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Arts Intel Report

Miami City Ballet: American Rhythms

The Miami-born composer Emily Estefan and Miami City Ballet principal dancer Taylor Naturkas.

Oct 16–25, 2026
2200 Liberty Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139, United States

In ballet, choreographic schooling happens on the job—by dancing the lineage and, when a dancer originates a role in a new work, extending it. But Patricia Delgado got lucky. She has a choreographer in the house—her husband. She moved from shadowing Justin Peck, the New York City Ballet resident artist and choreographer to Steven Spielberg and Bradley Cooper, to collaborating with him (on Broadway’s Buena Vista Social Club, which won a Tony for Best Choreography), and to now going solo. Push the Buttons of the Civilized is an all-Miami affair, commissioned by Miami City Ballet and devised by one Miami native (plus former Miami City Ballet-rina) and scored by another, the sultry pop-jazz singer-songwriter and queer style icon Emily Estefan (yes, that Estefan). For the premiere, Estefan Jr. will sing, strum, and hit the drums, with the MCB orchestra playing back-up. “American Rhythms” continues the jazz theme with the company debut of Jerome Robbins’s 1958 N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, a B-side and Bohemian aside to his West Side Story. Balanchine’s neoclassical gem Allegro Brillante completes the program. —Apollinaire Scherr

Courtesy of the Miami City Ballet