Ballet Hispánico’s

2019 New York Season at The Joyce Theater

Featuring Two World Premieres

March 26-31, 2019

A Restaging of Sombrerísimo by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

featuring the Company Women

World Premiere of New Work by Edwaard Liang

World Premiere of Homebound/Alaala by Bennyroyce Royon

The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC

Tue-Wed 7:30 pm; Thu-Fri 8:00 pm; Sat 2:00 pm & 8:00 pm; Sun 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm
Tickets start at $10 and are available for purchase in person at The Joyce Theater Box Office, by phone at (212) 242-0800, or online at Joyce.org. Ticket prices are subject to change.

New York, NY – Ballet Hispánico, America’s leading Latino dance organization, brings its bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance to The Joyce Theater with two world premieres from March 26-31, 2019. Tickets start at $10 and are available for purchase in person at The Joyce Theater Box Office by calling Joyce Charge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.Joyce.org.

Ballet Hispánico’s program features passionate and culturally relative works that explore the vast connections between the Latinx and Asian diasporas.Annabelle Lopez Ochoa offers an exploration of identity in her stirring Sombrerísimo. In two separate world premieres by Edwaard Liang and Bennyroyce Royon, the choreographers touch on historic issues that are particularly resonant today, including migration, immigration, journeying, and assimilation.

The women of the Ballet Hispánico Company exercise their athleticism and power in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Sombrerísimo. The work is an athletic tour de force originally created for six men full of complex partnering, Latin sizzle, and a joyous celebration of self.  Inspired by the surrealist world of Belgian painter René Magritte, famous for his paintings of men in bowler hats, Sombrerísimo references the iconic sombreros (hats) found throughout the world that help to represent culture.

Edwaard Liang presents an emotional and thought-provoking journey of the Chinese diaspora in his new work.Featuring classical music by Thomas Tallis, Liang evokes emotion through moving sound and lush movement to exemplify how many individuals feel when one leaves one’s homeland or country of birth to seek a new life, including moments of remembering, sharing, and letting go. Liang particularly focuses on the Chinese mass emigration from the nineteenth century to 1949 and the Chinese-Cuban diaspora to explore identity and the ghosts of a former life.

Filipino-American choreographer Bennyroyce Royon explores identity through the lens of Filipino culture in Homebound/Alaala. Royon explores the intersection of Latino and Asian cultures through ideas including the spirit of communal unity (bayanihan), the resilience of women, overcoming hardship, and the quest for home.

“Immigration has enabled plethora of cultural diversity and this program is an example of our leadership role in embracing the diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality in culture. We continue our mission to expose the American experience of Latinx culture and encourage our audience to go beyond the surface of what they know.”
– Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro