At a Miami City Ballet studio in August, a ballerina reaches up as if switching on a light. Around her, a dozen dancers rehearse “Push the Buttons of the Civilized,” a new ballet bringing together choreographer Patricia Delgado and musician Emily Estefan.
For Delgado, a former Miami City Ballet principal, the work marks a return to familiar studios for her first ballet commission. For Estefan, daughter of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, it is her first venture into ballet. Both Cuban American artists grew up in the Miami area, but their collaboration began with another stage project: the musical “Basura.”
Now their partnership draws on shared family histories, their connections to the women who raised them, and the trust they developed working together.
Alongside George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” — a repertory gem from 1956, set to Tchaikovsky — and the company premiere of Jerome Robbins’ 1958 “N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz,” Delgado’s ballet opens MCB’s season with a program that brings together tradition and new work.
Past its 40th anniversary, MCB is striding forward to the beats of a classical concerto, jazz and current pop in “American Rhythms,” which stopped at Miami’s Arsht Center last weekend and heads to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center this Saturday and Sunday.
Now in his second season as MCB artistic director, Gonzalo Garcia presents the first season he has fully programmed.
“When I took this job, I was adamant about staging new work as well as revivals that are part of our history,” he says. “And if I can make a point about the value of ballets made in Miami, I want to go for it. This city contains so many flavors, and we’re lucky to let audiences taste those in a show.”
Cue Delgado and Estefan, who embody the made-in-Miami appeal Garcia is looking for. Born and raised here, they also share a spirit that makes them a perfect match for the premiere.
“They are wonderfully collaborative and offer a double-sided advantage,” says Garcia. “Their foundation is here, but they also bring a personal voice from all sides of the dance and music worlds.”
Returning home to Miami City Ballet, Patricia Delgado rehearses her “Push the Buttons of the Civilized.” (Ari Feldmiller/Miami City Ballet/Courtesy)
Until 2017, from apprentice and corps member to principal ballerina, Delgado enjoyed a 17-year career at MCB, often sharing programs with sister Jeanette. She excelled in Balanchine but also prized Robbins, as she says, “enthused by his humanity.” Returning to MCB studios as a choreographer, with so many companionable memories, makes her feel like “the luckiest person in the world.”
After moving to New York City to join Justin Peck, now her husband and New York City Ballet’s resident choreographer, Delgado expanded her work beyond ballet to Broadway. She and Peck won the 2025 Tony Award for choreography for “Buena Vista Social Club.”
“Creating with Justin and staging his ballets has given me great perspective,” says Delgado, who adds that her recent teaching at The Juilliard School has opened her eyes to collaboration among “a beautiful community of dancers, singers, actors.”
Those experiences have led Delgado to find her own voice as a choreographer.
“When I was dancing, I was so focused on honoring the vision of each choreographer, I didn’t especially entertain making my own dances,” she says. “One also has to be generous and let the dancers enter the conversation.”
Delgado took on her first independent stage assignment choreographing the musical “Basura,” which premiered at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in May. With a score by Gloria and Emily Estefan, and a book based on the documentary “Landfill Harmonic,” the musical celebrates young Paraguayans who fashion musical instruments from trash-heap discards.
Delgado and Emily Estefan met in a “Basura” workshop, which sparked their camaraderie.
“In this musical, I was stimulated having such beautiful colors to paint with and drive the bodies before me,” Delgado says.
For Estefan, the occasion proved equally auspicious.
“That’s been an amazing whirlwind of a project, with a lot of love and Latino pride,” she says. “Unlike the music world, where you write a song married into the concept, in a stage work everything changes every day — much like an experiment. To go there, you need an immense amount of trust. With it, some really cool art happens. Patricia and I feel this, and we’re ready to explore. That’s why I’m excited about the ballet, something I’ve never done before.”
Garcia proposed the ballet collaboration at the start of his MCB tenure. In accepting, Delgado says she wondered, “What have I just put out into the universe?”
Now she describes the ballet as “a very purposeful project. When I listened to her music warming up every day, I started seeing things.” The title, “Push the Buttons of the Civilized,” comes from lyrics on Estefan’s 2017 debut album, “Take Whatever You Want.”
Estefan’s songs, from silky jazz to bouncy pop, dug into the choreographer’s imagination and flowered into steps. The ballet links generations, beginning with a parental pas de deux.
“I connected not just to myself as a mom, but also to my own mother, wondering what it must’ve been like for anyone to leave Cuba, especially with a child, in tumultuous times,” Delgado says.
Musician Emily Estefan will perform live on stage with Miami City Ballet. (Danielle Levitt/Miami City Ballet/Courtesy)
The ballet then follows a member of the next generation on her own journey beyond established expectations. “Emily’s music helped me understand how to handle the chaos and light in all this,” she adds.
Their connection deepened when Estefan shared a recording of a lullaby sung by her grandmother.
“I was very close to my mom’s mom,” Estefan says, referring to Gloria Fajardo. “I’m excited she’ll be up there with me in this piece, her voice in a recording. That’s also special since Patricia and I often talk about our connection to ancestors as Latinas.”
Estefan appreciates how MCB music director Gary Sheldon’s orchestration of her songs anchors this ballet.
“I wrote my debut album when I was 18, and I’m about to turn 32,” she says. “Patricia’s affinity for this music has let me see how it can still represent me where I am in my life, and what Gary has done is amazing — an incredible fusion of sounds. I’m even including pieces I haven’t released yet.”
She recalls moments during the process —“like the other day,” she says, “when Patricia was trying out moves and Gary, who’d come in with a huge stack of charts, was erasing a tempo or adding notes, all of us by the computer, pulling up vocal samples and soundbites. I love that kind of mix.”
The composer and musician, who will sing and play drums and guitar upstage from the dancers while her combo performs in the orchestra pit, looks forward to other projects with Delgado.
For Delgado, the premiere is also an opportunity to consider her own direction: “What kind of artist do I want to be? Now I feel more patient with myself and want to stay truthful in the moment, creating balance in my life. Maybe that’s maturity.”
Miami City Ballet’s “American Rhythms” will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets start at $30.24. Visit miamicityballet.org or call 305-929-7010.
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