Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by OhioDance and hosted by independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist, Rodney Veal.
Speaker: Welcome to A State of Dance, sponsored by OhioDance and hosted by Rodney Veal. The podcast is partially based on the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection, an interactive website that documents and preserves the achievements of individuals and institutions who have shaped the diversity of dance history and practice in Ohio.
Speaker: Today, i would like to welcome our guest, Servilio Miguel Almodor, the Artistic Director of Cincinnati Ballet. Thank you for joining us today. oh Thank you so much for having me, Rodney.
Speaker: It's totally my honor. So we're going to just jump right into your origin story, so to speak. Now, you received your education and training at the Vocational Ballet School in Cuba and the National Ballet School of Cuba.
Speaker: You're featured in an ah Emmy Award winning segment on PBS that chronicled your journey of defecting from Cuba to pursue your passion for dance and joining Cincinnati Ballet as a soloist in 2004.
Speaker: Can you talk about your early training in Cuba and your road to Cincinnati? Absolutely, absolutely. I was around nine years old. When the idea of becoming a dancer was introduced to me, I remember very clearly it was my middle sister.
Speaker: And she said, i think he should dance. And to be honest, I didn't know anything about dancing. Maybe a little salsa here and there, but not classical. But I have two older sisters.
Speaker: that one is a musician, plays the violin, and the other one plays the guitar. And Camagüe, Cuba, we have this art school, and the art school was known to be very good education all around it, not just for us, but for the academics.
Speaker: And both of my parents are teachers. My dad is a math teacher and my mom is a language teacher. So they wanted us to be in this school. Now to get into a school, you needed to audition and you needed to do something related with the arts.
Speaker: So when I was around nine years old, It was my turn to audition for the school and my sister had the idea that I should dance. I said, no, I want to play the saxophone. I want to be a musician like like my sisters.
Speaker: Once again, they were like, I don't think you're as good as a musician as you're going to be as a dancer. I guess I was athletic or I don't know what they saw in me as a nine-year-old, but I made a deal. I said, I'll audition.
Speaker: to get into a school, audition for music and i audition for dance. And then please let me pick if I'm able to get it in both. So that was the deal. It turns out that my score in dance was way higher than my score a musician. So my parents did not give me the option. They said, I think this is your vocation. I think you should give it a try.
Speaker: I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. I love it. Rodney fell in love with it from day one. Like when I walked into the studio, when I started understanding the athleticism of it, when I started learning choreography and performing in front of the crowd was like an adrenaline that right away, I fell in love with the art form.
Speaker: So in Kamauay, Cuba, you have, it's an eight-year program. all around it. So I did four years of training in my hometown in Camargue.
Speaker: And then my family moved to Havana, the capital. And then I did four years of training in Havana. When I was 17, needed to do this big audition. It was like the graduation time.
Speaker: And it was to get into the National Battle of Cuba. It was a pivotal moment, I would say, in my career because you go through school, this eight-year program, and there is only two professional ballet companies in Cuba, in the whole island.
Speaker: The National Ballet of Cuba and the Ballet of Camargue, my hometown. And there is no guarantee that you will but you will become a professional dancer after your training. So my first dream was becoming a member of the National Ballet of Cuba.
Speaker: I auditioned for the company and I got in. It was ah oh yeah okay you go it was my first step through to professional life. I remember that a lot of things started to shift in me during that time when I joined the National Ballet of Cuba.
Speaker: I started to tour the world with them. We went to several countries and Living in in Cuba, it can be very isolated from the world.
Speaker: So my understanding of the world was very minimal when I was living in Cuba. But being able to travel with the National Ballet of Cuba, it really started opening my eyes, not only to what the rest of the world had to offer in general, but specifically to the art form.
Speaker: I love classical ballet. It's my life. But i was always hungry for more. And I realized that there were many other companies around the world that offer a more diverse repertory than just classical ballet. And that was a curiosity that that I had right away.
Speaker: So in October of 2003,
Speaker: the National Ballet of Cuba came on tour to the United States. And i like to say, just like in the movies, I grabbed my backpack and left my hotel room at two in the morning. I was in Daytona Beach at that time. And me and my girlfriend at the time went to Miami. And that's how my journey in the States started.
Speaker: Then we got to Miami and we were of so now what do we do? That was the first step. you I'm 19 years old, no English, no understanding of taxes, no understanding really of the life in the United States.
Speaker: So at first we didn't really know what to do. And then I recognized someone on TV who was a credit for the arts in Cuba. And I said, let's go and ask him to see if he can help us and point us in the right direction of what to do.
Speaker: He was a great person. ah He helped us right away. he said, let me think about this, but... I'm going to contact my producers and perhaps we can do an interview about your journey and what you have done so far.
Speaker: There was an article in the New York Times who wrote about the defection of five Cuban dancers that came on tour. Thanks to that article in the New York Times, the director of Cincinnati Ballet knew about us in the States and was looking for dancers. So she contacted me in Miami and asked me to come and audition.
Speaker: for Cincinnati Ballet. I was like, I didn't have a job. i honestly didn't know where Cincinnati was at that time, but I was like, I'm dead. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna audition. I came to Cincinnati. I auditioned for the company. I fell in love right away with the city. I remember coming from the airport. You see the beautiful skyline of Cincinnati.
Speaker: And I was just like, oh my God, I can still get scooped going back and thinking about that. I auditioned for the company. i got a soloist contract in July of 2004. That's when I moved to Cincinnati. And i have been here now since. I had an incredible career as a principal dancer.
Speaker: When I retired, I became rehearsal director. Two years ago, i was interim artistic director, and this is my first season as permanent artistic director of Cincinnati Ballet. That journey in and of itself, it reads like a movie. Truth is always stranger to the fiction. And it's just like, and did you ever even imagine being in a leadership position in a ballet company me beyond just dancing? Did you see that as a... That is much that i I love to say.
Speaker: You're young, you have dreams. And I will say that where my life is right now is way above anything I ever dream, anything I ever dream of. That's amazing. That sounds amazing. So you've taken to it like a duck to water as artistic director.
Speaker: I've had the privilege of seeing concerts. I love Cincinnati Ballet. I make the drive down from Dayton. So much love. Thank you. Much love for what you're doing there. And so you've played an instrumental role in Cincinnati Ballet's Accessibility Task Force. You've been championing enduring improvements to ensure opportunities and support for current and future generations of dancers from a wide range of experiences. And that that's something I really gravitate towards.
Speaker: Would you be able to share some of the improvements that you've worked on, this sort of opening up the possibilities of who's in the room? Yeah, absolutely. This is something that is close to me. Coming from a minority myself, I understand how important this work is. And finding myself with this platform, I ask myself, how can I help? How can I provide tools? How can we think creatively in understanding that art form needs to be more powerful?
Speaker: welcoming and accessible for everyone. Little things that we had done already, like when I took a look about attracting talent to Cincinnati Ballet, we do tours where we go to cities to do auditions. And I wanted to handpick cities that I would know would provide more diversity when it comes to the dancers, when it comes to the understanding of of the population of it. So very careful on how we pick these cities. We do around four or five every year.
Speaker: Something else that I did is we started a, we call it a sensitivity committee. So where we review the repertory of the season with the lens inclusivity.
Speaker: Some of the works that that we do are over a hundred years or And I want to preserve the identity of the world, but at at the same time, I want to look at it with the length of the current world that we live in. So we take a look at what could be the costuming.
Speaker: Can our dancers speak their own ties, their own color of shoes, the mesh, the wigs? We take a look at if there's narration and or text, like what is that story saying?
Speaker: So this group really reviews the program of the entire season with that length and makes suggestions. And then I'm able to go to the choreographers and make suggestions or the repertoire or the designers.
Speaker: Something else that that I worked on was like Arnold Cracker, the social important work of what we do every year and social community driven ballet.
Speaker: And I wanted to make it more accessible. So I did this partnership with Washington Park and the city of Cincinnati and the art academy. And we brought the magic of Arnold Cracker out into the park, into Washington Park and transform the whole park into this winter wonderland experience. And that's for everybody to enjoy it. No cost, just work through a park and be influenced by the beauty of Arnold Cracker. Simultaneously, we have several programs that we do in collaboration with our academy called Cincy Move. It's for young dancers, for adults, for people with Parkinson's, for seniors. We have a beautiful studio like State of the Art where...
Speaker: people with disabilities can get connected. Those harnesses. With the harnesses. Yeah. And then they learn how to how to dance in the space. It's a beautiful program that we offer to our community that I think is one of a kind in in our field.
Speaker: So yeah, also artistically, thinking more from like the programming of the season, then I take a look at what the program means. How can it be relevant to to our community to the moment in time that we live in?
Speaker: How can I offer our platform for artists to create from all different backgrounds. I think one of the things that I love the most about company is how diverse our repertoire is. Yeah, we are classical based and I love the classicism, but I like to push the boundaries all the way to the contemporary, all the styles in between.
Speaker: So that gives us a stability to different type of artists to come and work with us. Super awesome. So on that note, before we go into our next question, we're going take a little bit of a break. And then we're going to talk about this kind of artistic vision and this journey you're taking on as the current artistic director.
Speaker: Stay tuned.
Speaker: We want to remind you that if you like what you're listening to and are not a member of OhioDance, you can go ohiodance.org and click the membership button to join and receive the many benefits that come with your membership.
Speaker: You can also donate through our purple donate button.
Speaker: And we're back. Cervilio, Cincinnati Ballet Board of Trustees, you talked about this, appointed you as the permanent artistic director in December of 2024, which is really super cool. Like I said, I've been a fan of the ballet and I love direction you're going.
Speaker: What is your artistic vision for the company? You talked about this mix of you love the classical and you also love contemporary works and your company does show an incredible range. And I think it's a tribute to your leadership.
Speaker: Truly a dream. When I was named Artistic Director back in December, it was truly a didn dream come true. When you asked me about the vision of the company, i've been in Cincinnati for 20 years now.
Speaker: So I asked myself, what is relevant for Cincinnati, for our community? And simultaneously, I ask myself what is relevant in the art community, in the ballet dance community. I see myself more ah as a curator than a choreographer.
Speaker: So I put a lot of focus on understanding what do i who am I curating for. a lot of understanding in when it comes to the dancers that I have. we talked We talked about just the broader vision, which will be a very diverse community.
Speaker: repertoire from the classicos, beloved classicos that we love, all the way to the new works that are influencing the art form as we speak. There is a range artistically there that you can pick from.
Speaker: And I like to take a look at the dancers that I have. I like to understand where they are in their career. and i like to understand what is relevant for them. What are the kind of works that are bucket list for them?
Speaker: What are the kind of works that are continuing to develop and evolve their career? I do the same thing when it comes to our community. How do we feel today as human beings? What is relevant? What is the story that is relevant for us to showcase on on the stage? Whether it is just mood or whether it is a story, i ask myself that question often. The broader vision of Cincinnati for me is being a world dance company that is very...
Speaker: Cincinnati-based, very community-driven, very intertwined with everybody that is around us. So that's a broader vision of it. And I feel blessed that I bring 20 years of experience, but at the same time, I'm very young, but I'm very eager to know where the art form is heading towards and driving at a certain direction.
Speaker: That's super cool. And I, and this is a little bit of insider baseball information, but I ran into a choreographer that's coming into your season in September, Andrea Shemoli? Andrea Shemoli, yeah.
Speaker: Andy. Andy. I am a fan. I'm a super fan of her work and she is such a delight and she's super excited to come to Cincinnati, by the way. She's super excited.
Speaker: I have worked with Andrea several times now, dream choreographer, South African-based choreographer with a very unique voice. This will be my, I think, third time working. Really? wow But first time as an artist director of Cincinnati Ballet. i just I used to run a summer company called Moving Arts, and I had done a couple of works.
Speaker: of Andrea with Moving Arts. And as a dancer, I performed some of the works that ah Andrea has choreographed for Cincinnati Ballet. But this is my first time working with her as an artistic director. so As an artistic director. Oh, that's that's got to be pretty wild because you've had these experiences with these choreographers.
Speaker: Now you're wearing a completely different hat where you could say, come on in. Yeah. she Share your vision. And I love the fact that you focus... on Cincinnati and the context of it being, it is, it's ah it's one of the largest cities in America. And so I think sometimes we have a tendency to believe, oh, dance is happening elsewhere at the global stage, but I really do feel like it's local. And I feel like Cincinnati Valley represents that.
Speaker: I think we're very lucky to have such a strong art community in Cincinnati all around it. And the ballet, the work that we are producing is really world class. And I feel it's an honor for me to direct this company. And it's an honor for me to call Cincinnati home.
Speaker: I love it. I love it. So on your bucket list as a curator, who choreographically is on your list that Cincinnati Ballet has not tapped into yet? Throw it out there in universe. There are several and we are on the right path, but i will say right now, top of my mind, Crystal Pite.
Speaker: hello I could see. Yeah. That would be a dream. I love it. And so because we're these interesting times, there's a tremendous support in the community for the Cincinnati Ballet. It's a love. It's like a love fest for the ballet.
Speaker: Is that in your opinion? Like you've been around, you've seen other companies and other cities with ballet companies. Cincinnati is really unique in their love of dance. I love hearing you say that because I agree that it's, I wonder if it is on a way, the sense of community and the sense of accessibility, like we are into the community often and we are opening our doors, our center for dance for everyone to to join us. Like we have open rehearsals, we bring schools.
Speaker: So I feel like it's that collaboration and that accessibility that makes you feel part of the family. And the city is just very well educated when it comes to the arts of the for the support for dance is palpable.
Speaker: That's absolutely real. and So, Cerullio, you've only been in this position since December of 2024. We're only talking six months. You've got to be in a little bit of a, you're still in the honeymoon phase. how' does it feel so far?
Speaker: You learn ah as you go. Being an artistic director is really unique to the company that you have, to the city that you have. So I talk to peers to help me when I don't know what I'm doing, basically. But I'm learning more and more that it's unique to us. Really, it's it's about the team, and it's about bringing the team with you. It's about the buy-in. It's about listening.
Speaker: It's about feeling that we are creating something together. And... I bring that every day to to work. I don't necessarily feel that I have all the answers all the time. And I'm very humble when I say, I don't know.
Speaker: Let's figure it out together. Oh, that's ah that's ah that's a true mark of a good leader. And what would you say to someone who's out there thinking, maybe I want to i want a career in dance, especially for men? yeah What would you say to them?
Speaker: I would say, like for if we talk about men, could be some so stereotypes here and there for the art form. I would say, give it a try and you will know what I'm talking about. Physicality in the studio is incredible. That adrenaline of performing is incredible.
Speaker: You are surrounded by human beings all the time. We are creating art together. The art form is so rich that anybody that will try will fall in love with it. And You know what, you don't need to become also a professional dancer. Not everybody needs to be a professional dancer, but the art form will teach you discipline, creativity, appreciation for the arts. These are valuable tools that you can take with you through life. So I would say that, and I would say take it a day at a time.
Speaker: Looking back at ah my career, i was not always the number one pick. I was always just committed to to improve, committed to the day, committed to what can I do better,
Speaker: And I took everything a day at a time. And I feel it's very valuable for us to think in that way. Sometimes we can get discouraged by the past or sometimes we can be too concentrated in the future. And let's just think what we can do today and what we can do today will write the past and will build the future.
Speaker: Yeah, you are definitely passionate and conscientious and talented and gifted. And I just, I'm just really appreciative of you sharing time with us on this podcast today.
Speaker: Yeah, this was a lot of fun. So thank you for having me. You're welcome. Thank you so much.
Speaker: A State of Dance is produced by OhioDance and hosted by Rodney Veal, Executive Producer Jane D'Angelo, Editor and Audio Technician Jessica Cavender, Musical Composition by Matthew Peyton Dixon. OhioDance would like to thank our funders, The Ohio Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Ohio State University Dance Preservation Fund, The Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, and The Akron Community Fund.
