External links
- Archival Footage of the Luna Negra Dance Theatre Company performing at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 2012
- Interview with Eduardo Vilaro discussing his directorship of Luna Negra
Luna Negra Dance Theater was a dance ensemble that celebrated the richness and diversity of Latino culture through the creation of works by contemporary Latino choreographers.
Founded by Cuban-born dancer and choreographer Eduardo Vilaro, [1] the company steered away from folkloric representations and utilized a variety of dance form styles such as Flamenco, Tango, or Salsa with contemporary dance movement. [2]
Luna Negra made its home in Chicago at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park, and toured nationally and internationally. [2] [3] It focused on the work of Latin choreographers such as Ron DeJesus, Vicente Nebrada, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. [4] [5] The company performed in Chicago at Ravinia Festival, The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Symphony Center, The Dance Center of Columbia College, Dance Chicago, the Ruth Page Dance Series locally and had toured nationally and internationally to places such as Spain, Panama, and Mexico. [5] The dance ensemble made its New York City debut at the New Victory Theater in January 2008. [3] [4] [6] In the community, Luna Negra offered intensive, hands-on education programs that encouraged discovery and exploration of personal and community identity .
When the Harris Theater opened in 2003, it provided an aspiration for small dance companies such as Luna Negra. [7] Luna Negra quickly achieved its goal of performing there, [8] [9] and it celebrated its tenth season at the Harris Theater in September 2008. [10] In past seasons, it cohabitated with the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Concert Dance Inc. at Ravinia Festival. [11] [12] The company also performed on the schedule at Ravinia without these other Chicago dance companies. [13] [14] In its summer 2008 season, Luna Negra was the opening performance for Ravinia Festival. [15]
In 2010, Luna Negra welcomed Gustavo Ramirez Sansano as its second artistic director in the company's history. Under Mr. Ramirez's leadership, Luna Negra continued to soar with works that challenged cultural representations and developed new possibilities for the company. [16]
In 2013, Luna Negra ceased operations due to financial stress. [1] [17] [18]
Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Lev Zhurbin is a composer and violist.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a contemporary dance company based in Chicago. Hubbard Street performs in downtown Chicago at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and at the Edlis Neeson Theater at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Hubbard Street also tours nationally and internationally throughout the year.
Judith Ann Jamison is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Rasta Kuzma Ramacandra was born on July 18, 1981, in San Francisco and is a dancer, martial artist, gymnast, and choreographer. Thomas is the founder of the Bad Boys of Dance and director and owner of the ShowBiz National Talent Competition. Thomas is a past winner of prestigious ballet competitions worldwide and has been a guest with numerous dance companies.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Ernestina Ramirez was an American dancer and educator, best known as the founder and artistic director (1970–2009) of Ballet Hispanico, the premier Latino dance organization in the United States.
New York Theatre Ballet or NYTB was founded in 1978 by Diana Byer, who became its artistic director. Dedicated to the principles of the Cecchetti-Diaghilev tradition, the company both reprises classic masterworks and produces original ballets.
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,499-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US. The theater, which is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions, was named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris. It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a complement to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances.
Yoshiko Chuma is a dancer, a choreographer and the director of the Bessie Award winning performance art group The School of Hard Knocks. Described in 2007 by Bloomberg as "a fixture on New York's downtown scene for over a quarter-century", her work spans from early "absurdist gaiety" to more recent serious reflection, which nevertheless represents the "maverick imagination and crazy-quilt multimedia work" for which the artist is known. Dance commentators have found her work difficult to classify; in a 2006 profile, Dance Magazine speculated that "One might call her a postmodern choreographer, a movement designer, or a visual artist whose primary medium is human beings--dancers, musicians, pedestrians". Chuma favors abstract art and discourages efforts to interpret her work, telling Bloomberg that "What I do is ambiguous. I don't have a statement. If I had a statement, I'd be a writer". In 2007, Chuma received a Bessie Award honoring her sustained achievements as a choreographer.
Black Ensemble Theater Company is a theatre company that performs at the Black Ensemble Cultural Center in the Uptown community area of Chicago, Illinois. The company is known for productions related to African-American culture, especially musicals depicting notable African-American musicians and performers. The company is a significant contributor to Chicago's emergence as a Theater Town, and its theater has been selected as one of the 25 top major theaters in the country by the Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac.
Chicago Opera Ballet was a Chicago dance company located in downtown Chicago.
Ballet Hispánico is an American dance company based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded by the Puerto Rican-Mexican-American dancer and choreographer Tina Ramirez in 1970 and presents dances reflecting the experience of Hispanic and Latino Americans.
Hip-hop theater is a form of theater that presents contemporary stories through the use of one or more of the four elements of hip-hop culture—b-boying, graffiti writing, MCing (rapping), and DJing. Other cultural markers of hip-hop such as spoken word, beatboxing, and hip-hop dance can be included as well although they are not always present. What is most important is the language of the theatrical piece and the plot's relevance to the world. Danny Hoch, the founder of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, further defines it as such: "Hip-hop theatre must fit into the realm of theatrical performance, and it must be by, about and for the hip-hop generation, participants in hip-hop culture, or both."
Daniel Ezralow is an artistic director, choreographer, dancer, writer, and performer. He is known for his work in theater, film, opera, and television. His approach, style of physical expression, freedom of spirit and articulate athletic vocabulary have earned him an international reputation. He is the artistic director and founder of Ezralow Dance, a movement based ensemble and the creative home for Ezralow's body of work.
Patrice M. Regnier is an American choreographer, director, producer and inventor. She is the developer of the TERP system, a patented and trademarked technology to facilitate choreographed movement without rehearsal.
Ze'eva Cohen is an Israeli American dancer and modern/ postmodern dance choreographer who founded and directed the dance program at Princeton University between 1969 and 2009.
Sarah Swenson is an American modern dance choreographer, dancer, and teacher. She trained in early modern dance forms, and later studied postmodern dance. She began her career in the early 1980s in New York City. Swenson began as a student and later, a teacher at the Alvin Ailey School, and was Rehearsal Director and Performance Coach for the Alvin Ailey Student Performance Group, for which she created her first works. She was also the Associate Artistic Director of Seraphim Dance Theatre, founded by the late Raymond C. Harris.
Eduardo Vilaro is a Cuban-American dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic director & CEO of Ballet Hispánico. He first joined Ballet Hispánico as a principal dancer in 1985, leaving for Chicago a decade later to further his education and found the Luna Negra Dance Theater, for which he was artistic director. He returned to Ballet Hispánico in 2009 as artistic director, the second since the organization's founding in 1970, and has also served as CEO for the company since 2015 when a reorganization merged these artistic and administrative roles. His vision for Ballet Hispánico draws on the Latin dance traditions and educational outreach set forth by founder Tina Ramirez while responding to the more complex cultural landscape of the 21st century with a greater focus on diversity, inclusion, and community engagement.
Lea Elizabeth Ved is an American contemporary dancer and choreographer. She was a second soloist contemporary dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, dancing with the company from 2016 until 2018. Ved currently dances with Nederlands Dans Theater.
