Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation’s leading Latino dance organization since 1970, presented the latest installment of its choreographic institute, Instituto Coreográfíco, with a showing held on Thursday, May 28, 2015 at the company’s headquarters at 167 W. 89th Street, NYC.  This year’s Instituto Coreográfico featured Mexican-American choreographer and Ballet Hispanico Rehearsal Director Michelle Manzanales, who was paired with filmmaker Fernando Venegas Traba and photographer Madeline Campisano. The 2015 installment of the Instituto program was made possible through support from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

The groundbreaking Instituto Coreográfico provides emerging Latino choreographers, dance filmmakers, and now dance photographers with a professional and supportive environment in which to explore their heritage and develop their craft. Choreographers receive ongoing feedback from a group of notable artistic mentors and advisors, daily archive DVD recordings of the rehearsals, an edited film of the resulting work, an academic advisor, and a showing of their work.  Should an artistically appropriate work emerge from this process, it could enter Ballet w

ABOUT INSTITUTO COREOGRÁFICO

In 2010, Ballet Hispanico’s Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro launched a new choreography institute for Latino artists to create culturally specific work in a nurturing learning laboratory of dance. Through the Instituto Coreográfico, Ballet Hispanico encourages the development of Latino leaders and the creation of new works of art that expand our cultural dialogue. The inaugural Instituto Coreográfíco took place in September 2010 when Cuban-American choreographer Maray Ramis Gutierrez created a new work, Puntos Suspensivos, on company members which then premiered two months later during Ballet Hispanico’s annual New York season at The Joyce Theater. The Instituto continued in January 2011 when former Ballet Hispanico dancer Nicholas Villeneuve created a new work on his fellow company members. The program in June 2011 featured Cuban choreographer George Céspedes, a dancer with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba who is among the few Cuban nationals to create a work for a major U.S. dance company. The most recent installment of the program in 2014 featured Miami-based choreographer Rosie Herrera in January and Mexican choreographer Miguel Mancillas in May.

ABOUT MICHELLE MANZANALES

Michelle Manzanales is a choreographer and dance educator originally from Houston, TX who has created works for numerous professional companies, universities, and schools including Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre (Chicago, IL), Houston Metropolitan Dance Company under the direction of Dorrell Martin, the University of Houston, and Rice University among others. In 2007, Manzanales created Sugar in the Raw (Azucar Cruda) for Luna Negra Dance Theater, which was applauded by the Chicago Sun-Times as "a staggering, beautiful, accomplished new work." In 2010, her homage to Frida Kahlo, Paloma Querida, was hailed as a "visual masterpiece" by Lucia Mauro of the Chicago Tribune and has also been presented at the Capital Fringe Festival (Washington, DC), Texas Contemporary Weekend (Houston, TX), Spring to Dance (St. Louis, MO), Fort Worth Dance Festival (Fort Worth, TX), Festival de Danza Córdoba (Veracruz, Mexico), and honored by the American College Dance Festival.