Ballet Hispanico to Perform at The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State

The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA presents Ballet Hispánico on Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 8pm. For tickets, call or visit the Luckman Box Office at 323-343-6600 or www.luckmanarts.org/order.

America's premier Latino dance organization for more than 45 years, Ballet Hispánico brings communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures and the shared human experience through dance. The iconic New York City-based company will perform a trio of works from their celebrated repertoire: Línea Recta, choreographed by Belgo-Colombian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, pairs the hallmark passion of flamenco dance with innovative and intricate partnering, performed to an original guitar composition by Eric Vaarzon Morel. The evening also features Cuban-American Eduardo Vilaro's Danzón, which puts a contemporary spin on the national dance of Cuba, and Spaniard Gustavo Ramírez Sansano's colorful, amusing and fast-moving Flabbergast, set to music by Juan García Esquivel.

Founded by National Medal of Arts recipient Tina Ramirez, Ballet Hispánico has been led since 2009 by Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro, who has infused the organization's legacy with a bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance that reflects America's changing cultural landscape. Through performances of its internationally acclaimed Company, innovative dance training programs, and community education activities that inspire individuals of all ages and backgrounds, Ballet Hispánico brings the joy of dance and Hispanic culture to the world.

This performance marks the second time in two consecutive seasons that the company will appear on the Luckman stage.

During Ballet Hispánico's stay in Los Angeles, and in keeping with its mission to make the beauty of the arts and Latino culture accessible to all communities, the Company will also host a two-week residency at Garfield Senior High School for students interested in the world of dance and technical production. Two teams of students will study these separate skills that come together on stage. Dance students will experience a diverse array of dance forms and techniques with two of the Company's principal dancers, while students studying technical production will immerse themselves in the basics of how to run a stage and design a light plot with Ballet Hispánico Technical Director Joshua Preston.

Ballet Hispánico's Luckman Fine Arts Complex Program:

Línea Recta (2016) - West Coast Premiere

Choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

From one of today's most sought-after choreographers comes a powerful and resonant work that 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, Belgo-Colombian Annabelle 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 came to fruition through Ballet Hispánico's Instituto Coreográfico, an innovative choreography lab program for Latino dance makers.

Danzón (2012)

Choreography by Eduardo Vilaro

Danzón has been called the official dance of Cuba. Having evolved from the Haitian contradance, its history is steeped in the fusion of cultures. But danzón is also used throughout Latin America as a term of celebration, a coming together of community and a way of maintaining identity. Fusing Afro-Cuban social dance movements with contemporary and classical dance forms, Eduardo Vilaro has taken this traditional and quintessentially Cuban dance form and reinvented it as a joyous celebration of music and movement.

Flabbergast (2001)

Choreography by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano

Latin lounge meets spontaneous combustion in this quirky yet joyful piece set to the music of Juan García Esquivel. Inspired by his experience of coming to America for the first time, choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano exposes with humor our stereotypes and preconceived ideas about new and foreign places. Flabbergast is dedicated to the choreographer's mother, who taught him how to dance the bayón.

ANNABELLE LOPEZ OCHOA (Choreographer) is a sought-after Belgo-Colombian choreographer that since 2003 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 has been nominated for an Olivier Award 2012.

GUSTAVO RAMIREZ SANSANO (Choreographer) was Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater from 2009-2013, after directing proyectoTITOYAYA in Valencia, Spain for four years. Sansano has been the recipient of numerous awards for his choreography, including first prizes at the Ricard Moragas competition in Barcelona, the Dom Perignon choreographic competition in Hamburg, and at Las Artes Escénicas de la Comunidad Valenciana. He has been commissioned to create works for Compania Nacional de Danza, the Hamburg Ballet, TanzTheaterMünchen, Budapest Dance Theater, National Dance Company Wales, Norrdans, Gyori Ballet, Balletto dell'Esperia, BalletMet, IT dansa, Ballet Junior de Genève, and Nederlands Dans Theater, among others. As a dancer, Sansano performed works by Jacopo Godani, Hans Van Manen, Ji?í Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Victor Ullate and many more, working for the Ballet Joven de Alicante, Ballet Contemporaneo de Barcelona, Ballet de la Comunidad de Madrid, Nederlands Dans Theater II and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Gustavo was chosen by the magazine POR LA DANZA for its 15th anniversary as one of the 'Fifteen Choreographers to Watch.' Dance Magazine featured Luna Negra's artistic director, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, in its annual '25 to Watch' list 2012, and was named 'Chicagoan of the Year in Arts & Entertainment' by the Chicago Tribune.

Eduardo Vilaro joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since it was founded in 1970. In 2015, Mr. Vilaro took on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of Ballet Hispánico. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1985 as a principal dancer and educator, after which he began a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico's legacy with a bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance that reflects America's changing cultural landscape. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of cultural diversity and dance education.

Mr. Vilaro's own choreography is devoted to capturing the spiritual, sensual and historical essence of the Latino cultures. He created over 20 ballets for Luna Negra and has received commissions from the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony. In 2001, he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography, and in 2003, he was honored for his choreographic work at Panama's II International Festival of Ballet. In 2016, he was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

Celebrating over 45 years of bringing individuals and communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures, Ballet Hispánico is the new expression of American contemporary dance. Led by Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro, the Company has produced multifaceted performances that have featured master works by Nacho Duato, cutting-edge premieres by Cayetano Soto and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and live music collaborations with renowned artists such as Paquito D'Rivera and Ruben Blades-to name a notable few. Ballet Hispánico has performed for audiences totaling over 3 million, throughout 11 countries, and on 3 continents, and its impact is achieved through world-class productions, innovative education and dance training programs, and community engagement. For more information, visit www.ballethispanico.org.

The Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State LA is the University's home for professional visual and performing arts. The Luckman presents cutting edge music, dance, theatre, and visual arts from around the world to the Los Angeles community. Located just five miles east of downtown, we are comprised of three unique spaces: the Luckman Theatre with a capacity of nearly 1,200, the Intimate Theatre with modular seating of up to 300, and the 3,600 square foot Kunsthalle-like Luckman Gallery.

To post a comment, you must register and login.