Athletic, Energetic, Sexy: August 6, 7 & 8
It's that time of year again. Every summer, Riverside Theatre and Ballet Vero Beach bring a world-class dance company to Vero Beach, move a group of serious young dancers into rehearsal alongside them, and put all of it on the Riverside Stage together. Year after year, they deliver.
This year is something else entirely.
Meet Jennifer Kronenberg. She trained on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, joined Miami City Ballet as an apprentice at 17, and climbed to principal dancer by 2001, the top of the food chain in one of the most competitive art forms on the planet. Her husband Carlos Guerra made the same climb, same company, same rarified level. They were the kind of dancers other dancers watched from the wings and talked about after. Then, in 2016, at the height of their reputations, they walked away from one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the country and built something entirely their own.
Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami launched that November to rousing critical acclaim. Within two years they were opening the Joyce Theater's Ballet Festival in New York. Jacob's Pillow came calling shortly after. The New York Times sent Alastair Macaulay, who landed on three words: athletic, energetic, sexy. Miami had a new company worth watching, and the rest of the country was paying attention.
What Guerra and Kronenberg built is classically trained and culturally alive. Think ballet with Cuban boleros, tango quartets live on stage, choreography that pulses with Miami energy. And here's the Vero Beach connection most people don't know: Ballet Vero Beach's own founding artistic director Adam Schnell sits on DDTM's board. This isn't a cold booking. It's a relationship, which is why DDTM keeps coming back to this stage, and why every time they do, it feels like a homecoming.
This month marks DDTM's 10th anniversary season. They're celebrating part of it here, three nights only: August 6, 7, and 8.
The young dancers who've spent two weeks training inside DDTM's rehearsal process earn their place on that stage alongside Kronenberg, Guerra, and the rest of the company. What you get is one of the most celebrated dance companies in the country, on one of the most intimate stages in South Florida, for 72 hours.
Tickets are $48. This is not the show you want to hear about on August 9th.
Riverside Stage, Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Drive. August 6-8, 7:30 PM.
Tickets at balletverobeach.org or (772) 231-6990.
