Mission:
Ballet Hispánico brings communities together to celebrate and explore Latino cultures through innovative dance productions, transformative dance training, and community engagement.
About
Ballet Hispánico was founded on the principle that everyone deserves dance, quality dance training, and innovative performances. In creating the company in 1970, Tina Ramirez shattered a glass ceiling – challenging iconic representations and exposing the joy and celebration to be found in Latinidad.
Today, as the largest Latino cultural organization in the United States and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, Ballet Hispánico’s three main programs, the Company, School of Dance, and Community Arts Partnerships bring together communities to celebrate the ever growing and multifaceted Hispanic diasporas. Our company engages audiences with the work of Latino and Latina choreographers, opens a platform for new cultural dialogue, and nurtures inspiring young dancers of all ages. Ballet Hispánico’s New York City headquarters provide the space and cultural heart for Latinx dance in the United States.
Eduardo Vilaro joined Ballet Hispánico as a Company dancer in 1985 and became the organization’s second Artistic Director in 2009 and CEO in 2015. Vilaro is building on Ramirez’s impact: expanding and deepening a legacy of showcasing the depth of our cultures, and exposing the intersectionality found in the Hispanic diasporas by focusing on nurturing Hispanic leaders. Through programs like the Instituto Coreográfico, the Latinx Leaders Summit and Diálogos, Ballet Hispánico has become a center for artistic leadership development.
Ballet Hispánico is an ambassador for our community worldwide. The company has now performed for more than 2.5 million people in three continents. As it looks to the future, Ballet Hispánico is committed to continue nurturing artists, teachers, students, arts leaders, families, and communities through the power of dance.
“The extraordinary act of a Latina immigrant embarking on a journey of access to the arts for a community … is a heroic example of artistic advocacy. When thinking of the years, the families, the students, the artists, and the administrators whose lives Ballet Hispánico changed, one cannot help but wonder in amazement at the power of such vision. It was this idea of service for a marginalized and silenced community that made Tina Ramirez’s founding of Ballet Hispánico unparalleled.” – Eduardo Vilaro
