Ballet Hispánico returns to the Center for the Arts concert hall at George Mason University this Saturday. Their performance includes three works that celebrate art and culture. The Saturday evening performance caps off a week of the company’s Artist-in-Residence activities.
The first piece of the night, Sombrerísimo by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, reimagines the surrealist landscapes created by Belgian artist René Magritte. Eduardo Vilaro’s Buscando a Juan looks at an enslaved artist in Diego Velasquez’s Spanish studio, Juan de Pareja. The final work by Pedro Ruiz, Club Havana, focuses on the music and dancing of Cuban culture, including well-known forms like the conga, rumba, mambo, and cha-cha chá.
Vilaro, the artistic director & CEO of Ballet Hispánico, discussed his portion of the program and the history of Ballet Hispánico. He first encountered the art of Juan de Pareja at the Prado Museum in Madrid.
“In my work, Buscando a Juan, it is really about elevating this idea of the perseverance of an enslaved person to become a major artist that people don’t know, but people in Spain do know because he was a prolific artist,” shared Vilaro. “He was Afro-Hispanic and still in the research I did there is no information whether he was Moorish or whether he was a slave brought from Africa that intermarried. So there was such an intrigue around the mystery of who he was.”
“I’m a mixed-race person as well, from Cuba,” Vilaro added. “There’s a lot in him that I see in myself as an artist utilizing art to overcome the pressures of that kind of marginalization and oppression.”
Vilaro joined the company in 1985 as a dancer. He eventually left to create his own dance organization in Chicago but returned to take over as artistic director in 2009.
“Ballet Hispánico was founded in 1970 by dance educator and artist Tina Ramirez. She began this organization because she was teaching a handful of students who became extremely competent and talented. She needed to give them a platform. She developed this company called Ballet Hispánico. We’re going to be 55 next year in January,” said Vilaro. “It’s been very important for us to continue to give opportunities to young people. And we do that through the School of Dance. And then education is such a backbone of this organization. We do a lot of it in schools in New York City and when we’re on the road as well, our engagement. Most of all this organization has been a catalyst for everyone to get a better grasp of what it means to be Latine or Hispanic or Spanish. But, you know, the depth and diversity of what most people think of Latinos today is still unexplored and unseen.”
The company has a New York season at City Center, but it is on the road about 20 weeks per year. This past week, it interacted with students and the local community through lectures, classes, and even a Latin social dance party.
“We’re excited to have Ballet Hispánico back in our community to help us celebrate Latino culture through dance and cultural enrichment activities. We will certainly feel the presence of this dynamic and fun group across campus. I’m delighted to have them engage with so many different community stakeholders,” said Victor Adebusola, the programming and engagement manager at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University.
For Saturday’s performance, tickets begin at $33, with half-price tickets available for youth through Grade 12. The program starts at 8 p.m. and runs approximately 65 minutes. The performance is appropriate for all ages. Vilaro will be at a pre-performance discussion at 7:15 in Monson Grand Tier, located on the third level of the Center for the Arts Lobby.