Last Saturday, Latin fusion dance company Ballet Hispanico executed a mostly coherent and unified performance at the Arsht Center. The performance featured a repertoire of solid works by Ballet Hispanico Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro (“Danzón”), Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (“Sombrerísimo”), Cayetano Soto (“Sortijas”), as well as a world premiere by Miami-based choreographer and dancer Rosie Herrera (“Show.Girl”).

Sombrerisimo. Photo by Paula Lobo

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s “Sombrerísimo” was the strongest performance of the evening. Referencing surrealist Belgian painter René Magritte, the six male dancers dressed in slacks, un-tucked and rolled-up long-sleeved shirts, and the iconic bowler hat explored identity and individuality through a tight choreography. Most importantly, the bowler hat was used to create a thematic continuity and dimension to the piece that was clear, yet unforced. “Sombrerísimo” told the story of six men who used their bodies to reveal content.

On the other hand, Rosie Herrera’s “Show.Girl,” though visually interesting, showed us up, revealed little, and took too much time to offer the audience something to swallow. It stuck out as a sparkly-quirky-eye-dazzling choreography that used elements of high fashion, Vegas showgirl revival and Hialeah stereotypes to communicate a disjointed story of what it means to be and to peer into the (staged) life of a showgirl, or a girl from Hialeah, or a fashion model, or just a girl, or none of the above. “Show.Girl” failed simply because it felt unedited and misplaced. Herrera crammed her entire aesthetic repertoire into 15 minutes. This made for a mash-up without a proper context and a narrative that needed a storyline.

The evening ended with Ballet Hispanico Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro’s “Danzón,” set to live music by the Grammy-winning Paquito D’Rivera Ensemble. Paquito stole the show, but “Danzón” stood its ground, despite an anticlimactic ending. The evening as a whole demonstrated Ballet Hispanico’s diversity and openness to the evolution within Latin culture. What the company needs to figure out is how to integrate and edit disparate styles.