Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini founded Dance NOW! Miami more than 20 years ago and, for the upcoming season, the pair plan to expand the company’s horizons.
“Our performances will take place in various venues, including theaters, outdoor spaces, gardens, museums and historical sites, showcasing the diversity of our repertoire and the versatility of our dancers,” says Baumgarten. “We also welcome new dancers to the company, bringing fresh energy and perspectives to our group and inspiring us as creators.”
For its first program of the 2023-2024 season, DNM is performing in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties, on Dec. 3 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale and Dec. 10 at the Sanctuary of the Arts in Coral Gables.
The program will include two repertoire works, “Chronicles,” choreographed by Salterini that dates to 2005, and “Random Pattern of Falling Leaves,” a work the pair created in 2011. The world premiere of “Tethered,” a new piece by Baumgarten, will round out the program.
As the season opener conveys, Baumgarten and Salterini have alternated between works created individually and those they have worked on together in the more than two decades of their dance partnership.
Baumgarten says their “individual choreographic voices have developed over the years,” adding that they are both versatile in their practices. “It has been said that I am more of a storyteller, while Diego has his forte in creating beautiful movements. … When we work together, we have a synergy that brings both things together.”
Salterini adds: “We are fortunate to have creativity that can be expressed in a more personal and shared voice. Not many artists have the stomach to get on that train, but we love the process, its moments of total complicity, as well as those of firm resistance to each other’s ideas.”
In “Tethered,” Baumgarten says audiences will see a work that is more influenced by ballet — although dancers won’t be en pointe — than what the company usually performs. The score for “Tethered” was created by Davidson Jaconello with Felix Rosch.
“I felt a calling to return to my contemporary ballet days. I was missing an aesthetic that I love, and I wanted to recover that aesthetic and that vocabulary for myself and the DNM audience,” she says.
Salterini says “Random Patterns of Falling Leaves” is a tribute to the beauty and magic of the autumn landscape.
“There is a certain mystique in the changing of seasons,” he says. “And we wanted to capture that essence in a symphony of movement. As the leaves fall and the trees become bare, we witness the passage of time and the beauty of impermanence. It is a poignant reminder that all things, no matter how great, must come to an end to be reborn again in a new cycle.”
The other repertory piece, “Chronicles,” he says, is deeply personal: “As an Italian from Rome who ended up living in Miami, my life had always been full of chaotic and hectic environments. But in 2004, when my husband, Larry, took me to his family’s home in Medina, Ohio, I experienced a different rhythm and pace.”
He recalls visiting a home filled with family, “each with a clear and silent role to play” during a 90th birthday celebration.
“As I watched all the moving parts working together perfectly, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a clock’s intricate-but-effective workings, with each part playing its part to create a simple, peaceful and reliable tick-tock,” says the choreographer. “‘Chronicles’ is my interpretation of the American Midwest, a place of calm and tranquility.”
The pair hope audiences can escape the outside world and become immersed in Program I.
“In a time full of constant news about war, death and political unrest, we wanted to take our audience to a place full of beauty and art,” Salterini says. “This show offers a brief respite from the chaos around us and invites audiences on a journey of pure imagination.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Dance NOW! Miami presents Program I: “Random Patterns of Falling Leaves” and other works
WHEN/WHERE:
- 6 p.m. Dec. 3 at Amaturo Theater in Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
- 6 p.m. Dec. 10 at Sanctuary of the Arts, 410 Andalusia Ave., Coral Gables
COST: $15-$50, depending on venue
INFORMATION: 305-975-8489; dancenowmiami.org; browardcenter.org/events
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