![\"Returning](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TFL-Z-AMERICAN-BALLET-2-01.jpg\")
Returning home to Miami City Ballet, Patricia Delgado rehearses her \u201cPush the Buttons of the Civilized.\u201d (Ari Feldmiller\/Miami City Ballet\/Courtesy)<\/p>\nAt a Miami City Ballet studio in August, a ballerina reaches up as if switching on a light. Around her, a dozen dancers rehearse \u201cPush the Buttons of the Civilized,\u201d a new ballet bringing together choreographer Patricia Delgado and musician Emily Estefan.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cBasura.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now their partnership draws on shared family histories, their connections to the women who raised them, and the trust they developed working together.<\/p>\n
Alongside George Balanchine\u2019s \u201cAllegro Brillante\u201d \u2014 a repertory gem from 1956, set to Tchaikovsky \u2014 and the company premiere of Jerome Robbins\u2019 1958 \u201cN.Y. Export: Opus Jazz,\u201d Delgado\u2019s ballet opens MCB\u2019s season with a program that brings together tradition and new work.<\/p>\n
Past its 40th anniversary, MCB is striding forward to the beats of a classical concerto, jazz and current pop in \u201cAmerican Rhythms,\u201d which stopped at Miami\u2019s Arsht Center last weekend and heads to Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Broward Center this Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
Now in his second season as MCB artistic director, Gonzalo Garcia presents the first season he has fully programmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I took this job, I was adamant about staging new work as well as revivals that are part of our history,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd 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\u2019re lucky to let audiences taste those in a show.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are wonderfully collaborative and offer a double-sided advantage,\u201d says Garcia. \u201cTheir foundation is here, but they also bring a personal voice from all sides of the dance and music worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning home to Miami City Ballet, Patricia Delgado rehearses her \u201cPush the Buttons of the Civilized.\u201d (Ari Feldmiller\/Miami City Ballet\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
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, \u201centhused by his humanity.\u201d Returning to MCB studios as a choreographer, with so many companionable memories, makes her feel like \u201cthe luckiest person in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
After moving to New York City to join Justin Peck, now her husband and New York City Ballet\u2019s resident choreographer, Delgado expanded her work beyond ballet to Broadway. She and Peck won the 2025 Tony Award for choreography for \u201cBuena Vista Social Club<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCreating with Justin and staging his ballets has given me great perspective,\u201d says Delgado, who adds that her recent teaching at The Juilliard School has opened her eyes to collaboration among \u201ca beautiful community of dancers, singers, actors.\u201d<\/p>\n Those experiences have led Delgado to find her own voice as a choreographer.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was dancing, I was so focused on honoring the vision of each choreographer, I didn\u2019t especially entertain making my own dances,\u201d she says. \u201cOne also has to be generous and let the dancers enter the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n Delgado took on her first independent stage assignment choreographing the musical \u201cBasura,\u201d which premiered at Atlanta\u2019s Alliance Theatre in May. With a score by Gloria and Emily Estefan, and a book based on the documentary \u201cLandfill Harmonic,\u201d the musical celebrates young Paraguayans who fashion musical instruments from trash-heap discards.<\/p>\n Delgado and Emily Estefan met in a \u201cBasura\u201d workshop, which sparked their camaraderie.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this musical, I was stimulated having such beautiful colors to paint with and drive the bodies before me,\u201d Delgado says.<\/p>\n For Estefan, the occasion proved equally auspicious.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been an amazing whirlwind of a project, with a lot of love and Latino pride,\u201d she says. \u201cUnlike the music world, where you write a song married into the concept, in a stage work everything changes every day \u2014 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\u2019re ready to explore. That\u2019s why I\u2019m excited about the ballet, something I\u2019ve never done before.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia proposed the ballet collaboration at the start of his MCB tenure. In accepting, Delgado says she wondered, \u201cWhat have I just put out into the universe?\u201d<\/p>\n Now she describes the ballet as \u201ca very purposeful project. When I listened to her music warming up every day, I started seeing things.\u201d The title, \u201cPush the Buttons of the Civilized,\u201d comes from lyrics on Estefan\u2019s 2017 debut album, \u201cTake Whatever You Want.\u201d<\/p>\n Estefan\u2019s songs, from silky jazz to bouncy pop, dug into the choreographer\u2019s imagination and flowered into steps. The ballet links generations, beginning with a parental pas de deux.<\/p>\n \u201cI connected not just to myself as a mom, but also to my own mother, wondering what it must\u2019ve been like for anyone to leave Cuba, especially with a child, in tumultuous times,\u201d Delgado says.<\/p>\n The ballet then follows a member of the next generation on her own journey beyond established expectations. \u201cEmily\u2019s music helped me understand how to handle the chaos and light in all this,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Their connection deepened when Estefan shared a recording of a lullaby sung by her grandmother.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very close to my mom\u2019s mom,\u201d Estefan says, referring to Gloria Fajardo. \u201cI\u2019m excited she\u2019ll be up there with me in this piece, her voice in a recording. That\u2019s also special since Patricia and I often talk about our connection to ancestors as Latinas.\u201d<\/p>\n Estefan appreciates how MCB music director Gary Sheldon\u2019s orchestration of her songs anchors this ballet.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote my debut album when I was 18, and I\u2019m about to turn 32,\u201d she says. \u201cPatricia\u2019s 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 \u2014 an incredible fusion of sounds. I\u2019m even including pieces I haven\u2019t released yet.\u201d<\/p>\n She recalls moments during the process \u2014\u201clike the other day,\u201d she says, \u201cwhen Patricia was trying out moves and Gary, who\u2019d 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n For Delgado, the premiere is also an opportunity to consider her own direction: \u201cWhat 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\u2019s maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n Miami City Ballet\u2019s \u201cAmerican Rhythms\u201d 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<\/a> or call 305-929-7010.<\/p>\n![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TFL-Z-AMERICAN-BALLET-3-01.jpg\")
Musician Emily Estefan will perform live on stage with Miami City Ballet. (Danielle Levitt\/Miami City Ballet\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n