Eduardo Vilaro, the artistic director of Ballet Hispanico for the past 15 years, is seated at the front of the spacious rehearsal studio in the dance company’s Upper West Side headquarters. His back is to the wall-to-wall mirror and his gaze is fixed on the phalanx of some 14 dancers whipping across the dance floor, executing a succession of leaps, turns, and kicks, and devouring space with rhythmic precision and intoxicating speed. They are magically mesmerizing, whether performing the controlled precision of classical ballet or, knees bent, arms outstretched, and torsos tilted, executing the undulating ripples that begin at the base of the spine and snake upward to the top of the head, replicating ritual dances found along the African Diaspora.
When the dust settles, at the center of this activity are two charismatic male dancers, one tall, dark, and at first detached; the other fair, shorter, and quietly in control as he manipulates the tilt of the other’s head or the placement of an arm. The power dynamic is clear until it shifts dramatically.
The two dancers at the center of the swirling vortex that is Vilaro’s ballet “Buscando a Juan” (“Looking for Juan”) are Leonardo Brito and Antonio Cangiano. The dance, which will be premiered during the company’s upcoming season, depicts the complex, multi-faceted relationship between the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez and his recently highlighted Afro-Hispanic slave-turned-assistant-turned-master painter, Juan De Pareja (1606–70).
Vilaro pointed out that one form of this ballet was originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its 2023 exhibition of Pareja’s work. With the Afro-Hispanic painter as the central character, Vilaro said his dance seeks to capture the complex intersectionality of the Hispanic and African diasporas. It is an intersectionality embodied not only by the Afro-Hispanic painter but also by Ballet Hispanico through both its dancers and its repertoire—a core concept since dancer/choreographer Tina Ramirez (1929–2022) founded Ballet Hispanico back in 1970.
During a recent interview with the Amsterdam News, Vilarjo spoke of the diasporic nature of the company. “I’m Cuban and so I have that in my DNA and in the movement,” he said. “I thought this work was the perfect opportunity to bring that forth because, even in the Latin culture, so many people don’t understand how much the African Diaspora runs through our veins, our movement, and our music. Also, this dance, ‘Buscando a Juan,’ is accompanied by the music of an Argentinian Jewish composer, who is also fascinated by syncretization. The music is a mass and, if you listen closely, you hear Puerto Rican music, African music, and the last song is a Kaddish, which is Jewish prayer, but there are these drums, which is perfect because we’re looking for who Juan de Pareja is.
“While we know the Diaspora he’s from, we don’t know that much about him, but we are taken by that intersectionality of cultures because it is us.”
Vilaro said that many of the company’s dancers come from different places along the Hispanic Diaspora. “Leo is Brazilian, which is also Latinidad, and there are dancers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and more. I love dancers [who] come from a variety of backgrounds, including technical training backgrounds,” he said, underscoring the richness that technical diversity also brings to the company. “A lot of the dancers have ballet backgrounds and more. For example, Leo studied at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but before that, he was studying in Brazil, so he also has an Afro-Brazilian dance background.
“In fact, when Tina [Ramirez] started the company, she drew on works by Trinidadian-born Geoffrey Holder [and] African Americans Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, and George Faison, among others. Those are the powerhouses that were here,” Vilaro said in offering more examples of the company’s intersectionality.
Today, Ballet Hispanico is the largest Latinx/é/Hispanic [cq] cultural organization in the United States and has been recognized by the Ford Foundation as one of America’s Cultural Treasures, Every program expands on Ramirez’s original vision, which includes the upcoming City Center season celebrating Vilaro’s 15th season at the forefront of the company with three repertory performances, an En Familia Matinee, and a Gala Performance.
Performance highlights include the world premiere of “Buscando a Juan”; reconstruction of ”House of Mad’moiselle,” a celebration of Latina fierceness and representation by choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; and “18 + 1” by Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, a romp through some of Perez Prado’s big band hits with Ramírez’s signature athletic movement vocabulary; and more.
The En Familia Matinee offers a journey through Latin American culture and traditions as Vilaro leads the audience on an interactive and fun-filled afternoon featuring excerpts from classic pieces in the company’s repertory; a re-staging of Talley Beatty’s “Recuerdo de Campo Amor”;’ ”Sombrerísimo” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean-influenced “Danse Creole”; and the Latin social dance extravaganza “Club Havana” by Pedro Ruiz. With cultural and historical content and movement exercises for the whole family, the audience is in for a performance to remember. For more info, visit www.ballethispanico.org and www.nycitycenter.org.