Behind the Scenes

Ray Sullivan

Name:  Ray Sullivan

Birthplace:  New Haven, Connecticut

City of Residence:  Miami Beach

Occupation:  Founding artistic director and CEO/resident choreographer of Miami Contemporary Dance Company and School.

Credits:  Has choreographed 36 works that have been performed internationally;  has performed dances by more than 40 choreographers in North America, South America, Asia and Europe, has performed for Masako, Crown Princess of Japan; was the first American to dance the principal role in Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai-Min’s, Crossing The Black Waters, in New York and Holland; has performed with numerous companies including Connecticut Ballet, Zig Zag Ballet, The Paul Hall Contemporary Dance Theater Company, Les Ballets Grandiva; has taught ballet and modern dance in Argentina and the United States since 1990, and prepared dancers for international competitions in France, Argentina, Brazil, and the United States; danced with Argentina’s El Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martin for five years, and also in Buenos Aires, as a guest soloist, with former American Ballet Theater principal dancer Julio Bocca.  Sullivan’s work was chosen for the prestigious Contemporaneo series in Buenos Aires in 1995.  He has also developed his own dance technique, Sullivan Technique, which is the technical basis for Miami Contemporary Dance Company and Center, and has taught master classes and work shops to the Ballet of the famed Colon Theater in Buenos Aires, at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut, at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, and at Summer Festivals, such as Ballet Intensive from Moscow in Michigan, and at the Florida Dance Festival. Sullivan was a faculty member of the Miami City Ballet School 2000-2004.

Awards:  Was awarded the 2005 Dance Miami Choreographers Fellowship from the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs; presented with the Key to the City of Miami Beach in 2004; and was named one of Florida’s Power Players 2006 by Florida International magazine.

What is your background and training?
I graduated from the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut, where I also trained at New Haven Ballet School. I then went on to New York where I trained in the Martha Graham and Jose Limon Techniques, at the Paul Taylor School, the Joffrey Ballet School, and the David Howard School, Broadway Dance Center, and I earned a B.F.A. in dance from State University of New York at Purchase. I was awarded merit scholarships for most of my training.

What inspired you to become a dancer and choreographer?
I stayed after elementary school and did gymnastics, theater, etc. (thus the importance of cultural programming for our children).  I never could stop moving as a kid, and I never have. The first time I saw dance, I wanted to do it. My father was a fireman and truck driver, and my mom was a waitress; today, the movie Billy Elliot makes me tingle with memories and a twinge of nostalgia.

What are the duties and responsibilities of a choreographer?
In Concert Dance (i.e. modern or ballet) the choreographer’s “duties” usually involve conceiving, researching and creating the work on the dancers, and collaborating with other artists like lighting and costume designers. Now, a choreographer’s “responsibilities” can be different depending on whom you ask. As an artist, I feel a great responsibility to allow the metaphorical poetry of a work to offer a parable like opportunity for people to reflect upon the state of the world and the human condition. I believe that artists are the philosophers of our time and we must move thought forward the best we can.

What was it like the first time you saw dancers perform a work that you had created?
I couldn’t believe it came out of me. It was like hearing a poem read by someone else’s voice, and realizing both the power of the words, and, an even greater respect and understanding for fantastic directors who know how to direct the interpretive artists dancing their work. I didn’t know it then, but that’s when, Ray the Artistic Director was born.

Where do you get your ideas for dances?
I create a lot about current social issues and historical events and people. I take my ideas from the world I live in and from a hope for our evolution as a human race to always make us better.

Tango Undressed 2007 Luis and Diana

Tell us about Tango Undressed.
In creating a contemporary dance piece about tango, rather than a tango show, I felt compelled to represent a certain sub-culture of alternative life styles often not openly represented. In this work I examine the cliché filled perceptions of this social art form, and bounce them off of the realities of a country, politics, a people and a history. Each section of Tango Undressed represents actual people I met, and situations I lived during my years in Buenos Aires This process automatically led me to a quilt of sensations and feelings…nostalgia, joy, passion, sadness, sensuality. The piece is more about the people who created tango and still, to this day, breathe life into it, in their city Buenos Aires, than it is about the performance of tango. Buenos Aires was my home for five years of my career, and the place where this rich folkloric voice of an urban people continues to speak. The dancing is amazing, Jorge Gallardo has creating costume and set designs that beautifully capture the essence of the work, and Travis Neff’s lighting is fantastic. Oh yeah, and it’s true …Parental Advisory: Contains brief nudity.

What was the most challenging part of creating Tango Undressed?
Allowing myself to cross over the boundaries of a sub-culture like tango into a modern expression of un-Hollywood- like realities, and yet still keep it accessible to the audience. I never really thought about the audience that much in the creative process before. It was a different and much more valid experience than I ever would have imagined.

Which is more challenging: Being a dancer or choreographer?
For everyone it is different. I suppose for me it was dancing. I always love a good challenge.

What has been your proudest professional moment?
This is a special question. My career is filled with things I am happy with, like dancing for the Princess of Japan, many audiences around the world, awards, and recognition, etc. When I close my eyes, I remember the monthly free performances we did in Buenos Aires for the elderly and retirees, not in the lavish theaters during the season, but in the lobby of the San Martin Theater. I remember dancing as hard and as well as I could for people who found it difficult to move. They will stay with me forever.  I feel proud to live a constructive and creative life, in a world that is not always so.

What piece has offered you the most challenges?
The months of research I did to prepare for the creative process of Your Blood, My Blood (The Aids in Africa Project) was horrifically saddening. I spent night after night looking at image after image, article after article. What carried me through was the incredible resiliency of the human spirit that people can have. It was a tremendously humbling experience.

What have been your favorite productions?
Like our children, we don’t allow ourselves to have favorites, so that we can give each the appropriate attention. If allowed, I prefer to talk about which parts of my choreographic walk have been most memorable thus far. I found both Asiasong on our Soil about the tsunami disaster in southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina, along with The Death of Garcia Lorca , about the murder of Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca  by Franco’s regime, to be the most meaningful.

What is more satisfying—dancing or choreographing?
I have loved being both the interpretive artist as well as the creative artist. As I continue to grow, I feel more excited by creating movement and releasing it to other dancers to interpret.

What’s the best part of the South Florida dance scene?
Here there is room to grow, and I find that that room inspires creative energy in me.

What would you still like to accomplish in your career?
More! There are many more works left for me to choreograph. I just want to keep living every moment to the fullest.

Upcoming Productions:

Miami Contemporary Dance Company
2007-08 Performance Season

October 5-6, 12-13, 8 p.m.
Tango Undressed / Tango Al Desnudo
Parental Advisory: Contains Brief Nudity 

November 30 - December 1, 8 p.m.
Miami-Italia International
Love Without Permission and Italy’s Il Balletto dell’Esperia

February 22 - 23, 2008, 8:00 PM
Your Blood, My Blood: AIDS in Africa Project

April 24 - 25, 2008, 8:00 PM
The Death of García Lorca / La Muerte de García Lorca
With the world premiere of the second act.

Local performances at the Colony Theater, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach