by El Reportero’s staff
Ballet Hispánico
Ballet Hispánico, recognized as the preeminent Hispanic-American dance institution in the United States, announced today the third installment of its groundbreaking choreography institute, Instituto Coreográfico, was held in June at company headquarters on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
This session of the Instituto features emerging Cuban choreographer George Céspedes (currently a dancer with Danza Contemporanea de Cuba in Havana) who will work with Ballet Hispánico company members to create his first work for an American company. Céspedes is among the few Cuba nationals to create a work for a major U.S. dance company.
In 2010, Ballet Hispánico launched a groundbreaking new choreography institute created for Latino artists to explore culturally specific work in a nurturing, learning laboratory. The inaugural Instituto Coreográfico took place September 13 – 24, 2010 when Cuban-American choreographer Maray Ramis Gutiérrez created a new work, “Puntos Suspensivos,” on company members which then premiered during Ballet Hispánico’s annual New York season at The Joyce Theater last December. The Instituto continued in January when Ballet Hispánico dancer Nicholas Villeneuve created a new work on his fellow company members.
At least 35 theater companies will participate in the International Theatre Festival in Puerto Rico
The Ministry of Culture and the National Theater confirmed that at least 35 national and foreign theater companies will participate in an International Theater Festival, which begins June 16. This seventh edition of the festival will present for the first time foreign plays with companies from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, United States, Mexico, Israel, Peru and Venezuela, said actress and national theater director Karina Noble. Companies like Teatro Factoría (Spain), Teatre de l Homme Dibuixa and Kulunka Teatro (Argentina), Tibia Teatro (Brazil), Oco teatro (Chile), and Teatro Inmigrante (Colombia) are scheduled to perform in the festival, which ends June 26.
Top Broadway musi c i a n s w i l l p e r f o r m o u t s i d e To n y Aw a r d s
Action is to protest producers replacing live music with recordings. As part of the Save Live Music on Broadway campaign, top Broadway musicians and supporters mounted a musical protest on June 12th, outside the Beacon Theatre. A distinguished coalition of Broadway composers, lyricists, musicians, performers and top professionals from the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and The Julliard School have joined with the non-profit Council for Living Music to keep Broadway live. Their outcry reflects the sentiments of 91 percent of Broadway musical theatergoers in a new nationwide poll, who say “The best part of a Broadway musical is the live music.”
For an industry so central to New York City tourism, it is noteworthy that in this 704-person national survey of Broadway musical theatergoers, three out of four respondents said they would not buy tickets to a show if they were aware it would be using recorded music to replace some or all of the musicians. (To see full poll results visit SaveLive-MusicOnBroadway.com.)
Actress Eva Longoria joins efforts to protect child farmworkers
Actress and activist Eva Longoria joined Congresswoman Lucille RoybalAllard (CA-34) and other child advocates today in announcing the introduction of “The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment” (CARE), legislation which ensures adequate protections for children working in our nation’s agricultural fields.
Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard said agriculture is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work and that leads them to drop out of school at four times the national dropout rate. Exposing the hardships of child farmworkers, The Harvest /La Cosecha, a new film by Shine Global, U. Roberto Romano and Executive Producer Eva Longoria, examines the day-today lives of child migrant laborers.
Eva Longoria said, “Using my voice to help Shine Global and U. Roberto (Robin) Romano raise awareness about the plight of farmworker children in agriculture has been…one of the most important issues I have had the opportunity to work on.”
