Buenas noches, good evening! Welcome to Ballet Hispánico’s Noche de Oro, a celebration of 50 incredible years of building new ways of exploring the Latinx culture through dance. 
 
Tonight’s program starts with Arabesque, a work originally choreographed in 1984, set to Spanish composer Enrique Granados’s Twelve Spanish Dances. The ballet exemplifies the company’s aesthetic during the 1970s, when the Company was experimenting with fusing flamenco with the classical ballet vocabulary. The choreographer, Vicente Nebrada, was one of only a few Latinx choreographic voices in the classical ballet world at that time. We honor Mr. Nebrada’s legacy and the impact of Ballet Hispánico’s mission to create a platform for Hispanic choreographers through this reconstruction.
 
Tiburones, which translates to “The Sharks”, is a work in direct response to the re-emergence of the musical West Side Story in our entertainment world today. In its day, West Side Story was an extraordinary piece of theater, as it was the first time the Puerto Rican community was featured in a major motion picture. While the musical gave us the incredible music of Leonard Bernstein and the captivating choreography of Jerome Robbins, it also left cultural scars for generations of Latinx people. Tiburones seeks to question the gaze of who gets to tell a story, while dispelling the iconic stereotypes that continue to haunt the Latinx community to this day. The work layers our vision of taking back our narrative through the voice of a Latina choreographer, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
 
Spanish choreographer, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano is known for his athletic and innovative movement vocabulary. In 18+1, Mr. Sansano delves deep into the music of Pérez Prado, the Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer, and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s. Created during his nineteenth year as a working choreographer, Mr. Sansano creates an explosive musical celebration that captures the essences of our beloved Cuban music.
 
Thank you for joining us this evening in celebration of Ballet Hispánico’s 50 years. Enjoy the show, disfruten!

Eduardo Vilaro
Artistic Director & CEO