Lourdes Lopez coaching Miami City Ballet dancers in Apollo. Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Daniel Azoulay. You expect to hear music wafting through the windows of Lourdes Lopez’s Miami Beach office. She moves across the space like the principal ballet dancer she once was: athletic, graceful, aware—and in charge. Lourdes Lopez, Aristic Director of Miami City Ballet. Photo © Daniel Azoulay It’s been a little more than a year since Lopez returned to her hometown to lead Miami City Ballet. For the company, it’s a new start following a painful separation from previous artistic director Edward Villella, who helped establish the troupe in 1985. Lopez spent 24 years dancing at New York City Ballet under Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine—who she fondly calls “Mr. B”—before she retired in 1997. In the interim, she led the George Balanchine Foundation and co-founded Morphoses, an experimental dance philosophy, among other jobs. Now, as artistic director for Miami City Ballet, she is creating a new identity for the company while respecting its core values, she said. Miami City Ballet opened its current season in October with a lineup that consisted of “Polyphonia” by Christopher Wheeldon, a contemporary choreographer and Morphoses co-founder, bookended by Balanchine’s “Ballo della Regina” and “Serenade.” Lopez said she wanted that program, titled “First Ventures,” to be a “joyous, fun, happy, we’re okay type of experience” after what had been a difficult couple of years for the company. It’s the beginning of what she describes as a journey for both the dancers and for audiences.
