Art After Dark

Art After Dark / Miami City Ballet

Friday, October 29 / 5PM-10PM

Jose Limón is most known for his iconic masterpiece, The Moor’s Pavane which premiered at the Connecticut festival in New London in 1949. Based on Shakespeare’s Othello, The Moor’s Pavane is a picture of the corrosive force of jealousy and the destruction of good by evil.

Miami City Ballet will have the honor to perform this masterful work on October 29, as part of the Norton Museum of Art’s special exhibition “Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection."  

Born 1908 in Culiacán, Mexico, Limon's family fled during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. At age seven, he and his parents emigrated from Mexico to Tucson, Arizona and eventually settled in Los Angeles, California. It was not until age 20, when Limon moved to New York City, that he became interested in dance. A performance by Harald Kreutzberg and Yvonne Georgi inspired him to train as a dancer. He studied with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and soon began his professional career in their company, where he became known for his dynamic, masculine dancing.

In 1946 Limón formed his own company, appointing Doris Humphrey artistic director. His potent choreography, often steeped in drama, relayed the human experience drawn from Hispanic history, culture, literature, and religion. For 25 years he established himself and his company as one of the major forces of 20th-century dance.