Ballet Hispánico Opens Performance Series in Opelika (9/19/2017)

Ballet Hispánico (website) will open the 2017-18 Performance Series of the East Alabama Arts Association this Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. Click here for EAAA's event page and to purchase tickets.

The Performance Series is our area's only regular and recurring presenter of top-notch national and international performances. Association president (and my former piano teacher) Phillip Preston has for years adeptly crafted a series, each act with equal parts art and entertainment, to appeal to our wider tastes. This is a very successful program, integral to the social and artistic fabric of our immediate community.

Speaking of social fabric, here's a fun article by Ann Cipperly from the Opelika Observer with some ideas and recipes about entertaining your own guests before the show: EAA president offers ideas for entertaining before Performance Series

UPDATE: PBS will feature the troupe Friday night 15-Sept. Click here to check local listings. Below is more about the program for Tuesday's performance.

LÍNEA RECTA - Powerful and resonant, Línea Recta explores an intriguing aspect of flamenco: the conspicuous absence of physical contact between dancers. While maintaining the integrity and hallmark passion of the genre, Belgo-Colombian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa imagines an original and explosive movement language premised upon the theme of communication between the sexes and performed to an original guitar composition by Eric Vaarzon Morel.

CON BRAZOS ABIERTOS - In her first work for Ballet Hispánico, Michelle Manzanales explores with humility, nostalgia, and humor the iconic Mexican symbols that she was reluctant to embrace as a Mexican-American child growing up in Texas. Intertwining folkloric details with a distinctly contemporary voice in dance, set to music that ranges from Julio Iglesias to rock en español, Con Brazos Abiertos is a fun and frank look at a life caught between two cultures.

CATORCE DIECISÉIS - One of the leading voices of Mexican contemporary dance, Tania Pérez-Salas draws inspiration from the number Pi to reflect on the circularity of our movement through life. With intense theatricality and breathtaking imagery set to music by Vivaldi and other Baroque composers, 3. Catorce Dieciséis is a joyful feast for the senses.