Miami City Ballet opens its new season Oct. 16 with a world premiere built entirely around two Cuban-American artists who grew up in the Miami area: choreographer Patricia Delgado and musician Emily Estefan. The new work, titled Push the Buttons of the Civilized, is Delgado's first ballet commission and features original music composed and performed live onstage by Estefan. It anchors a mixed bill called American Rhythms running Oct. 16-18 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and Oct. 24-25 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.
Delgado, a former principal dancer with Miami City Ballet, is returning to the company as a choreographer rather than a dancer, as Miami City Ballet describes it. She is married to Justin Peck and has a daughter named Lucia.
Delgado's choreographic resume got a major boost last year. She and Peck won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Buena Vista Social Club, named at the June 8 ceremony, per Playbill.
A Hometown Score, Built Live
Emily Estefan wrote the original music for Delgado's new ballet, her own first venture into dance scoring, the Miami Herald reports. Most of the score pulls from Estefan's debut album, which she wrote at age 18, according to Pointe Magazine, though the production will also include unreleased pieces, per the Herald. Gary Sheldon orchestrated Estefan's songs for the stage, the Herald adds, and the ballet's title, Push the Buttons of the Civilized, comes from lyrics on that 2017 debut record, Take Whatever You Want.
Estefan, who is about to turn 32, will be onstage herself during performances, singing and playing guitar and drums upstage from the dancers while a combo she leads performs in the orchestra pit, according to the Herald. The Herald also reports that Estefan shared a recording of a lullaby sung by her grandmother, Gloria Fajardo, as part of the project.
Push the Buttons of the Civilized opens with a parental pas de deux, per the Herald, and according to Pointe Magazine blends classical ballet technique with Latin social dance and Afro-Caribbean stylistic influence. The commission itself traces back to Miami City Ballet artistic director Gonzalo Garcia, who the Herald reports proposed the Delgado-Estefan collaboration at the start of his tenure.
Balanchine and Robbins Round Out the Bill
American Rhythms also features George Balanchine's Allegro Brillante, a 1956 piece set to Tchaikovsky, and Jerome Robbins' N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, created in 1958 for Ballets: U.S.A., as noted by Vogue. Opus Jazz became a sensation after its 1958 broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show and a subsequent world tour, according to PBS, which notes the piece is set to a Robert Prince jazz score blending ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing with Latin, African and American rhythms.
For this run, Opus Jazz gets new costumes designed by Zac Posen for GapStudio, according to Miami City Ballet. Fashion Network reports the redesign is expected to be the first authorized overhaul of the ballet's original stage costumes, with each of the production's 16 dancers receiving an individual look built using materials including Infinity Stretch denim and modified construction techniques.
Tickets and Showtimes
In Miami, American Rhythms runs Oct. 16-17 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. In Fort Lauderdale, performances are set for Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., according to the Miami Herald.
