A dream gains impact if it’s recurring. And for the third time in eight years, Miami City Ballet will regale us with one they’ve made their own. William Shakespeare first conjured it; Felix Mendelssohn scored it; and eventually George Balanchine choreographed it.
But now MCB’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” returns with its unique, wondrously subtropical setting when it opens at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami on Friday, Oct. 18 through Sunday, Oct. 20. And then in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Nov. 2 and Sunday, Nov. 3.
Artistic director Lourdes Lopez had for years harbored a dream herself: to bring a fresh look to Balanchine’s1962 narrative masterpiece, animated by the choreographer’s intimate love of both the play and the music.
As her company’s 30th anniversary approached in 2016, Lopez took the initiative to add to the repertory not just a work that could become a programming mainstay but one also reimagined to reflect South Florida.
Having received the green light from the Balanchine Trust, Lopez turned to widely commissioned, award-winning artist Michele Oka Doner—her local roots as strong as a banyan’s, her creative spirit sun-pierced and salty breeze-swept—to re-design the ballet’s set and re-design the costumes. MacArthur Fellow and Academy Award-winning scriptwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, born in Miami’s Liberty City, came in to guide dancers through the dramaturgy. And New York-based theatrical projection designer, Wendall K. Harrington, who has a lengthy resume that spans decades designing Broadway, opera, ballet and concerts, created the spectacular projections.
Oka Doner recalls the initial meeting with Lopez from which sprung the aquatic theme the artist proposed for her first foray into ballet design. “Lourdes and I had a wonderful dinner at the Raleigh Hotel (in Miami Beach) under a seagrape tree. There were leaves and sky above us in an atmosphere of conviviality so much like Eden.”
This boded well for the project since Oka Doner—a native of Miami Beach, where her father served as mayor—has a keen eye for the shapes and textures of fauna and flora in the region’s coastal environment, which has captivated her since childhood and continues to inform her art.
“There’s still a lot of magic in our world, even with all its concrete and asphalt, ” observes Oka Doner, insisting we just have to know where to look and how to find it.
The Athenian forest of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” along with the royal court and whimsical characters—who owe no allegiance to a particular geography—were whisked off to our littoral and life below the Atlantic would be the source for the ballet’s oneiric realm. The overall re-design arose from an investigative process that’s long characterized the artist’s creative approach.
“My science gene is very strong,” says Oka Doner. She relates how one of her meticulously designed high school science projects prompted the teacher to direct her to the art room. Throughout her career, the corridor between those disciplines have never been far apart.
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The action of the ballet, extraordinary and complicated, obeys its literary source. And Balanchine’s steps, while now leaving their imprint beachside, remain intact. They impart clarity as two sets of lovers, at first thwarted, are blissfully matched; as royals Theseus of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, forge an amorous alliance; and fairy crown-heads Titania and Oberon, dueling over a changeling are finally reconciled—though not before Puck, an agent of magic, spreads plenty of mirth and mischief all around.
Oka Doner says she watched many renditions of the ballet and—not surprising since her father was also a violinist—had heard the music early on. In addition to Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture (from 1826) and Incidental Music for Shakespeare’s play (including the well-known “Wedding March,” from 1842), Balanchine used excerpts from other works by the composer to sustain the story.
“I was able to pick up the tropes of the ballet,” says Oka Doner. Always an adventure for her, the ongoing research proved thrilling.
A joint excursion with Lopez to the University of Miami Rosenstiel School Marine Invertebrate Collection provided inspiration through the myriad forms in its multitude of specimens. Oka Doner also drew ideas from her own photos of submarine life at the Port of Miami. For such visual bounty to take practical shape in fabric type, cut and colors, Lopez introduced Oka Doner to New York costume makers. The artist is still amazed at the skills of Haydee and Maria Morales, who led the construction of such shimmering marvels as luxurious headdresses and beaded bodices in the MCB costume shop.
Among Oka Doner’s favorite confections are the seahorses—here a substitute for Hippolyta’s hounds (other regional transformations populate this, including having Bottom turn into a manatee). She liked showing off Puck, who wears a short, shoulder-baring tunic, “jumping in his golden seaweed.”
For Rui Cruz, who’ll portray him, that look helps release an irrepressible spirit. His character makes many entrances, spanning human and fairy worlds, and his dancing is speedy and bouncy—a great fit for Cruz, his turns and leaps a specialty. He learned of the casting during summer break in his hometown of Levi Gasparian, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. As an Afro-Brazilian his sense of honor and responsibility was immediate.
“I was very emotional sharing the news with my mom,” he says, knowing the importance of doing a role originated by Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American dancer at New York City Ballet and later founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem.
“Mitchell was so honest in his dancing, he made Puck believable,” adds Cruz, who says he’s working hard to do right by his role model.
Underscoring the importance of having notable ballets return to the stage for new generations to embrace, Cruz is among many company members performing their parts for the first time. Equally lucky are Taylor Naturkas and Brooks Landegger—though last spring they had the special opportunity to dance the work’s second-act divertissement, which they’ll reprise here, as guests of New York City Ballet during that company’s 75th anniversary. Now they’re expanding their acting range among the quartet of young lovers.
Set to play the frustrated Helena, Naturkas has gone through her usual preparation—reading, watching videos—but she’s especially profited from coaching by Lopez, who herself acknowledges having grown artistically through various roles in “Midsummer” during her time at NYCB, culminating in the rank of principal dancer.
“She tells me to be normal,” says Naturkas. “Though this has a dream quality, emotions should read naturally. Helena’s desperate because her love interest Demetrius rejects her. Everyone relates to that.”
Helena’s chasing after her man and, at one point, scurrying away from another (Lysander)—romantics fear not, through Puck’s ministrations all heartbeats harmonize in the end—must also let comedy shine through.
To play Lysander and dance the divertissement, Landegger can reference the countless New York City Ballet productions he attended, watching the greats throughout his years at the School of American Ballet. Chosen from there, his younger sister Liesl, whom he credits for his choosing ballet as a career, played one of the flit-about bugs among the participating squad of youngsters. In the Miami production, those will be cast from MCB School.
“The images in the ballet brilliantly balance happy and unhappy love,” says Landegger, appreciating progression through such contrasts. “My relationship with Hermia is very natural—you can even see it in the beautiful way we walk on a diagonal.” Later, he points out, Demetrius is moping around, and on his track Helena looks desperate. Audiences get the differences and are all in when insistence builds into hilarity.
For other performances, Naturkas and Landegger will do the second-act divertissement, which is set at South Dade County’s Coral Castle. Celebrants of love’s triumph during a triple wedding, they capture the quintessence of classicism. In this Landegger considers it his task to be a supreme cavalier, saying, “My job is to be there for Taylor.”
Naturkas explains that the pas de deux “takes strength and stamina—lots of control to create calmness.” The partners maintain purity in the dance “relating to the music. He feels that from me, and I from him.”
Such musicality and clearly delineated mobility are what Oka Doner delights in upholding: real artistry within a dream world.
“It’s so exciting,” she says, “to sit back and watch the drama unfold, everything moving with so much emotion. To have been able to share in this—and have audiences enjoy it going forward—was a wonderful opportunity.”
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Miami City Ballet’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18; 2 and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20.
WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Pre-performance, “Ballet in a Box,” an immersive exhibition mounted in collaboration with the digital production experts at Dania Beach’s MAD Arts Museum, delve into the story, choreography, and design of the ballet in the Arsht Center’s Peacock Room. And on Saturday, prior to the matinee, MCB School artistic director Arantxa Ochoa will lead a 15-minute class for children to learn the “bugs” choreography accompanied by the cast’s costumed youngsters. Included in ticket price.
ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2; 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3.
INFORMATION: 305-929-7010 or
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