4 replies to this topic

[cubanmiamiboy]

I guess this is just a regular thing to see these days, but one still can't help on feeling upset.  It is kind of old news, but I just found out, when looking at their website for the upcoming season.  Ballet Gamonet was an interesting alternative to our mainstream Company-(MCB)-and I really enjoyed a lot their Carmen last season.




Fewer donations suspend Miami's Ballet Gamonet troupe

BY JORDAN LEVIN-(MIami Herald)

"Ballet Gamonet, the determined contemporary ballet troupe run by former Miami City Ballet choreographer Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros, has suspended operations for the rest of the season.  The troupe's two remaining programs for this spring have been canceled.
The troupe is the latest arts group to suffer from decreasing donations amid the economic crisis, which has already caused major cutbacks at the Miami City Ballet and the Florida Grand Opera and the closing of the Florida Concert Association.
The troupe, which was founded in 2005 with the merger of Ballet Gamonet and Maximum Dance, had received positive critical reviews and was popular with audiences.     But it had struggled to find funding in the past year, and dancers and staff members were frequently paid late.
The two remaining programs were to have been staged at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami, the Colony Theater in Miami Beach, and, in Fort Lauderdale, at the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Bienes Center for the Arts."

http://www.miamihera...ory/935297.html



And now, when going to their website, this is what it's found...

http://www.balletgamonet.org/

[bart]

Sorry to hear about this.  When dances and the other people associated with a dance theater lose the chance to perform (and the pay), it's a great loss.

I wish I understood the Miami arts scene better.  From the perspective of 90 miles away, it certainly seems tumultuous.  

Gamonet provided a number of works for Miami City Ballet in the early days but had left -- a less than friendly parting, I hear -- by the time we moved to Palm Beach County.  So I've never seen his work.  

The article refers to a merger with Maximum Dance, a small contemporary company established by two former MCB dancers.  As I heard the story, this was a take-over and not friendly.  

I  wonder what the problem is.  Too many dance groups competing for an audience that isn't large or stable enough to sustain them?

[bart]

I've been thinking about Ileana Lopez, MCB's leading ballerina until her retirement.  Although she wasn't dancing much by the time we moved to Florida, I remember her pdd from "Diamonds" in 2004, partnered by her husband Franklin Gomero.   What a lovely dancer:  technically strong and projecting great warmth.  That warmth is the quality I remember most from her Giselle in 2002.  It even infiltrated an otherwise expectectedly hot mambo (the fourth section of  Villella's Neighborhood Ballroom).

She was a great audience favorite.

On retiring, she became an MCB ballet mistress but left to join Gamonet.  Did you see her dance?  Was she still part of the company at the end?

[cubanmiamiboy]

You know bart? I'm glad I saw Miss Lopez dancing, even if it was only one time.  She danced all the performances of Carmen during BG's last season, and she excelled in the role.  Great personality, strong technique, she had it all.  At the time I thought of her as one of that extinguished specimen of ballerinas who, besides mastering the technical demands, have a strong stage projection, or as I call it, the "diva thing", which I haven't seen in ANY * of our current MCB's ballerinas-(although we can enjoy it via both Lorena Feijoo and Hayna Gutierrez with the CCBM).
You mentioned Giselle, and this is very interesting.  Those performances are back from 2002.  For some reason, I did not see any ballet in Miami during my first year in US-(I came in may 2001), but I DO remember that the very FIRST time I went to see the MCB at the old Jackie Gleason was with their Giselle.  It was my first performance here, and right after I came out of the theatre, I swore that that was going to be my very last while in exile, and that I was to live from the old memories from those other Giselles of the past.  Well, eventually that didn't happen, realizing that exile was probably be a bit longer than programed, and desire to batch ballet overcame dissapointment, even if it was not going to be at my pre-acquired standards and the repertoire that I grew up with.
I really can't remember who danced in that first and only Giselle I saw.  I tried hard to forget it, to tell you the truth.  Maybe it was Miss Lopez...? Who knows.

Edited to add: * Perhaps Jeanette Delgado is "getting" it...  

[bart]

Cristian and I were getting off topic, so I moved some of our posts to a NEW Miami City Ballet thread.

Please continue discussing the situation with Ballet Gamonet and its implications here.  I know we have a number of south Florida members.  What do you think about the Gamonet situation?

P.S.:  If you want to discuss Miami City Ballet and the coming season, there's a NEW THREAD on the MCB forum.