Dance NOW! Miami's first program of its 26th season is Fall for Dance NOW! Nov. 9 at the Miami Beach Bandshell.
While the hot rays of summer begin to depart, arts groups are busy preparing for the upcoming season. Companies large and small are planning programs which promise to be compelling, engaging and entertaining. The Miami dance community is pulling together to continue to present dance of the highest quality, proving once again, that the arts can be a strong catalyst to bring communities together to rise above any obstacles.
The season gets underway with the 15th Annual Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler (Oct. 18 at New World School of the Arts) it is the perfect opportunity to experience a selection of the 2025-2026 upcoming performances. The Sampler is produced in part by Dance NOW! Miami and showcases a variety of companies offering audience members to experience the talent, diversity and rich cultural offering the Miami dance scene had to offer. Participating companies include Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Cuban Classical Ballet, Dance NOW! Miami and New World School of the Arts.
Dance NOW! Miami presents the first program of its 26th season with Fall for Dance NOW! (Nov. 9 at Miami Beach Bandshell). The performance will showcase a preview of the upcoming season including excepts of Winter’s Breath (Dec. 9 at Sanctuary of the Arts) and other works in preparation for the company’s Florida’s tour. Dance NOW! Miami is presenting three different programs this season as well as a collaboration with the South Beach Chamber Ensemble to present Holy Days in the Garden a performance honoring the holy days of Passover and Easter.
The Daniel Lewis Dance Sampler is Oct. 18 at the New World School of the Arts, an the unofficial kick off of the dance season.
Program I features Winter’s Breath which was choreographed in 2015 and is set to the music of Antonio Vivaldi/ Max Richter. This piece is a tribute to the composers and the holiday season. The program also presents The Harp Etude, from Isadora Duncan, a pioneer of modern dance who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Her work is an homage to innovation and fits perfectly with the company’s dance mission of presenting innovate works. Dance NOW! Miami welcomes the esteemed New York modern dance company, Jon Lehrer Dance Company, to the program. The company is known for transforming the stage into an energy field of super-charged particles and quantum physics.
Dance NOW! Miami brings its powerful and thought -provoking piece Bridges NOT Walls to Pompano on Nov. 12. The strong political work which may well be more consequential today than it was when it was conceived in 2016 and premiered in 2017. Bridges NOT Walls is a piece whose message can not be repeated often enough just as this piece should be seen again and again. The message is important and universal. The work was choreographed by Dance NOW! Miami’s artistic Directors Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini and has become a powerful trademark of the company. Program II will also include a retrospective of some of the companies most powerful and acclaimed works over its twenty-six years.
Hannah Baumgarten is presenting the world premiere of her piece Love-less: Dance of the last Moho braccatus in the final program of the season. This contemporary ballet is based on the story of the small black and yellow Hawaiian songbird facing extinction due to habitat destruction and climate change. The music is an original score based on the bird’s calls by Italian composer Federico Bonacossa.
Salterini and Baumgarten each reflected on the upcoming season. Salterini says “ With all that we experience on a daily basis, with all the fast-based media and messaging overload, Dance NOW! Is here to provide beauty, solace, excitement, and poetry in motion-through the agile bodies of our brilliant dancers. “
“This season is about resilience, as a community, as an organization and as a nation. The arts are embedded in our world; they hold a mirror up to society to reflect our strengths and our weaknesses...and sometimes even serve as the light that leads the way. Come join us on this journey, “says Baumgarten.
Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami ( DDTM ) is entering its 9th year as a company. Its founding Artistic Directors, Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra, are each former members of Miami City Ballet. DDTM is starting off its season with Fall Program (Nov. 8 at the Moss Center) an evening of contemporary ballet featuring three world premieres including Selah Jane Oliver’s Valley of Shadows, and a world premiere by Yanis Eric Pikieris to the music of Michael Nyman.
In January DDTM will perform Ballet in the Gardens ( Pinecrest Gardens ) which features Arcadia by Yanis Eric Pikieris, Apollo and Daphne by Ben Needham Wood. The evening conclude with excerpts from Yanis Pikieris Four Seasons.
Love in the Air takes place on Valentine's Day 2026 and includes some of Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami's most romantic repertoire.
Love in the Air takes place on Valentine’s Day 2026 and includes some of DDTM most romantic repertoire and the premiere of Rafael Ruiz del Vizo’s Phases. In April the company’s program Noche Latina offer an engaging evening of ballets inspired by Latin rhythms and culture, including the premiere of Melissa Verdecia’s Hasta que la muerte nos separé and the revival of excerpts from Leonardo Reale’s Tangos del Plata. The season concludes with Summer Dances and 2 Pianos in July, the company’s first collaboration with Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion. It’s an evening of ballet including the premiere There, Never There, by DaYoung Jung and live musical accompaniment by the piano duo Stephanie & Saar.
In addition, DDTM will showcase the creative process of choreographers who are developing new works for the company in its Salon Series. It is also hosting a Mother’s Day event,Brunch & Ballet, which features the premiere of Ariel Rose’s luvelnalis.
Speaking on the upcoming season Kronenberg says, “ Despite the ongoing challenges in arts funding, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami remains steadfast. We step into our 9th season with resilience determination, and excitement-continuing our forward momentum- championing both our art form and our artists who bring it to life in this community. “
Pioneer Winter Collective starts its season with In the Belly of the Bird/Godmother on Oct. 9.
Pioneer Winter Collective starts its season with In the Belly of the Bird/ Godmother (Oct. 9) a somapoem exploring grief, memory, and transformation, following a search for a mother’s voice. Somapoem is a type of poetry that lives in the body. Winter explains it as choreography translated into writing. This then returns to the body as choreography.
The company is also presenting Apollo which premiered this past April. This dance- theater work was inspired by resilience, lineage, Greek mythology, and intergenerational queer dynamic, blending movement, live sound and oral histories. Apollo is scheduled to appear at the American Dance Festival in summer 2026.
Winter is also continuing the collective’s Recovery in Motion workshop series. Winter describes it as a program for people in recovery from addiction that uses movement and theater as a supplement to recovery, emphasizing anonymity, connection and creative expression.
“For me, this program is about legacy and continuity-how stories, bodies, and voices carry forward. Whether through the intergenerational cast of Apollo, the community- centered practice of Recovery in Motion, or the personal myth making of In the Belly of the Bird/ Godmother, I’m interested in how dance can hold memory while also insisting on a future,” says Winter.
Peter London Global Dance Company ( PLGDC ) is presenting its production THE ONENESS (Dec. 19 at the Arsht Centers’ Carnival Studio Theater) this season. Peter London, the founding Artistic Director of the company which bears his name, has brought together former and current members of some of the most prestigious dance companies to present a program that is rich in creativity and the unsurpassed talent of the artists.London spoke of Jamar Roberts, who is a former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater principal dancer, as a artist who is returning to Miami to work with the PLGDC dancers. “I am happy that Jamar has chosen us as the local company to share his work and to teach. He inspires other dancers. We feel very blessed to have his presence with us.” Roberts’ A Folk’s Tale is an ensemble piece performed by the company. Lloyd Knight, a veteran principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company will perform a world premiere solo.
Ballet Flamenco La Rosa performs an original Flamenco Ballet inspired by Strindberg's Miss Julie this season.
Justin Rapaport, a former principal with Ballet BC and a guest artist with Netherlands Dance Theatre, a Dutch contemporary dance company. Rapaport will premiere Tether. London says it is an “incredible male duet which has to be seen. It’s absolutely wonderful and inventive. “ Miguel Quinones III, who performed with Parsons Dance company (New York City ) choreographed an ensemble work for PLGDC which London calls “ spectacular .”
London has three pieces on the program Gentle Shifts South, The Everglades- the Water in Us and Kaiso Bacchanal.
Gentle Shifts South is a solo for former Ailey II dancer Annellyse Munroe. The music is by the illustrious and world renowned jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. London based his piece on the memories of African-American and the history of the South. The work employ live, recordings that include people speaking about their family history and memories of their family.
The Everglades- the Water in US. London says he started working on it at Art Basel last year. Kaiso Bacchanal is an high octane Caribbean Carnival suite with music by the internationally renowned jazz trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles.
On Miami Beach, Miami City Ballet in back in its studios gearing up for another year. It is the first season with Gonzalo Garcia, the company’s new Artistic Director. The season opens with Peck: Miami in Motion (Oct. 17) followed by George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 12). Into the Magic City (Feb. 20) takes place in early 2026 followed by Across the River of Light. In early March the company performs an encore of its Carmen (March 26) and Jewels (March 27). The season continues with Your Perfect Golden Hour (April 11) and wraps up with iVamos! To the Beach (May 1).
This season, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida is performing four programs including Program I - Firebird in October.
There is not a scarcity of dance in Miami this season. Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, under the leadership of founder and Artistic Director Ilisa Rosal has been bringing the art of flamenco to Miami audiences for over many decades and continue its mission of “expanding the art form beyond traditional limits to reach and enlighten students and audiences with its beauty and magic. This season the company will present Callejón Flamenco, Señorita Julia, an original Flamenco Ballet inspired by Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and Noche Flamenca.
Miami DanceMakers was launched by Adele Myers and Dancers in partnership with the Pérez Art Museum of Miami in 2021. The stated mission of the company is to provide “an annual six-month professional development program that supports dance artist at early stages of their career by offering a proven framework to holistically bring an idea to stage.” This season visual arts fuse with dance as the Pérez Art Museum of Miami and the company presents a celebration of dance inspired by exhibited artwork.
Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida has been providing audiences with classical programs and dancers who display excellent technique for the past 28 years under the extraordinary talent, passion and dedication of Artistic Director Vlaimir Issaev, This season the company is performing four programs including their exquisite The Nutcracker. Program I Firebird (October 2025), Program II The Nutcracker Program III (December 2025), Dr. Ouch! (March 2026) And Program IV Spring Gala (May 2026).
Karen Peterson Dancers are a physically integrated dance company. The company hosts the Forward Motion Dance Festival each year.
Karen Peterson Dancers has been an inspiring company in Miami for many decades. The company is described as a “physically integrated dance company.”
In 2025 Karen Peterson Dancers was named the best dance company in Miami by Miami New Times. Peterson Cotash founded the company in the 1990’s and organized the Forward Motion Dance Festival six years ago. The festival is an avenue for inclusive dance companies to showcase their work.
When asked to share her thoughts on the current state of the arts she replied: “After dedicating 35 years of developing and showcasing inclusive dance projects within the community, I am dismayed by the recent halt in federal and state financial support. Our survival now hinges on the dwindling resources from Miami -Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, and I fear that smaller and mid-size organizations may not endure. It’s impossible to compensate individuals with mere promises.”
