Rehearsing for Dance NOW! Miami's “Blue Pencil” Austin Duclos and Kirsten Velasco. The company brings “Blue Pencil” along with two other pieces to Miami Theater Center, Miami Shores on Friday, Feb. 28. (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier, courtesy of DNM)
There are not many modern dance companies in the United States that survive to celebrate a twenty-fifth anniversary and even less that does so with the founding artistic directors still at its helm. Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten, founders and artistic directors of Dance Now! Miami, has achieved this milestone.
“We are very, very proud to be celebrating our twenty-fifth anniversary season. We are also very proud that since we met each other and founded the company we had a vision for our organization that has pretty much gone unchanged,” says Baumgarten. Part of the vision for the company was to “present historic works of living and deceased master choreographers and to engage with the community to present site-specific events,” Baumgarten explains.
Within the last ten years Baumgarten and Salterini have added a second component to their vision for the company, international cultural partnerships with other dance companies.“This is inspired by international collaboration we have nurtured over the years,” says Baumgarten.
The dancers of Dance NOW! Miami (DNM), from left, Austin Duclos, Alexander Campbell and Anni Browne in rehearsal for “Blue Pencil.” (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier courtesy of DNM)
The result of one such collaboration, "Blue Pencil," is making its world premiere this Friday, Feb. 28, on Dance Now! Miami’s Program II "Dancing Against the Tide."
"Blue Pencil" is created by Salterini and Baumgarten in collaboration with Portugal’s Danca em Dialaogos. The piece focuses on the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar whose regime ushered in a dark period in Portugal’s history.
The title “Blue Pencil” ( lapis Azul ) refers to one of the most symbolic instruments of censorship and oppression used during Salazar’s dictatorship. Salterini and Baumgarten, along with Solange Melo, the artistic director of Danca em Dialogos , began discussing ideas for their collaboration about a year and a half ago “when times were more serene,” says Salterini.
“We wanted to create a work that brings together the artistic form from two different countries, Portugal and the United States, and also the culture of the two different countries,” he explained. “We imagined the warning signs the people may have found at the beginning of the Salazar dictatorship regime ( 1933 ), little by little the piece became more and more timely for what we are witnessing now,” says Salterini.
"Somehow without looking into the crystal ball we were looking into the crystal ball. We saw what was happening just a little bit ahead of time.” Salterini explains that the work is in two parts.
Photographer: Jorge R.Perez
Dance NOW! Miami's "Drawing Circles." From left, Anthony Velazquez, Benicka J. Grant, Allyn Ginns Ayers and Luke Stockton. (Photo by Jenny Abreu/courtesy of DNM)
First, Dance Now! Miami starts the work here then Danca em Dialogos creates its part in Portugal. Dance Now! Miami will perform "Blue Pencil" in Miami without Dance em Dialogos.
Shortly after they will travel to Portugal to join the companies together and perform the piece. Next year Danca em Dialogos will travel to Miami to present the complete work together. The collaboration between the two companies created a piece that deal with the ideas of oppression and censorship. Salterini refers to it as the “silencing of the others.”
It is not the first time this has happened throughout history and in many different parts of the world.
Salterini says that at first “people learn and discover their rights are being taken away. “It’s a universal story. They then learn to live with it and eventually emerge to get out of it by standing strong, continuing to cope and to communicate with each other. They still continue to work, still continue to create art and still be able to signal to each other that there is still a lot of work to be done. Then eventually they begin to emerge on the other side.”
After many years of living under Salazar’s dictatorship, the movement against his regime became louder and the military began to rebel.”
Choreographers and artistic directors, Solange Melo (Dança em Diálogos), Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten (Photo courtesy of Dance NOW! Miami)
Baumgarten says it was “a military coup- completely nonviolent - which saw the military march on the capital. The end of the regime was already in motion. After almost fifty years the people had started to change and they were ready for things to change. It was a very poetic and beautiful transition even though it took a while to get out o it.” “People began putting red carnations in the barrel of the guns,” says Salterini. “It’s [ 'Blue Pencil' ] an important and deeply emotional piece. But there is a lot of beautiful dancing and a lot of technical challenges for our dancers but the piece ends with a positive message.
We offer the red carnations,” says Salterini. Dance Now! Miami’s twenty-fifth anniversary Program II also include works from the course of those years.
“Repertory works were chosen to highlight some of the company’s twenty-five years,” says Salterini. Baumgarten work Court Dance is a Machiavellian “political tribal dance” which was choreographed around the time of the protests of the Bush v. Gore election. "Point of Departure" and "Drawing Circles" are both pieces by Salterini.
"Point of Departure" is a poignant solo work which examines a woman’s facing a difficult decision in her life.
Rehearsing for Dance NOW! Miami's “Blue Pencil” Austin Duclos and Kirsten Velasco. The company brings “Blue Pencil” along with two other pieces to Miami Theater Center, Miami Shores on Friday, Feb. 28. (Photo by Sophia Pfitzenmaier, courtesy of DNM)
"Drawing Circles" was inspired by Miami Modern ( MiMo ) a post- WWII architectural style that emerged in South Florida in the 1950s and lasted into the late 1960.
As Dance Now! Miami celebrates it’s twenty-fifth anniversary Salterini are Baumgarten are also setting their sight on the future. These plans include touring both national and international and more collaboration with other dance companies.
“Collaboration is the way forward,” says Baumgarten.
If You Go
- WHAT: Dance NOW! Miami’s Program II featuring “Blue Pencil”
- WHERE: Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2nd Ave., Miami Shores
- WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28
- COST: $40 general admission in advance, $45 day of show, $25 for Miami Shores residents and $20 for students, with valid IDs.
- INFORMATION: (305) 975-8489, online at www.dancenowmiami.org
