Camilo Rodriguez Still Turning Heads at 50
- Vero Minute
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
There was no distance between the audience and the art this past Saturday; it was a
breathtakingly close-up experience at Riverside's Dance Festival.
You felt the physical sweep of air as the dancers flew past, witnessing the exquisite mechanics of moving muscle and shifting ribs right before your eyes. A flawless, up-close revelation of the strength behind the grace.
If that wasn't enough, it also happened to be Camilo Rodriguez's 50th birthday, marked by a cameo appearance in the program.
Mambo No. 2 A.M. closed out the night, and closed it out loud. The piece runs on music from Perez Prado, the Cuban bandleader who all but invented mambo as the world knows it, with choreography shaped by input from Miami dance legend "Cuban Pete" Aguilar. It was Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami bringing their city with them to Vero's stage -- the hips and horns and heat -- sheer technical brilliance dressed up as pure fun!
And this year, the stage paid a birthday tribute to Camilo.
Camilo is 5'2", which should have closed the door on a classical ballet career before it opened.
Instead, he found his way in through Mark Morris, widely regarded as the most influential choreographer alive. Morris is a MacArthur "genius grant" Fellow who has directed and choreographed for the Metropolitan Opera and London's Royal Opera, and whom Mikhail Baryshnikov himself chose as a creative partner. That's the company Camilo was keeping when Morris cast him in pointe shoes for "The Hard Nut," his celebrated, unconventional take on The Nutcracker.
From there, his career took off in a direction nobody could have scripted. He went on to guest with two of the world's great touring companies, dancing alongside greats like Wendy Whelan, and once gave a command performance for then-Prince Charles.
He settled in Vero Beach in 2009, and when Ballet Vero Beach was founded, he came back to the stage for good. Jennifer Kronenberg and Carlos Guerra, co-artistic directors of Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, gave him the perfect gift: that guest spot in the mambo, built specifically to honor him.
Happy Birthday, Camilo!
Up Next: Nutcracker on the Indian River, December 10-13, Riverside Theatre
