Green Box Arts Festival | Summer in the Mountains
Ballet Hispánico | James Turrell
For more than fifty years Ballet Hispánico has provided an artistic sanctuary for Latinx youth through dance, and this summer the company closes its tour at the Green Box Arts Festival, where James Turrell’s Green Mountain Falls Skyspace also made its debut.
BY Manda Overturf Shank | PHOTOGRAPHY BY Christopher Duggan
EMERGING FROM the post-civil rights era in the United States, for more than fifty years Ballet Hispánico has provided an artistic sanctuary for Latinx youth through dance, community, and cultural engagement. Ballet Hispánico is the largest Latinx cultural organization and a leading dance example of Hispanic culture in the country.
In the beginning, founder and National Medal of Arts recipient Tina Ramirez, now ninety-three and artistic director for nearly forty years, invited choreographers from diverse backgrounds to give a current interpretation to Latinx culture. Ramirez is often considered a Hispanic corollary to Alvin Ailey, bringing important attention to under-recognized dance forms in the United States. Distinguished dancers who got their start at Ballet Hispánico include Ramón Oller, head of Spain’s Metros Danza, and William Whitener, now artistic director of Kansas City Ballet.
Ballet Hispánico is headquartered in New York City and has been led by artistic director and CEO Eduardo Vilaro since 2009. This summer the company is scheduled to appear at multiple public performances and dance classes in southern Colorado in conjunction with the Green Box Arts Festival through early July.
“After such a long pause in live performances, Ballet Hispánico is excited to be back on the road and to close out this season’s tour at the Green Box Arts Festival,” Vilaro says. “Our program is a celebration of fifty years of exploring Latinx culture through dance, and we cannot wait to share this exciting run with our BH familia in Colorado.”
Green Mountain Falls’ highly anticipated Skyspace made its debut at the Green Box Arts Festival. The James Turrell permanent installation is part of a new Red Butte Recreation Area that overlooks the center of town and Gazebo Lake. Adding to the already stunning landscape, Green Mountain Falls Skyspace is made of stone from Colorado quarries and Beetle Kill Pine, a sustainably harvested wood, yielded from trees that succumbed to the mountain pine beetle. It is the only Skyspace to be installed on the side of a mountain and the only one in Colorado. Hike the Turrell Trail to visit the eighteen-foot-tall observatory just before sunrise or sunset to get the ultimate sky-viewing experience.
