Ballet Hispanico Selects Rosie Herrera for Instituto Coreografico, Now thru 1/29

Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation's leading Latino dance organization since 1970, presents the latest installment of its choreographic institute, Instituto Coreográfíco, to be held January 21-29, 2014 at the company's headquarters at 167 W. 89th Street, NYC.

This year's Instituto Coreográfico features the return of Miami-based choreographer and 2013 Princess Grace Award winner Rosie Herrera, who will be paired with filmmaker William Atwater and panelists Risa Steinberg, Francesca Harper, and Richard Chen See. The 2014 installment of the Instituto program was made possible through a grant from the Ford Foundation.

The groundbreaking Instituto Coreográfico provides emerging Latino choreographers and dance filmmakers with a professional and supportive environment in which to explore their heritage and develop their craft. Choreographers receive ongoing feedback from a group of notable artistic mentors and advisors, daily archive DVD recordings of the rehearsals, an edited film of the resulting work, an academic advisor, and a showing of their work. Should an artistically appropriate work emerge from this process, it could enter Ballet Hispanico's permanent repertory. Filmmakers will be paired with a choreographer and will be mentored by filmmaker Gerrit Vooren, founder of reels4artists.

Rosie Herrera is an alumna of the 2012 Instituto Coreográfico and her re-appointment marks the first time that a choreographer has been invited to return to the program. Plans are in the works to bring a second choreographer to the program later this year.

"The Instituto program was created to support emerging choreographers, and tracking their long-term development is important," said Eduardo Vilaro, Artistic Director of Ballet Hispanico. "Typically only a single residency or lab is offered before participants resume their routines. We felt that Rosie deserved more time to focus on her work-in-progress, and we are interested in observing how her creative process has evolved over the past year. We are thrilled to have her with us once again."

Rosie Herrera is a graduate from New World School with a BFA in Dance Performance. She has been commissioned by The Miami Light Project in association with the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing and the American Dance Festival in 2010, 2011, and 2013 where her company was presented to sold-out audiences. She has had two residencies at the ADF recreating her work Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret on ADF dancers and creating a new work in progress this past summer entitled Make Believe. Rosie is a classically trained lyric coloratura soprano and performs with the Performers Music Institute Opera Ensemble as well as choreographs and stages operas independently throughout Miami. She has also collaborated on productions with The South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center, New World School of the Arts, The University of Central Florida, Six Floor Ensemble, Zoetic Stage and with theater artist Rudi Goblen as well as filmmakers Adam Reign and Lucas Leyva. As a rehearsal director, co- choreographer and performer Rosie was in residency at the Chat Noir Cabaret in Miami Beach with the interdisciplinary performance ensemble Circ X. Her company has been presented by the Northrop Dance Series, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Baryshnicov Arts Center, Gotham Dance at Skirball and Focus Dance at The Joyce. Rosie is a 2010 MANCC choreographic fellow and a 2011 Miami Dance Fellow. Most recently she was awarded a Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship for her work with Ballet Hispanico.

ABOUT INSTITUTO COREOGRÁFICO: In 2010, Ballet Hispanico launched a new choreography institute created for Latino artists to explore culturally specific work in a nurturing, learning laboratory. The inaugural Instituto Coreográfíco took place in September 2010 when Cuban-American choreographer Maray Ramis Gutierrez created a new work, Puntos Suspensivos, on company members which then premiered two months later during Ballet Hispanico's annual New York season at The Joyce Theater. The Instituto continued in January 2011 when former Ballet Hispanico dancer Nicholas Villeneuve created a new work on his fellow company members. The program in June 2011 featured Cuban choreographer George Céspedes, a dancer with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba who is among the few Cuban nationals to create a work for a major U.S. Dance Company. The most recent installment of the program in June 2012 featured choreographers Rosie Herrera and Abdul Latif.

ABOUT BALLET HISPANICO: Celebrating 43 years of dance and culture, Ballet Hispanico is recognized as the nation's premier Latino dance organization. Led by Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro, the Company boasts a rich and diverse repertory of over 100 works by the foremost choreographers and emerging artists of our time. The works expand on founder Tina Ramirez's legacy of exploring the diversity of Latino culture through a fusion of Latin and contemporary dance powered by theatricality and passion. The Company has performed for an audience of nearly 3 million, throughout 11 countries, on 3 continents. For more information, visit www.ballethispanico.org. Follow Ballet Hispanico on Facebook and Twitter.

Eduardo Vilaro, a first generation Cuban-American, began as artistic director of Ballet Hispanico in August of 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since it was founded in 1970. Mr. Vilaro has been part of the Ballet Hispanico family since 1985. As a dancer with the Ballet Hispanico Company, he performed throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe and assisted founder Tina Ramirez with the development of dance education residencies. Mr. Vilaro is also an accomplished choreographer, having created works for the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Lexington Ballet, the Civic Ballet of Chicago, and over 20 ballets for Luna Negra Dance Theater, the company he founded in Chicago. He received a B.F.A. in Dance from Adelphi University and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College Chicago, where he served as Artist-in-Residence at The Dance Center. Mr. Vilaro was a guest speaker at the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders and the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture, and continues to speak to the growing need for cultural diversity and dance education.