Lourdes Lopez, a longtime artistic director of Miami City Ballet, defended the new ballet and helped raise the company's artistic profile. .
Lopez (66), who joined the company in 2012, was originally scheduled to leave at the end of the 2026-27 season.
Lopez, a well-known cultural figure who gained fame under George Balanchine at the New York City ballet, was a surprise to the dancers, staff and some executives at Miami City Ballet.
Lopez said she had left early because she was passionate about another project. Explore ways Miami Arts institutions can work together more closely.
“This has nothing to do with Miami City Ballet,” she said in an interview. “This really relates to Lourdes.”
Lopez said she had been thinking about the change for over a year, but she didn't make a final decision until Monday, and the news was rushed out on Wednesday. She said she was ready for a new challenge.
“I have a lot of energy, I have a lot of ideas, I have a lot of energy, I have a lot of energy, I have a lot of urgency,” she said. “Balanchine told me you would do it now or you wouldn't do it.”
Jeff Davis, chairman of the Miami City Ballet board, said the company had hoped to name Lopez's successor before the start of the 2025-26 season in October with a budget of about $25 million. . The board recently outlined a set of goals, including expanding the company's audience and building a fund.
Lopez was helping to improve the organization's artistic standards, Davis said.
“Her legacy wants to have high quality products that inspire a diverse crowd,” he said.
During her tenure, Lopez supported the modern choreographer and added important works to her repertoire, including Alexei Ratmansky's “Swan Lake,” which premiered in Miami in 2022. In April, the company will announce the world premiere of “Carmen” by Belgian Colombian choreographer Anna Bel Lopez Ochoa.
Lopez also faced a challenge. She helped guide Miami City Ballet through the uncertainty of the pandemic, which lost millions of people in anticipated ticket revenue.
And then she broke out last year over a proposal by a group of dancers, and tensions erupted to form a union. At one point, the American guild of pro-dance musical artists in dancers accused Miami City Ballet leader of leading a “campaign to compensate for offensive and coordinated unions.” The dancers ultimately voted not to organize a union.
Lopez said in her next chapter she will work to help promote the Miami cultural scene. Often, art groups compete with each other, she said. She noted that the Florida Grand Opera was performing its own “Carmen” in the same theater the week before Miami City Ballet's “Carmen” in April.
In an age of economic uncertainty for many art groups, Lopez said it was important to bring together the institutions “under one roof.”
“If you look into the future, do you create Miami art, its cushions, something that really protects the art?” she said. “That's what I'm trying to understand.”
