They will leap, twirl, and jump through the air, hold each other, join hands, and evoke emotion for their audience.
That’s what adult and young modern dancers will do when they share the Miami Beach Bandshell open-air stage on Nov. 10 during Dance Now! Miami’s 25th anniversary opening performance, “Fall for Dance Now!”
Bringing the two age groups together is intentional for the company’s founders and artistic director Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini.
(Simon Soong)
Dance Now! Miami directors Diego Salterini and Hannah Baumgarten are excited to kick off their 25th anniversary season Nov. 10 at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
“Our first show of the 2024-25 season is really highlighting our Dance NOW! Youth Ensemble, created in partnership with Miami Arts Charter School, which exemplifies the value we place on education,” said Baumgarten.
The ensemble will perform the quartet from “Anousin,” a piece developed by Baumgarten and Salterini, which is based on the Jews in Portugal and tells the story of how they assimilated there.
“We love working with the youth because it’s fun and also provides them the invaluable opportunity to vibe and be surrounded by professional dancers and experience how everything works backstage,” said Baumgarten.
“We’ve been doing this for years because we know the challenges students face when preparing for college,” said Salterini.
Aside from the Youth Ensemble’s piece, the show gives the audience both a glimpse of what to expect for the remainder of Dance Now’s season, with a sprinkling of its popular repertoire pieces in between.
(Simon Soong)
Dance Now! Miami "Clara 2" the troupe's reimagining of the holiday classic "The Nutcracker."
Because the Miami Beach Bandshell is a compressed performance space, but also beloved by the co-founders, the duo worked diligently to present a comprehensive and varied program.
The show opens with “Pop,” an excerpt of a larger piece created by Salterini, all based on 1980s and 1990s music that has been reimagined by a Polish composer.
“It’s something Diego created in May, and we chose to present a small section of it at our season opener,” said Baumgarten. Although the piece ends on a somber note reminiscent of the 1980s, the dancing is very high energy. “We want to remind audiences to remember what happened during this decade and all that we have lost.”
The program then moves on to Baumgarten’s piece, “All Shook Up,” featuring a young, pajama-clad woman singing and dancing in her bedroom. Baumgarten described it as “a very playful and athletic piece performed by our youngest female dancer.
That is followed by the Youth Ensemble’s piece, which is a peek into a Jewish inquisition in Portugal where Jews hid their religion posing as Christians and how this behavior developed new traditions in the country that lasted for years.
(Jenny Abreu)
"Court Dance," one of Dance Now! Miami's pieces to be presented at the season opener.
Their repertoire piece “Clara Suite,” a reimagining of the timeless holiday classic “The Nutcracker,” follows. Baumgarten and Salterini call this, “our naughty version of ‘The Nutcracker,’ which is a one-act dance reimagining the journey of Clara and her growth into womanhood. It is our vision of society and how the adults shielded her from the real world, which she eventually discovered, despite their overprotective behavior.”
The piece features solo, duo and trio performances that take the audience through a fantastic journey of scenes in Spain, Arabia, and Russia.
Closing out the show will be an excerpt of their repertoire piece, “Gli Altri/The Others,” about a homeless man in a metro station who, in his imagination, is a maestro conducting an orchestra.
During the 25th anniversary season Dance Now! will present what Salterini and Baumgarten call their greatest hits. This includes “Drawing Circles,” which Salterini choreographed in honor of the classic Miami Modern (MIMO) architecture, and their political piece ‘Court Dance.’”
What the two call their biggest hook of the season is “Blue Pencil,” a piece created in collaboration with the Portuguese dance company, Dance and Dialogos. The Feb. 28, 2025, show at Miami Theater Center focuses on the resilience of artists in an atmosphere of budget cuts, book banning, and censorship.
“We’re expressing artist resilience and how artists are refusing to be silenced and move forward with the show by any means possible,” said Baumgarten. “We will be bringing this piece to Portugal and raise some eyebrows there for certain.”
And finally, they will close the 2024-25 season with “Terra Mia/My Land.”
“It is a nostalgic journey back to Italy alongside the composer who did the music for this piece and conjure up memories and reminisce about my homeland of Italy,” said Salterini.
The duo also plans to continue their educational initiatives at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and Miami Arts Charter, and their ambassador work with the Joffrey Ballet. In 2025 they will also travel to teach in Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, and in other countries as well.
According to Baumgarten and Salterini, “We love what we do and bringing the Miami name to so many places around the world.”
If You Go
Fall for Dance Now!
Sunday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.
Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
Tickets: $10-$25