Ballet Hispánico School Of Dance to Present Virtual Diálogos, Instituto Coreográfico With Omar Román De Jesús

Ballet Hispánico School of Dance will present a virtual Diálogos, Instituto Coreográfico with Omar Román De Jesús to kick off its Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, on September 15, 2022 at 7:30pm EST on Ballet Hispánico's Facebook or YouTube pages, or watch it afterwards on demand. Make sure to follow and subscribe Ballet Hispánico to receive a tune in reminder.

Diálogos is Ballet Hispánico's conversation series exploring the interconnections of the arts, social justice, and Latino cultures. Tune in to hear choreographer Omar Román De Jesús (Bayamón, Puerto Rico) discuss his experience working with Ballet Hispánico Company dancers, his creative process, and how Instituto Coreográfico gives a voice to young artists and opens access to the dance-making process for all audiences. For more information, visit ballethispanico.org/community/the-arnhold-center/dialogos.

Instituto Coreográfico gives a voice to young artists and opens access to the dance-making process for all audiences. When Ballet Hispánico was founded nearly 50 years ago, Latinx artists were invisible to the dance field. Since its founding, Ballet Hispánico has played an instrumental role in changing the narrative - now, generations of Latinx artists have produced art that reinterpret their heritage, bringing fresh perspectives on the Latinx experience. In 2010, Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro launched Instituto Coreográfico, a choreographic institute for Latinx artists to create culturally specific work in a nurturing learning laboratory of dance. The choreographer in residence is paired with an emerging filmmaker to document their process, create promotional materials, and add a layer of artistic collaboration. Instituto Coreográfico also invites dance patrons to respond, reflect, and enter into cultural dialogue with the artists about dance and culture in a safe, critical environment at a work-in-progress showing during the choreographer's residency. With this invaluable platform, Ballet Hispánico continues to give a voice to young artists and opens access to the dance-making process for all audiences.

Omar Román De Jesús is a recipient of the 2020 Jacob's Pillow: The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship. He has been commissioned twice by Instituto de Cultura de Puerto Rico to create work for the International Dance Festival of Puerto Rico, where he was awarded the Ambassador of Dance medal. Omar has won choreographic competitions including the Joffrey Academy of Dance's Winning Works Choreographic Competition and the Whim W'Him's Choreographic Shindig. He has received awards including the Audience Award at The Dance Gallery Festival, 1st place prize at the Reverb Dance Festival and the Parsons Dance GenerationNOW Commission for their 2017 Joyce Season. He has also created work for Bruce Wood Dance, Jacob Jonas The Company, and educational institutions like The Ailey School, James Madison University and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. This fall, his work was presented at PRISMA International Dance Festival (Panama), ENDANZANTE (Colombia), Chop Shop: Bodies of Work Contemporary Dance Festival (Seattle), and will be presented at the upcoming Jerusalem International Choreographic Competition. Omar is fond of education and has experience teaching workshops and master classes all over the world for dancers, non-dancers, and children on the Autism Spectrum.

Ballet Hispánico has been the leading voice intersecting artistic excellence and advocacy and is now the largest Latinx cultural organization in the United States and one of America's Cultural Treasures. Ballet Hispánico brings communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures through innovative dance productions, transformative dance training, and enduring community engagement experiences.

Tina Ramirez founded Ballet Hispánico in 1970, at the height of the post-war civil rights movements. From its inception, Ballet Hispánico focused on providing a haven for Black and Brown Latinx youth and families seeking artistic place and cultural sanctuary. By providing the space for Latinx dance and dancers to flourish, Ballet Hispánico uplifted marginalized emerging and working artists, which, combined with the training, authenticity of voice, and power of representation, fueled the organization's roots and trajectory. In 2009, Ballet Hispánico welcomed Eduardo Vilaro as its Artistic Director, ushering in a new era by inserting fresh energy to the company's founding values and leading Ballet Hispánico into an artistically vibrant future. Today, Ballet Hispánico's New York City headquarters house a School of Dance and state-of-the-art dance studios for its programs and the arts community. From its grassroots origins as a dance school and community-based performing arts troupe, for more than fifty years, Ballet Hispánico has stood as a catalyst for social change.

Ballet Hispánico provides the physical home and cultural heart for Latinx dance in the United States. Ballet Hispánico has developed a robust public presence across its three main programs: its Company, School of Dance, and Community Arts Partnerships.

Through its exemplary artistry, distinguished training program, and deep-rooted community engagement efforts, Ballet Hispánico champions and amplifies underrepresented voices in the field. For over fifty years, Ballet Hispánico has provided a place of honor for the omitted, overlooked, and oppressed. As it looks to the next fifty years and beyond, Ballet Hispánico seeks to empower, and give agency to, the Latinx experience and those individuals within it. For more information, visit www.ballethispanico.org.