The International Ballet Festival of Miami is deep into its 31st edition, filling stages across Miami-Dade and Broward counties through August 16, and this year the dancers taking those stages are using the milestone to look back at how the event shaped their careers. Some first performed in the United States on a Miami stage. Others met future partners or landed their next job because of a single festival appearance.
According to a report in the Miami Herald, the festival continues to give South Florida audiences a rare chance to see dancers and companies that seldom perform in the region. Festival director Eriberto Jiménez told the paper that dance functions as "a universal language capable of uniting cultures and inspiring new generations."
Now in its 31st year, the festival spans 23 days, running from July 25 through August 16 with performances, film screenings, art exhibits and masterclasses staged across South Florida, according to Calle Ocho News.
A Legacy Rooted in Exile and Mentorship
The festival's roots trace back to Cuban dancer and choreographer Pedro Pablo Peña, who founded it in 1996 after arriving in South Florida in 1980 via the Mariel Boatlift, according to ArtburstMiami. Peña created the event to give exiled Cuban dancers and visiting international stars a platform in the United States.
Jiménez, who now leads the festival, arrived in Miami from Bogotá, Colombia, in 1989 on a dance scholarship from Peña, according to WLRN. He worked alongside Peña for nearly three decades before taking over as director after Peña's death in March 2018.
Anchored in a Little Havana Landmark
The festival's parent organization, Miami Hispanic Ballet, operates out of the J.W. Warner House in Little Havana, a 1911 Neo-Classical landmark added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, per Calle Ocho News. The same building also houses the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami and the Creation Art Center.
Founded in 2006 by Peña, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami is the city's only professional ballet company dedicated exclusively to preserving classical Cuban ballet traditions in exile. It has also offered refuge to defecting Cuban dancers over the years.
Local Companies With Their Own Debut Stories
Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, founded in 2016 by former Miami City Ballet principal dancers Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra, debuted at the festival, the Herald report notes. The company was built as a classically based contemporary ballet troupe reflective of Miami's cultural diversity, according to Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami.
Dance NOW! Miami was co-founded in 2000 by Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini, later establishing a permanent artistic residency at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex in 2009, according to the Joffrey Ballet School. Baumgarten, who performed with Momentum Dance Company, has said she once watched a young Tamara Rojo perform with the English National Ballet, per the same Herald account; Rojo now serves as artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.
International Careers That Trace Back to Miami's Stage
Colombian principal dancer José Manuel Ghiso and Chilean principal dancer Natalia Berrios both first performed at the festival before dancing the Onegin pas de deux at what was billed as their farewell festival appearance in 2019, per the same report. This year they returned to the festival as part of a Ballet de Santiago partnership.
Cuban dancer Mayrel Martínez has performed at the festival on several occasions, dancing with the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami and later representing Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, the article notes.
Japanese dancer Remina Tanaka, now with Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, participated in the festival in August 2021 and began her first season with the company just weeks later, according to the same account. She went on to meet Teatro alla Scala Ballet principal dancers Martina Arduino and Marco Agostino in 2022.
Freelance Cuban dancers Beatriz García and Armando Bryson, who emigrated to the United States, first performed in the country at the festival, the report states. They danced during a free performance on Lincoln Road.
Awards for Dancers and the Critics Who Chronicle Them
The festival's "A Life for Dance" Lifetime Achievement Award has previously honored Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez in 2021, according to Miamiartzine, as well as Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida founder Vladimir Issaev in 2023. Venezuelan dancer Mary Carmen Catoya, who performed Issaev's "Vertigo" in 2023, accepted the award on his behalf, per the same Herald report.
The festival's Criticism & Culture of Ballet Award, presented since 2007, has recognized journalists and scholars whose work advances dance criticism and education, according to the International Ballet Festival of Miami. Past honorees have included Clive Barnes, Anna Kisselgoff, Clement Crisp, René Sirvin and Roger Salas; this year's recipients were Christine Jowers, founder and editor of The Dance Enthusiast, alongside Rosario Manzanos and Uriel García, per the Herald account.
Catching the Festival's Final Weeks
Festival leadership has expanded programming beyond formal theaters, adding free outdoor performances on Euclid Oval along Lincoln Road and educational workshops at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, according to a separate Miamiartzine report. Contemporary performances continue Thursday at 8 p.m. on Euclid Oval, free to attend, followed by shows Friday at Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Saturday at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay and Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Amaturo Theater inside the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, all at 8 p.m. except the Sunday date. Tickets for the contemporary program run $45, per the Herald report.
The festival culminates with the Grand Classical Gala at the Fillmore Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater next Saturday at 8 p.m., followed by the Closing Gala of the Stars at the same venue the following Sunday at 5 p.m. Classical performances are priced between $40 and $70, and the report notes the festival was livestreamed without an audience in the theater during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information is available by calling (786) 747-1877 or visiting internationalballetfestival.org.
