Dimensions Dance Theatre's Summer Program Celebrates Freedom of Form

A far cry from its highly regimented, classically presenting predecessor, contemporary ballet frees dancers and choreographers alike to explore new forms of movement, new points of view, and novel ways to tell stories.

Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami debuts a summer program that highlights the innovation and experimentation characteristic of contemporary ballet. "Summer Dances" will be at the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center on July 15 and 16.

Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg and her husband, Carlos Miguel Guerra, former starring principal dancers with Miami City Ballet, created Dimensions in 2016. She says Miami audiences may be surprised to learn how accessible, evocative, and entertaining ballet performances can be.

"While it can be abstract, ballet is a great tool for storytelling and expressing emotions," says Kronenberg, who serves as Dimensions' artistic director alongside Guerra. "Classical ballet is absolutely beautiful, but you're enclosed in this box of correctness and technique. You're striving to always make the perfect line and nail the perfect positions. In contemporary ballet, you're allowed to go further. You're allowed to make an ugly position or two. It extends the possibilities for choreographers and dancers so much."
The diversity of works and styles contained within Dimensions' summer program echoes Kronenberg's sentiments of freedom and possibility. Premiering with this program, Salt Water Song is a contemporary reframing of the ancient myth of Calypso and the Sirens, popularized in Homer's The Odyssey. Choreographer Marika Brussel says Salt Water Song tells a familiar tale from mostly unfamiliar perspectives — those of female characters.

"In this ballet, Calypso rescues Odysseus after a shipwreck and falls in love with him. She's a complicated character: powerful, lonely, immortal. He's married," Brussel says. "In my version, Athena comes and tells her to let him go back to his wife. Athena is also Odysseus' conscience, the voice in his head telling him to do the right thing. I think women in our culture, like the female characters in mythology, are often punished and dismissed for their power. I want my work to represent other possibilities for women, other outcomes."

By adding new depth to female characters whose views and experiences audiences haven't yet heard, Brussel aims to inspire audiences to consider what other outdated gender tropes they may be holding onto.

"The Sirens are the women whose voices aren't allowed, whose song is so beautiful it kills whoever hears it. How does that make them feel? Their song may only be intended for themselves. Their voices are celebrating who they are," says Brussel, who's held residencies at London's FieldWorks and San Francisco's Levydance, Paul Dresher Ensemble, and Safehouse. "It's time for new stories. I want people to walk away thinking, Wow, these women aren't only beautiful dancers in the background. They are strong and lead the narrative. Maybe the story of a woman needing to be rescued is not the only story. Maybe if there are two women and a man, they aren't both fighting over him."
Kronenberg says this program's other world-premiering commission, En Camino by Cuban choreographer Beatriz García, shares messages of resilience and maintaining one's identity that any audience member can identify with.

"She was inspired by the migration patterns of swallows, tiny birds who go through such a hellish journey to migrate," Kronenberg says of García, who began her dance education at Havana's Instituto Superior de Arte and the Cuban National Ballet School. "She was finding that what they go through relates to the human experience. When I think about migration, whether in the animal kingdom or the human experience, it's something that innately requires emotional and physical resilience. You have to adapt, but you can't forget who you are or where you came from. You have to be true to your own uniqueness and identity."

"Summer Dances" also features performances of Fiebre by late Venezuelan choreographer Vicente Nebrada. A study of four passionate couples drawing inspiration from boleros, this performance features live music from Miami's Alain Garcia and the Latin Power Band. The show rounds out with a company reprise of Light Rain in tribute to what would have been choreographer and Joffrey Ballet cofounder Gerald Arpino's 100th birthday.
"Light Rain is really special for us. We first premiered it in 2017. It's one of those pieces that never gets old even though it's from the '80s," Kronenberg says. "It's so athletic, energetic, and sensual. When I think about our company and identity, this piece just fits like a glove."

Kronenberg says she hopes performances of Summer Dances leave audience members in awe of the limitless possibilities inherent in contemporary ballet and, most importantly, seen.

"This art form is heading in an interesting direction. Its open-minded, broadened view of its power paradigms creates possibilities in terms of creativity and inclusivity," she says. "Ballet has had this rap of exclusivity for so long. I hope audiences feel that we've reached them on a human level and that they've been included in what we're presenting."

Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami's "Summer Dances." 8 p.m. Saturday, July 15, and 3 p.m. Sunday, July 16, at Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211th St., Cutler Bay; 786-573-5300; mosscenter.org. Tickets cost $25 to $45.