{"id":231683,"date":"2026-04-14T19:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231683\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:39:10","slug":"new-world-symphony-and-miami-city-ballet-premiere-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231683\/","title":{"rendered":"New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet premiere collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dance and music go together like bright stars in a dark sky \u2013 one enhances the other. Two powerhouse Miami arts institutions are collaborating on an all-new performance that elevates American music and contemporary ballet.<\/p>\n

New World Symphony is partnering with Miami City Ballet to premiere new music from contemporary American composers and choreographers. \u201cAmerican Dance Odyssey,\u201d which will be performed at New World Center on Friday, April 17 through Sunday, April 19, brings together five composers and pairs them with five choreographers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s logical, of course, that we try to unite the art forms,\u201d says St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve, artistic director of New World Symphony. \u201cWe\u2019re linking creativity to new music and new choreography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dancers from Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, and St. Louis Ballet will perform in the original pieces; the program also includes a tribute to the late American dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins.<\/p>\n

\"In In his fourth year as artistic director for NWS, St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve is at the helm of \u201cAmerican Dream Odyssey.\u201d (Photo by Dario Acosta, courtesy of NWS) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to show off the American music and ballet of today,\u201d says Den\u00e8ve, who had a hand in selecting the composers.<\/p>\n

The project also reflects a longer commissioning strategy at Miami City Ballet, which has increasingly expanded beyond its George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins repertory to invest in new works by contemporary choreographers. Choreographer Brian Brooks will be participating in American Dance Odyssey; he was commissioned during the 2017-2018 MCB season and created \u201cOne Line Drawn.\u201d Brooks has been paired with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican Dance Odyssey\u201d is structured around five composer-choreographer pairings curated by New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet: Carlos Simon, an Atlanta-born composer whose work engages with Black American musical traditions and contemporary themes, with Miami-born choreographer and former Alvin Ailey dancer Jamar Roberts; Sarah Kirkland Snider with choreographer Claudia Schreier; Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award winner Jennifer Higdon with New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck; Michael Abels, a composer active in both concert and film music including scores for filmmaker Jordan Peele, with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, and the pairing of Puts and Brooks.<\/p>\n

Each composer and choreographer pair was instructed to create a 5-to-7 minute arrangement. \u201cWe organized the pieces so that they could be performed together, as a choreographic concerto, but that each piece also has an individual life of its own,\u201d explains Den\u00e8ve.<\/p>\n

\"In In her third collaboration with Miami City Ballet, Claudia Schreier choreographed \u201cIris,\u201d an original work in a pairing with composer Sarah Kirkland Snider. (Photo courtesy of NWS) <\/p>\n

Many of the composers and choreographers knew of each other and some even worked together in the past; but for others, this will be the first time meeting. Such is the case with Kirkland Snider and Schreier.<\/p>\n

The two were first introduced via email and began conversations about what their collaborative piece would sound like and look like.<\/p>\n

Schreier is a New York City-based choreographer and this will be her third time working with Miami City Ballet. She created the world-premiere ballet \u201cSlipstream\u201d for MCB in 2019. When she was first introduced to Kirkland Snider, the two spoke about the different themes they hoped to evoke with their piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and I spoke before she composed it and I was so enamored with what she produced. It\u2019s a beautiful, rapturous, lush piece of music,\u201d Schreier says.<\/p>\n

The choreographer admits that part of her creative process involved referring frequently to a written description from Kirkland Snider about what \u201cIris\u201d meant to her.<\/p>\n

Schreier, during a telephone interview, reads from Kirkland Snider\u2019s email and recites, \u201cI called it \u2018Iris\u2019 because iris is a symbol for hope and wisdom, and it\u2019s also the part of the eye that lets the light in. It\u2019s a short piece, but in thinking about the state of our country at this point in time, I am praying for wisdom, hope, and light.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her email to Schreier, the composer describes the harp as a steady rhythmic undercurrent\u2014persisting beneath the shifting music around it. At times, she notes, the piece opens into moments of celebration, which she interprets as expressions of the human spirit\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n

\"Composer Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider said her piece \u201cIris\u201d Kirkland Snider was largely inspired by reflecting on the current state of the country. (Photo Courtesy of NWS) <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to celebrate the good in people\u2026 and I hope that better days lie ahead,\u201d is how Kirkland Snider closed her statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe sent me her thoughts before I started creating, so I had that as kind of my point of inspiration,\u201d Schreier explains. \u201cI love the idea of the iris being the part of the eye that lets the light in and having this kind of circular entry point into the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schreier choreographed a work for six dancers, each paired with another, to show the interconnectedness of people and relationships. She ensured that the sense of hope and connection is the driving force for the dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was writing this piece, knowing that it would be used by a choreographer, I was trying to think in terms of levels, of pulse and rhythm, so that they would have different musical layers to respond to,\u201d says Kirkland Snider.<\/p>\n

Echoing what she first shared with her choreographer partner, Kirkland Snider says the work was largely inspired by reflecting on the current state of the country. \u201cNo matter where you fall politically,\u201d she notes, \u201cwe can all agree that the country feels deeply polarized right now, with very little empathy across that divide. We\u2019re made up of many different backgrounds, heritages and cultural traditions\u2014and that diversity is something to celebrate\u2014but the question is, how do we actually do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her answer is felt in \u201cIris.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Second Second year NWS fellow and violinist Hannah Corbett is concert master for \u201cAmerican Dream Odyssey.\u201d (Photo by Alex Markow, courtesy of NWS) <\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts from a small idea and that little fragment is repeated and grows into this huge body of sound throughout the piece,\u201d says second-year NWS fellow Hannah Corbett speaking about \u201cIris.\u201d \u201cTexturally, it\u2019s pretty complicated but it\u2019s truly a stunning piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corbett will be acting as the concert master for \u201cAmerican Dance Odyssey\u201d and as leader of the string section, and will be violin soloist as part of the concerto.<\/p>\n

The Toronto native expresses gratitude for the New World Symphony program and adds how exhilarating it is when guest composers write music specifically for the fellows. \u201cSo much of my musical life is spent studying the mastery of others and replicating that excellence. But playing a premiere, especially five premieres, is different. There\u2019s no recording in existence\u2026 We get to be the first people to play this music and our recording will be the one that future musicians use as their reference when performing this choreographic concerto somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing in performances like \u201cAmerican Dance Odyssey\u201d is part of why she became a musician.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gratifying to bring to life the music of my time,\u201d Corbett says.<\/p>\n

If you go:<\/p>\n

WHAT: \u201cAmerican Dance Odyssey\u201d<\/p>\n

WHERE: New World Center, 500 17th St., Miami Beach<\/p>\n

WHEN: 8 p.m. April 17 and 18; and 2 p.m. April 19. The April 18 showing will also be shown live on Wallcast in Soundscape Park with free admission.<\/p>\n

COST: $55, $99, $135, $160, $290<\/p>\n

INFORMATION: (305) 673-3330 or https:\/\/nws.edu\/dance<\/p>\n

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don\u2019t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 2:35 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dance and music go together like bright stars in a dark sky \u2013 one enhances the other. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-231683","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\/231683","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=231683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}