What’s old is new again. Miami City Ballet was located on Lincoln Road back in the day, and now it’s returned. COVID shut down the dancers’ usual spot, but the ballet and Lincoln Road is making the best of a tough situation and giving us some entertainment through it all.
There’s some tip-toeing going around Lincoln Road on South Beach.
Miami City Ballet has a pop-up studio at what was an empty building on the corner of Lincoln and Meridian.
Michael Comras, building owner: “It’s incumbent on people like us to go and take space, and rather than leaving them vacant, find productive uses on an interim basis to activate.”
Comras’ building provides dancers a much-needed home away from home.
If working out in your house isn’t ideal, imagine what it must be like trying to do ballet there.
Tricia Albertson, principal dancer, Miami City Ballet: “We were all scrambling to find ways to keep exercising, so we’d make little makeshift studios in our apartments. To have this space, to be able to move freely and to be able to jump is really life-changing for us.”
Not only can they socially distance here. The building has sprung floors, which protects the dancers’ feet.
Kleber Rebello, dancer, Miami City Ballet: “It’s like you have a little bit of life left on your joints, so it’s good to have the sprung floors here.”
While this space allows the dancers to do their thing, it also allows residents and tourists to enjoy a bit of the arts — from a distance.
Tricia Albertson: “Without our community, we are nothing. Without our audience, we have no one to dance for. It’s so nice to have some kind of connection to the community and just a reason to leave our apartments.”
It’s not the ideal scenario for the ballet’s 35th anniversary — thanks again, COVID — but the dancers are at least able to keep preparing for whenever we get to a new normal.
Tricia Albertson: “We are still planning that love letter to Miami, and I think having this space is a beautiful beginning to what’s to come.”
FOR MORE INFO:
Miami City Ballet X Lincoln Road
744 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139
www.miamicityballet.org/home/mcb-lincoln-rd
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