Miami City Ballet Dance Company

Miami City Ballet (MCB) was founded in 1985, under the direction of artistic director Edward Villella. Mr. Villella, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, was one of America’s best-loved performers, and the choreography of NYCB’s founder George Balanchine was the foundation of both the company’s repertory and its style. Miami City Ballet was the first company after NYCB to present Balanchine’s three-part masterpiece Jewels (Villella was the original “Rubies” male star) and it has the largest Balanchine repertory in the world after NYCB. Over the years, the repertory has expanded to include almost all the major choreographers of our time -- Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor, Christopher Wheeldon -- and it has triumphed in a number of the great 19th century classics as well, such as Giselle, Coppélia, and Don Quixote.

Today, Miami City Ballet is among the largest ballet companies in the United States. Mr. Villella's vision and style for MCB is based on the neoclassical 20th-century aesthetic established by choreographer George Balanchine. Miami City Ballet artistsare rehearsed to perform not only with great speed, energy and technical clarity, but also with the combination of force and delicacy needed to interpret musical scores from Bach to Stravinsky.

The company has earned a tremendous national and international reputation performing throughout the tri-county South Florida area: in Broward at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, in Miami-Dade at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and in Palm Beach at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Miami City Ballet is also presented as the resident ballet company at the Naples Philharmonic Center in Naples, Florida. In the 2009-10 season, the Company will also perform at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado and at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

In 1997, Artistic Director Edward Villella received the highest and most prestigious cultural honor that can be bestowed upon an artist by the United States, the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Clinton. In the same year, he was named a Kennedy Center Honoree and was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Dancers’ Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga in 2004. In 2009, Mr. Villella was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Internationally, MCB has performed in Europe, Great Britain, South America, Central America, and Israel, including the 1994 & 1995 Edinburgh International Festivals (Scotland), the 1990 Lyon Biennale Internationale de la Danse (France), the Festival Internacionel de Cultura Paiz (Guatemala), and a two-week engagement at TorinoDanza 2000 (Italy). The Company performed in March 2003 as one of six companies participating in the Kennedy Center’s International Ballet Festival with the Bolshoi, Kirov, Royal Danish Ballet, Adam Cooper and Company, and American Ballet Theatre.

The 2011-12 season will feature the company premiere of John Cranko's acclaimed version of Romeo and Juliet - the first full-evening acquisition for Miami City Ballet since Don Quixote. The season also features company premiere of Twyla Tharp's Baker's Dozen and Paul Taylor's Promethean Fire, as well as signature selections from the Balanchine canon.

Date Last Edited: 30th August 2010