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Ballet Hispánico's 2018 New York Season at the Joyce Theater Featuring Two World Premieres

Company:
Ballet Hispánico

Ballet Hispánico's 
2018 New York Season at the Joyce Theater
Featuring Two World Premieres
April 10-15, 2018
World Premiere by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano
World Premiere of Waiting for Pepe by Carlos Pons Guerra
Línea Recta by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Ballet Hispánico, the nation's premier Latino dance organization, brings its bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance to the Joyce Theater with two World Premieres from April 10-15, 2018. Tickets start at $10 and are on sale now at Joyce.org.
 
Both Ballet Hispánico World Premieres were inspired by Spanish literary icon Federico Garcia Lorca. In his fourth piece with the Company, acclaimed choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, who recently premiered a new work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, delves into the life of the celebrated playwright during his time in New York City in 1929. In Waiting for Pepe, Carlos Pons Guerra, a Spanish-born choreographer whose works have been performed in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe, reimagines Lorca's 1936 play, The House of Bernanda Alba, infusing the tale of family intrigue with the theatricality of Spanish language films and telenovelas.
 
The Joyce program will also include the critically praised Línea Recta (2016) by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, one of today's most sought-after choreographers. A powerful and resonant work, Línea Recta explores an intriguing aspect of flamenco dance: the conspicuous absence of physical contact between dancers. While maintaining the integrity and hallmark passion of the genre, Lopez Ochoa imagines an original and explosive movement language premised upon the theme of communication between the sexes and performed to an original guitar composition by Eric Vaarzon Morel. Línea Recta was commissioned in part by the Apollo Theater and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
 
All three works in the program came to fruition through Ballet Hispánico's Instituto Coreográfico, an innovative choreography lab for Latino dance makers launched in 2010 by Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro. Mr. Vilaro created Instituto to foster a dialogue about the Latino experience and to express the complexity of the diaspora through dance. This innovative learning laboratory provides both emerging choreographers and dance filmmakers with a professional and supportive environment to explore their heritage and to develop their craft.
 

Gustavo Ramírez Sansano (1978 San Fulgencio, Spain) was Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater (2009-2013), and now he combines his work as a freelance choreographer with the direction of TITOYAYA, the company he founded in Spain with Veronica Garcia Moscardo in 2006. Sansano has received numerous awards for his choreography, including first prize at the Ricard Moragas Competition in Barcelona (1997), Prix Dom Perignon Choreographic Competition in Hamburg (2001), and Premio de Las Artes Escénicas de la Comunidad Valenciana (2005). Sansano has been commissioned to create works for many companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Compania Nacional de Danza, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Luzerner tanz Theater, Ballet BC, The Hamburg Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, and Luna Negra Dance Theater, among others. As a dancer, Sansano was part of the most prestigious companies such as Ballet Joven de Alicante, Ballet Contemporaneo de Barcelona, Ballet de la Comunidad de Madrid/Victor Ullate, Nederlands Dans Theater II and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, doing some original works by Jacopo Godani, Hans Van Manen, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Victor Ullate and many more. Sansano was chosen by the magazine POR LA DANZA for its 15th anniversary as one of the "Fifteen Choreographers to Watch" (2004), Dance Magazine featured Luna Negra's Artistic Director, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano as one of "25 to Watch" (2011), and he was named a "Chicagoan of the Year in Arts & Entertainment" by the Chicago Tribune (2012). In June 2017, he was chosen by the APDCV for its 30th anniversary as "Outstanding Valencian choreographer." He also has created a few operas with Chicago Opera Theater (Andreas Mitisek) María de Buenos Aires, Opera Omaha (James Darrah) Semele, and Bard SummerScape, Iris (James Darrah). Along his time creating, he has worked with Luis Crespo as Set Design for most of his productions. He has also collaborated with artists such as David Delfin, Angel Sanchez, Nicolas Fischtel, Bregje van Balen, and Gelson Amaran, to name a few.
 
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is a sought-after Belgo-Colombian choreographer who has created works for more than 40 companies around the world such as Scapino Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Djazzex, Geneva Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Gothenburg Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, BalletX, BJM-Danse Montreal, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Ballet National de Marseille, Saarbrucken Ballet, Jacoby & Pronk, Chemnitzer Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, Morphoses Wheeldon Company, Whim W'Him, IncolBallet de Colombia, Finnish National Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza Madrid, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Scottish Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Nacional Dominicano, Ballet Saarbrucken, Augsburg Ballet, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet Moscow, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, West Australian Ballet, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Ballet Nacional Chileno, Ballet Staatstheater am Gartnerplatz Munchen, Ballet Manila, Daniil Simkin Intensio Project, Cincinnati Ballet, Silicon Valley Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, English National Ballet and New York City Ballet. In the fall of 2007 she was selected to participate with the prestigious New York Choreographic Institute. Dance Magazine named her work Cylindrical Shadows, performed by Pacific Northwest Ballet, as one of the highlights of 2012. Her full-length narrative ballet A Streetcar Named Desire has been awarded with 'Best Classical Choreography' by the Circle of Critics of the National Dance Award UK, the South Bank Sky Arts Awards for "Best New Production" and was nominated for an Olivier Award 2012.
 
Carlos Pons Guerra is an independent choreographer who has created work on dancers from companies such as Rambert, Northern Ballet, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (India), ENDanza (Dominican Republic), Verve, Elmhurst School of Dance (Associate School of Birmingham Royal Ballet) and more, as well as receiving commissions from international dance institutions such as Sadler's Wells, The Lowry, Birmingham Hippodrome and the British Council. Carlos founded his company, DeNada Dance Theatre, in 2012, and has created four works for it since. His triple bill for DeNada, Ham and Passion, has had two international tours, playing across the UK, as well as internationally in the Caribbean and Europe. In 2015, Carlos was nominated for the UK Critic's Circle National Dance Awards, in the category of Best Emerging Artist, and in 2016, his company received two nominations for the same awards: 'Best Independent Company' and 'Outstanding Female Performance (Modern)' for dancer Marivi Da Silva's role in Carlos' work, Young Man!. Carlos was a guest choreographer in Northern Ballet's 2016 Choreographers' Lab, has taught internationally at leading conservatoires, and is an associate artist at DanceXchange, Birmingham. Current and future projects include TORO: DeNada Dance Theatre's Beauty and the Bull, a new full-length work for DeNada, and its subsequent 2018 UK national tour; Penguins, a children's production for Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Cahoots Theatre Northern Ireland, a new male duet for internationally renown Malaysian dancer Mavin Khoo. Originally from Gran Canaria, Spain, Carlos began his ballet training at the Choreographic Centre of Las Palmas, under direction of Anatol Yanowsky, and at the Royal Conservatoire for Dance of Madrid, before completing his training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

[Dandara. Photo credit: Paula Lobo]