{"id":231343,"date":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","slug":"take-5-with-gonzalo-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231343\/","title":{"rendered":"Take 5 with Gonzalo Garcia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, Gonzalo Garcia did not expect to be living in South Florida, let alone leading one of the state\u2019s preeminent arts organizations. Nor did Miami City Ballet<\/a> expect to be bidding farewell to then-Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez on the cusp of the company\u2019s 40th anniversary season. Lopez, who had been helming the organization since 2013, announced her departure with two years left in her contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it was a shock for them,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cShe had a change of heart, and a change of heart sometimes means an opportunity for an institution to reassess what direction they want to go, and pump fresh energy. And I think that\u2019s what they did with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Garcia is so fresh from his dance career he might as well have arrived to Miami vacuum-sealed. He retired from performance only in 2022, capping a 15-year run as principal dancer with New York City Ballet (NYCB), preceded by nine years with San Francisco Ballet. Just before his selection as Miami City Ballet\u2019s artistic director, at age 45, Garcia coached dancers as repertory director at NYCB.<\/p>\n

In his decades in the industry, Garcia has not only danced many of ballet\u2019s iconic roles\u2014including leads in \u201cGiselle,\u201d \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d and \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d\u2014but he established relationships with today\u2019s top choreographers. He is eyeing several for his first full season at Miami City Ballet beginning in the fall.<\/p>\n

What drew you to dance as a child, and what still draws you to it today?<\/p>\n

I was very hyper. Whenever there was music, I seemed to react to it, and wanted to be part of that. And then eventually, I would see singers with backup dancers, and I would mimic it, and I would say, I want to do that. My mom and dad, who didn\u2019t come from an artistic background, decided, once a week, let\u2019s take him to a ballet school\u2014probably to get rid of me for a little bit\u2014and see what happens.<\/p>\n

They quickly realized that I really liked it, but I also had some talent. And it turned out that Mar\u00eda de \u00c1vila, who was my first mentor of dance, had a school a block away from our home. \u2026 I was taken in right away. And that was it. I never looked back.<\/p>\n

I have the same sort of passion for it. It\u2019s who I am in many ways.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve led bilingual outreach efforts to expand ballet\u2019s reach and relevance. Why is that important, particularly in Miami?<\/p>\n

I feel that it is important for the community to feel included in the narrative. I see Miami City Ballet as one of the strong organs of the cultural world of Miami. \u2026 Music and dance is a really big world, so I want the whole community to be part of that world. As someone that came onto the stage when I was 15 years old and I didn\u2019t speak a lot of English, I found a lot of [Spanish-speaking] people through my life in the dance world.<\/p>\n

Are there new directions that you hope to take the company in your first full season as artistic director?<\/p>\n

Even before I got the job, I dreamed about what a season would look like. So as soon as I landed here, I was eager to unveil a draft of what I thought could be my first season. And people were like, \u201cslow down, you\u2019ll get there.\u201d <\/p>\n

I was lucky that my season, everybody sort of loved, and it\u2019s now in the middle of being green-lighted. And while I\u2019m doing that, which is the \u201826-\u201927 season, I\u2019m starting to think about \u201827-\u201928.<\/p>\n

Have you witnessed audience demands changing for what they want in ballet performance?<\/p>\n

Dramatically it has changed. Inevitably, generations keep moving, and that\u2019s already a change. But COVID really sped up the process in many ways. People are more selective. \u2026 People don\u2019t want to go to the ballet just to watch a show. They want to feel part of an experience that starts before they get to the theater, maybe, and then in between the performance.<\/p>\n

Entertainment has shifted, so the way you present dance also has to shift. There is a wave of people wanting new stories that represent a younger generation, or stories that feel more relevant than some of the stories we\u2019ve been seeing, especially in the traditional works. But also there is a huge comeback of the classics, of those masterpieces that people feel comfort in. \u201cSwan Lake\u201d is still the biggest seller. So is \u201cRomeo and Juliet.\u201d These big numbers in dance are not things that people are tired of. We know from ticket sales that they work. So that\u2019s part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

One of the big stories involving the arts in South Florida has been the loss of funding. Is Miami City Ballet feeling the pinch?<\/p>\n

One hundred percent we\u2019re feeling the pinch. I don\u2019t know of any arts organization that is not feeling the pinch at different levels.<\/p>\n

Arts and culture are so important for humanity to keep moving forward. It\u2019s not a luxury; it\u2019s a necessity of expressing who we are, of challenging ourselves. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important for me, especially as I\u2019m new, to \u2026 keep this community and this company alive in many different ways\u2014not just surviving but thriving.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very much finding ways to collaborate with other arts organizations here in South Florida. \u2026 I\u2019m trying to think of ways to take this challenge as an opportunity to grow, not to stay still. We\u2019ve got to stay together and keep this going forward, even if these are challenging times.<\/p>\n

For more from Gonzalo Garcia, check out this<\/a> <\/a>web extra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story is from the\u00a0April 2026 issue\u00a0of\u00a0Boca\u00a0magazine<\/a>. For more like this,\u00a0click here to subscribe to the magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year ago, Gonzalo Garcia did not expect to be living in South Florida, let alone leading one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-231343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}