Finally

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/en ... 600117.htm

Thanks for the link, Mariano - good news for the Company to have such a strong review for the first outing in its new colours.

I saw the performance last Saturday night at the Gusman in Miami, it was a fantastic show! Quite surprising for south florida I must say.

This is another one from the Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/li ... 2147.story

LOL, Osiris! Care to elaborate?

It's nice to see good reviews. Many had wondered if the shift in direction would blow up into sordid stories -- what a nice change not to have that!

Elaborate? What do you want to know other than we, (South Florida), have one of the country's largest populations and it is growing daily but this entire area is a cultural wasteland, or atleast for ballet. Once in a while dance events will take place (Miami International Dance Festival) or tour through but generally speaking they are very few and far between. Miami City Ballet is here but unless you want to watch Balanchine programs over and over and over again there is not too much to go and see in the way of balletic variety and range of repertoire. Additionally, my "quite surprising" qoute leans towards the fact that these two specific organizations actually joined forces to create the season that just took place. Can't go into too many details here but IMHO it won't last longer than a year, or atleast with the current company administrators.
Maybe I am wrong, who knows, time will tell.

WELCOME TO THE REALM OF CYNICISM.

It's good to have something besides MCB in S Florida. It's pretty lonely when one big company is the only game in town. Time will tell S Florida can sustain this new, combined troupe.

The new Maximum Dance Ballet Gamonet company is wonderful, and their performances last week were excellent. I attended on Saturday and Sunday in Fort Lauderdale. The audience was twice as large as usual, and it was very appreciative. The seventeen members of the combined company will be able to do much more than in the past, and it is a much stronger company than before.

The first number for seven men was very strong. David Palmer and Christian Laverde were the standouts and danced very well. The pas de deux, Nous Sommes, with Turrell and Hiroko, was breathtaking. At both performances, the audience held its breath during the dance; you could hear the combined exhalation at the end. No one wanted to miss a single second. Not only are both dancers highly talented as individuals, but they danced together superbly.

The third and fourth numbers, especially the tango-inspired piece, were also very good.
___

I'm not sure why someone would say South Florida is bereft of high quality dance. We have Miami Ballet, which is superb and performs regularly. We have Maximum Gamonet, which promises to be top quality and will perform regularly. We have Orlando Ballet, which hopefully will now come regularly to Fort Lauderdale. The performance this past spring, which was their first in Fort L, was very highly appreciated and lauded. The St. Petersburg (and other visiting companies) are top flight. And now I shall discuss the Harid Conservatory in a separate post. We have an amazing amount of fine ballet in South Florida.

Dan, welcome to CriticalDance and thanks a lot for your eye witness report and your general thoughts on ballet in South Florida. Hope we hear from you regularly.

Dan;
I agree with you 100% about the quality of the shows, if the performances in Ft.Lauderdale were anything like the ones at the Gusman in Miami they were very very well done. I agree with you about the first piece, Cristian and David danced really well. Too bad Cristian is headed to Milwuakee Ballet in about a month or so. For that fact there are quite a few dancers that were in that program that will not be joining on next season full-time.
What company are you making reference to in St. Petersburg?? I know of BalletFlorida now being the resident up at TPAC but I am very familiar with the Tampa/St.Pete area and am not aware of another ballet company in that area. Do tell, I would love to know of another dance organization in western Florida. Sarasota Ballet perhaps? But that is way South of Tampa/St.Pete and Clearwater.
Sinicism huh, more of probable reality I think, I assure you that I WANT this new company to exist and be very very successful, anyone who lives down here knows that South Florida NEEDS the added cultural organization. However, my statements about it not lasting were not aimed toward the existence of the company but rather, the current administration. It is working right now just fine which is great but if that changes we WILL come back to this thread .
Maybe I am Cynical, God knows I have been called worse

The inevitable has just been reported.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/en ... rming_arts

OK, so it took the Miami Herald about a week and half to get on the ball with this and publish the story. The split-up decision is a bit sooner than I expected but never-the-less not too surprising.

I seem to remember someone in this thread quoting me and then stating "Welcome to the realm of Cynicism". Well my friend, "Welcome to the world of Ballet!!!" Fasten your seatbelt because it is ALWAYS a wild ride.

If you think this is an interesting development, just wait, there is definitely more to come.[/url]

Actually, most American cities have only one game in town...if that many.

and the plot thickens ...

http://www.southflorida.com/news/sfl-ap ... -headlines

Scroll down to the headline "Prima ballerina leaps companies"...

Anyone here see the season opening last night at the Gusman? It was a great show ! I hope the herald agrees .