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International Ballet Festival of Miami holds annual gala on Saturday

The International Ballet Festival of Miami (IBFM) was transformed into a summer event in 2018 to avoid the height of the hurricane season that disrupted its performance in September. Now, the event is back, ready to continue its successful trajectory – which not even COVID could derail – and consolidate its convening power.

“The festival will be offering performances and collateral activities until Sunday, Aug. 14, when it will end with the customary Closing Gala,” says its director, Eriberto Jiménez.

Always the most anticipated night of the event: the Étoiles Classical Grand Gala.

“This year, the gala on Saturday, Aug. 13, will be at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Jimenez announced. “Unfortunately, the Fillmore Miami Beach, where we originally planned to do it, will be closed for two years because they are building a hotel next door.”

He added that the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, where they had originally scheduled the closing gala on Sunday, Aug. 14, did not have that day available.

Some ballet lovers may agree this is a fortunate happenstance. The Étoiles Classical Grand Gala of the IBFM and the Arsht Center seems to be a match made in heaven. After all, we are talking about the dance night in Miami with the most outstanding international projection.

In addition, this is not the first time IBFM has presented its classic gala at the Arsht Center. The most recent was in September 2015, during the event’s 20th-anniversary celebration, then under the general direction of its founder, Pedro Pablo Peña (1944-2018).

During the Étoiles Classical Grand Gala, IBFM will deliver the “A Life for Dance” award, instituted in 1998, to Colombian teacher Gloria Castro Martínez, founder of the Colombian Institute of Classical Ballet INCOLBALLET and the International Ballet Festival of Cali, for 13 years. INCOLBALLET is the only other school in Latin America that teaches the Cuban methodology whose origins are mainly in the Russian Vaganova method, which emphasizes dancing with the entire body.

For its part, the “Criticism and Culture of Ballet” award, established in 2007, will go to the Mexican teacher and cultural promoter Rocío Barraza Rivacoba, founder of DanzadanceOrg, a renowned international multicultural and multilingual network and non-profit with thousands of online followers, dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of dance and performing arts.

Regarding the participation of local groups, Jiménez comments that it is always limited “because the event takes place when dancers are on vacation or are engaged in events and summer courses in other parts of the world. But we are already assured of the participation of Arts Ballet Theater of Florida, Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami, and, of course, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami.”

To learn more about each of the scheduled activities and purchase tickets for the performances, visit internationalballetfestival.org for links to the websites of the participating theaters.



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