Ballet Hispanico's BHdos Set for Harlem Meer Performance Festival, 9/1

Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation's leading Latino dance organization since 1970, announces the first performance of the Fall 2013 Season for BHdos, the company's pre-professional troupe. BHdos will perform at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in Central Park as part of the Harlem Meer Performance Festival on September 1. This is a free event; no tickets will be issued. The Charles A. Dana Discovery Center is inside Central Park at 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues. For more information visit http://www.centralpark.com/events/show/1988/harlem-meer-performance-festival.

Two pieces will be performed: Danubio, created for BHdos by Nicholas Villeneuve, and an excerpt of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's flamenco-inspired Nube Blanco.

Handpicked by Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro, the talented pre-professional dancers of Ballet Hispanico's Second Company form bridges between the School of Dance and the professional Company, between Ballet Hispanico and the community, and between their own training and careers in dance. Under the guidance of Deputy School Director Nicholas Villeneuve, dancers work with highly skilled artistic leadership to bring Latino culture to schools, communities and corporations. The audience is led through an exciting 50-minute exploration of dance influenced by Spain and Latin America, with each fully costumed performance featuring impressive choreography from the current Ballet Hispanico repertory.

Celebrating 43 years of dance and culture, Ballet Hispanico is recognized as the nation's premier Latino dance organization. Led by Artistic Director Eduardo Vilaro, the Company boasts a rich and diverse repertory of over 100 works by the foremost choreographers and emerging artists of our time. The works expand on founder Tina Ramirez's legacy of exploring the diversity of Latino culture through a fusion of classical, Latin, and contemporary dance powered by theatricality and passion. The Company has performed for an audience of nearly 3 million, throughout 11 countries, on 3 continents. For more information, visit www.ballethispanico.org. Follow Ballet Hispanico on Facebook and Twitter.

Eduardo Vilaro joined Ballet Hispanico as Artistic Director in August 2009, following a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. He has been part of the Ballet Hispanico family since 1985. As a dancer in the Ballet Hispanico Company, Mr. Vilaro performed works by Vicente Nebrada, Talley Beatty, Ramon Oller and other audience favorites. As an educator he assisted Ballet Hispanico founder Tina Ramirez in developing a program for children living in temporary housing and was involved with many aspects of the organization's education residencies. Mr. Vilaro is an accomplished choreographer, having created over 20 ballets for his own company in addition to the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Lexington Ballet, and the Civic Ballet of Chicago. In 2001 he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography, and in 2003 he was honored at Panama's II International Festival of Ballet for his choreographic work. He received a B.F.A. in Dance from Adelphi University and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Art from Columbia College Chicago, where he served as Artist-in-Residence at The Dance Center.