Artistic Director & CEO Of Ballet Hispánico Eduardo Vilaro To Be A Grand Marshal in 16th Annual 'Back To The Streets' Dance Parade

Ballet Hispánico, the nation's renowned Latinx dance organization recognized as one of America's Cultural Treasures, announces that Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro will lead the 16th Annual "Back to the Streets" Dance Parade as Grand Marshal with Heidi Latsky, Artistic Director of Heidi Latsky Dance and Rich Medina, a DJ specializing in house, hip hop and Afrobeat.

Dance Parade kicks off on Saturday, May 21, 2022 at 12:30pm on the corner of 20th and Broadway with more than 10,000 dancers, live bands, DJs, and more than 100 unique styles of dance and culture. For more information, visit danceparade.org/see-the-parade.

"I'm proud to headline New York City's largest dance event focused on cultural representation and diversity," enthused Ballet Hispanico's Eduardo Vilaro. "Movement and community is so vital to our well being which the pandemic stole from us. We look forward to being a part of Dance Parade's citywide celebration!"

The event's other Grand Marshals are Heidi Latsky, Artistic Director of Heidi Latsky Dance and Rich Medina, a DJ specializing in house, hip hop and Afrobeat.

Parade groups with choreography are invited to perform before the Grand Stand in Astor Plaza before the final stint along Saint Marks Place to Avenue A. DanceFest serves as a Grand Finale to the parade from 3pm-7pm in Tompkins Square Park, which includes curated performances on three stages, "Experience Dance Booths," two teaching areas of various dance styles and a dance party, all free to the public.

"After a two year hiatus hosting a virtual event during the COVID pandemic, we are invigorated and raring to get "Back to the Streets" for this year's parade and festival," Greg Miller, Dance Parade's Executive Director. "Adding to our regular programming will be Tango and Salsa demonstrations, Afro-Cuban Conga bands, more floats and art cars, stepped-up education outreach, Dance Battles, a Soul Train Line and more DJs."

The event will be a celebration that brings together dancers from around the city to showcase dance styles in a cross-cultural, rhythm-infused magical display of human movement, art and color. Dance styles reflect the cosmopolitan legacy of the city and the elastic inventiveness of the form, and include African, Asian-Indian, avant garde contemporary, ballet, Indian bhangra, Bolivian Carporalesn, 5Rhythms, breaking, Traditional Chinese, contemporary, hip-hop, Irish, Indonesian, Jamaican Dance Hall, lindy hop, modern, roller disco, salsa, Tahitian and Tango.

Eduardo Vilaro is the Artistic Director & CEO of Ballet Hispánico (BH). He was named BH's Artistic Director in 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since its founding in 1970, and in 2015 was also named Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico's legacy with a bold brand of contemporary dance that reflects America's changing cultural landscape.

Mr. Vilaro's philosophy of dance stems from a basic belief in the power of the arts to change lives, reflect and impact culture, and strengthen community. He considers dance to be a liberating, non-verbal language through which students, dancers, and audiences of all walks of life and diverse backgrounds, can initiate ongoing conversations about the arts, expression, identity, and the meaning of community.

Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, Mr. Vilaro's own choreography is devoted to capturing the Latin American experience in its totality and diversity, and through its intersectionality with other diasporas. His works are catalysts for new dialogues about what it means to be an American. He has created more than 40 ballets with commissions that include the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony.

A Ballet Hispánico dancer and educator from 1988 to 1996, he left New York, earned a master's in interdisciplinary arts at Columbia College Chicago and then embarked on his own act of advocacy with a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago.

The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Mr. Vilaro received the Ruth Page Award for choreography in 2001; was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2016; and was awarded HOMBRE Magazine's 2017 Arts & Culture Trailblazer of the Year. In 2019, he received the West Side Spirit's WESTY Award, was honored by WNET for his contributions to the arts, and was the recipient of the James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award. In August 2020, City & State Magazine included Mr. Vilaro in the inaugural Power of Diversity: Latin 100 list. In January 2021, Mr. Vilaro was recognized with a Compassionate Leaders Award, given to leaders who are courageous, contemplative, collaborative, and care about the world they will leave behind. He is a well-respected speaker on such topics as diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts, as well as on the merits of the intersectionality of cultures and the importance of nurturing and building Latinx leaders.

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