Miami City Ballet has named Gonzalo Garcia as its artistic director, the company announced on Monday, starting on Aug. 11.
Miami City Ballet, now celebrating its 40th anniversary season, has had only two artistic leaders: Its founding artistic director, Edward Villella, the celebrated New York City Ballet principal; and Lourdes Lopez, who resigned in February, two years before her contract expired.
Jeff Davis, chair of the Miami City Ballet board, said of Garcia in a statement: “His international credentials are matched by his genuine devotion to mentoring dancers and engaging audiences. Gonzalo brings with him deep relationships with many of the world’s most prominent choreographers” and “is uniquely poised to steer the company and school toward their next level of excellence.”
Garcia, 45, a former principal dancer at New York City Ballet and at San Francisco Ballet, said that Miami City Ballet and its values “speak very deeply to who I am and my life story — coming to the stage when I was 15 years old as an immigrant and becoming a principal dancer in major companies.”
Becoming an artistic director has always been a dream, Garcia said. “To help the world of dance get bigger and broader and reach a bigger audience,” he said, adding, “I have always wanted to to do that in my life — to stay connected even when I couldn’t dance. I always wanted to shape new generations, find dance makers all around the world.”
He said he planned on preserving Miami City Ballet’s legacy of performing works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, whose repertory he has danced for many years, especially at New York City Ballet. “Those are the roots of the company, but it’s not the only part,” he said, adding that Miami has a history of commissioning dances by major choreographers, including Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck.
“I want to keep investing in that,” he said. “But I also think that it’s important to find new voices.”
He’s also interested in working with established choreographers who haven’t had a strong connection with the company, like William Forsythe and Mark Morris, who was a presence when Garcia danced in San Francisco. “These are people that not only bring steps, but weight and depth to the dancers,” Garcia said.
Such artists have “shaped a lot of who I am as an artist and as a person,” he said. “They help you make good choices later on for every other ballet that you do.”
Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Garcia began studying ballet at the age of 8. At 15, he won the gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne. He joined San Francisco Ballet in 1998; and New York City Ballet in 2007. Since his retirement from City Ballet, in 2022, he has served as a repertory director for the company, working behind the scenes. Not only did he coach dancers — notably Roman Mejia and Miriam Miller — but he also worked with a variety of departments within the organization.
“As a dancer, you get a glimpse of things,” he said. “But once you’re part of a team you start realizing how things function and the structural hierarchy of the company in and out.”
Garcia said he hoped to explore working in partnership with City Ballet, a company he sees as being similar to Miami City Ballet “in the way they look at dance.”
“I want that bridge to be tighter and stronger,” he said, “and closer than ever because I have had an incredible experience with the company.”
He added, “That’s an important part of creating a vision: dreaming big.”
Garcia never danced with Miami City Ballet, but he has a connection with it. His husband, Ezra Hurwitz, now a filmmaker, was a company member for eight years. During visits, Garcia would take company class and became close with some dancers, including Patricia Delgado, who with her husband, Justin Peck, just won a Tony Award for choreographing the musical “Buena Vista Social Club.”
“She should make her first piece for Miami City Ballet,” Garcia said.
Later this week, Garcia will attend the company’s performances of Ratmansky’s “Swan Lake” in California. He has been dying to see it, he said, and to meet the dancers. “I want, especially at the beginning, to unify them,” he said. “To give them excitement and work with them and get to know each other — and give themhope.”
Gia Kourlas is the dance critic for The Times. She writes reviews, essays and feature articles and works on a range of stories.
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