, guitarand occasional horns.

On Saturday, she playedwith her band Kouture Funkand performed her originalsingle Nobody Does It Better.

“The biggest validation isbeing on the stage today atJazz in the Gardens. Thiswill be the first time I willhave this level of productionand to present my originalmusic as the artist that I am.This is the biggest deal sofar of my life,” RaQuel said.

Gates open at 3 p.m.Sunday. While tickets areavailable on site, you canbuy them in advance onlineat JazzintheGardens.com orthrough Ticketmaster.

MIAMI GARDENS

Local artists shineon stage at Jazz in the GardensBY CHRISTIAN [email protected]

MATIAS J. [email protected]

April RaQuel and KoutureFunk perform Saturday.

ny times - april 18,...

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