Performance Series •
Adele Myers and Dancers: a world gone FABULOUS
April 24, 2026
- April 25, 2026
•
8:00 pm
A world gone FABULOUS
Artistic Director
Adele Myers
Performers
Ivonne Batanero, Cecilia Benitez, Maria Burt, Clinton Harris
Movement Design
Adele Myers, Cecilia Benitez, Maria Burt, Clinton Harris
Sound Design
Blind Carbon Copy
Lighting Design
Kathy Couch
Projection Design
Tara Lee Burns
Costume Design
Pangea Kali Virga
Dramaturgy
Alejandro Rodriguez
Text written by Adele Myers, Alejandro Rodriguez and Ivonne Batanero
Stage Manager
Shira Aberjel
a world gone FABULOUS was commissioned by Miami Light Project, Opening Nights at Florida State University, and the James Madison University School of Theater and Dance. Additional research and development support was provided by NCC Akron, The Moss Center, and MDC Department of Cultural Affairs.
Special thank you to: Kayla Castellon and Erika Loyola for choreographic contributions. Juraj Kojs and Nicolle Garcia for additional support. The MLP team for an amazing partnership. Helvetica St. Claire for keeping us organized and on time.
Meet The Artists
Adele Myers: Artistic Director
Adele Myers is a Miami based dance maker, educator and Artistic Director of Adele Myers and Dancers (AMD),a national touring contemporary dance theater company made up of athletes of the heart. For over a decade, AMD has been presented throughout the U.S with funding from the New England Foundation of the Arts, National Dance Project, and National Performance Network among others. Since relocating to Miami in 2015, AMD has received commissions from Miami Light Project, Live Arts Miami and The Moss Center. In 2021, Myers launched Miami DanceMakers, an annual professional development program of the company that supports local dance makers at early stages of their careers.
Myers received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, a One-Year Special Certificate from the London School of Contemporary Dance; and earned an MFA with a focus on Dance Pedagogy and Choreography at Florida State University, and an MA and PhD (ABD) in Performance Studies from New York University. She was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Tulane University and Connecticut College and has taught on faculty at New World School of the Arts in Miami.
Tara Burns: Creative Technologist
Tara Lee Burns is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Technology at James Madison University. Burns comes from a varied dance history of live performance, projection design, and digital making having worked as both a professional dancer/performer and digital collaborator with many NYC & New England dance theater companies and independent artists including Adele Myers, Norah Zuniga Shaw, Marjani Forte, Alex Oliszewski, and Alexandra Beller among many others. Her performance experiences and influences cross international waters from the American Dance Festival, NC to the Hellerau International Festival CyNet Arts in Germany and are infused with performative somatics and technology integration evidenced by her practice research, MFA in Dance with an Interdisciplinary Specialization from The Ohio State University (2021), MA in Digital Performance from The University of Hull, UK (2006), and BFA in Dance from the University of Florida (2003). She has created live and digital works for proscenium, black box, installation, device, and hybrid technologies with dancers, iPad and smart phones, bags of topsoil, film, 60-foot strings of elastic, projection, parachute cord, VR-headsets, and virtual objects evidenced by her residency with The National Center for Choreography, a Live-streamed Virtual Reality performance at the Movement and Computing Conference, and residency with Snap Inc’s Augmented Reality Spectacles Creator Program. www.taraleeburns.com
Ivonne Batanero: Dance Artist
Ivonne Batanero is a Peruvian-born dance artist from Lima, Perú. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2009. A three-time commissioned artist with Miami Light Project, Ivonne has presented work at their annual Here and Now Festival. She spent 11 years performing with Rosie Herrera Dance Theater and currently collaborates with Adele Myers and Dancers and LaMicheal Leonard. Ivonne was selected for the 2025 MicroWIP at Ringling’s Art of Performance program at the Historic Asolo Theater. She recently premiered her first evening-length solo, Mamá Mala, blending stand-up comedy and dance theater at the 2025 Squeaky Wheel Fringe Festival.
Cecilia Benitez: Dance Artist
Cecilia Benitez is a Cuban American freelance dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic administrator based in Miami, Florida. She earned her BFA in dance from Point Park University and studied abroad in Madrid, Spain at the Conservatorio de Danza Superior “María de Avíla”. Currently, she dances for Adele Myers and Dancers while teaching, dancing, and choreographing for Syncopate Collective. She also serves as both company manager and dancer for Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre. Her choreography has been commissioned and supported by Miami Light Project’s “Here and Now” program, National Performance Network, Miami DanceMakers, New World School of the Arts Alumni Foundation, Miami- Dade County Cultural Affairs, Pioneer Winter’s “Grass Stains”, Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film, and Mutual Dance Theatre based in Cincinnati, OH. She is a 2025–26 Forklift Danceworks choreographic fellow in Austin, TX, following her February 2025 premiere with the company. Her choreography includes "The Way of Water" for the Colorado River and Miami projects. In February 2026 she will be creating a new work for the dancers at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Outside of dance, her favorite pastimes include reading, biking, writing letters, and making and sharing Cuban coffee!
Maria Burt: Dance Artist
A Miami Native, Maria Burt garnered her love for dance at a very young age and began her professional training from Armour Dance Theater. She has a repertoire of styles and techniques including modern, contemporary, ballet, tap, jazz, and Afro-Caribbean. Currently, Maria is working with Adele Myers and Dancers and Syncopate Collective as well as previously performing with Peter London Global Dance Company and NWD Projects with Dale Andree. She has performed with Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre in their production “Devotion” and worked closely with Jamar Roberts in their work “As an Offering”, commissioned by the Peter London Global Dance Company. Maria has earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Florida/New World School of the Arts with the graduating class of 2020.
Aeon De La Cruz: Blind Carbon Copy/Sound Designer
Blind Carbon Copy is a music project initiated by Miami native Aeon De La Cruz, an interdisciplinary artist and dancer. His background in dance and visual arts has inspired his experimental approach to music. Since the first collaboration with AMD, (T.W.I.S.T.), the project has taken on a collaborative spirit, and De La Cruz has worked with dancers, film makers, and visual artists. BCC has created custom scores for the likes of Kayla Castellon, Alluvion Dance, Sarah Lutzky, Luiza Lamoglia and Pioneer Winter Collective’s Grass Stains, among others.
De La Cruz studied visual art at institutions like Dash and Cooper Union, eventually connecting architecture and media like sculpture, video/film, and music with his dance practice. Aeon has trained at intensives like OBOC (CounterTechnique) and ADF, where he briefly studied Cunningham technique, improvisation, and performed in Bill T. Jones repertory. In Miami, he has founded programs like Query, an experimental dance framework for improvisation, Flat Earth Graphics, and Media Noche, which showcases dance films and media. De La Cruz has shown original work for Miami Light Project’s Here & Now, and Miami Dance Hub, and has performed with Pioneer Winter Collective, Alma Dance Theater, Jonah Bokaer, Lijun Zhou, Kayla Castellon, Luiza Moglia, Sandra Portal-Andreu, and other Miami-based artists.
Clinton Harris: Dance Artist
Clint T. Harris is from Miami, FL, where he currently dances with Peter London Global Dance Company and Adele Myers & Dancers. Harris has performed in works choreographed by Loyd Knight, Mike Tyus, Jamar Roberts, Adele Myers, Justin Rapaport, and Pioneer Winter, and has worked on projects with Robert Battle and Allison Orr of Forklift Danceworks. He has graced stages throughout South Florida, including the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Parker Playhouse, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beach Bandshell, the African American Cultural Arts Center, Superblue, and Miami Everglades, as well as internationally in Trinidad and Martinique.
In 2024, Harris was selected as a Miami Dance Maker and premiered his original work “i see red people.” He is currently a recipient of the 2025 Here & Now commissions with Miami Light Project. Harris also received a mini-grant from The MAP Fund to support his choreographic research.
Most recently, Harris expanded his creative footprint with new institutional commissions across Miami. He was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA) and by the historic Freedom Tower to develop original works rooted in movement, memory, and conceptually advanced storytelling. These projects further solidified Harris’ presence as a multidisciplinary artist whose creations move fluidly between performance, installation, and film.
Alejandro Rodriguez: Dramaturg
Alejandro is a Cuban-American theater artist from the planet of Miami. His first evening-length work, Sorry, enjoyed two sold-out runs at LPAC in NYC. His next project, In My Body, a collaboration with the Canadian street dance company, Bboyizm, is currently on a world tour and was the recipient of four Dora Awards in 2022. His most recent play, Alba, was a 2024 Finalist for the O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference and is set to premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks in Fall 2026. He is a three-time recipient of the MIA Individual Artist Stipend, a former Artist in Residence in the Florida Everglades, and a current Core Writing Fellow at the Playwrights Center. Formerly, he served as the Associate Artistic Director for PlayMakers, and as Deputy Executive Director for Arts Ignite (formerly ASTEP.) A graduate of Juilliard where he was awarded the Michel St. Denis Prize for outstanding achievement.
Pangea Kali Virga: Costume Designer
Pangea Kali Virga’s (b.1991, NY) art is deeply rooted in social responsibility and environmentalism, as she seeks to convey urgent and complex messages in ways that are both beautiful and engaging. Through fashion and costume design, layered fiber artworks dramatic experiential art and performances, free public sustainable art and skills workshops, and collaborative projects with public and private instituions, she brings these themes to life.
Kali Virga is committed to transforming the art and fashion industries into more sustainable and equitable spaces. She creates art and wearable pieces from upcycled materials and natural elements using zero-waste practices. Kali Virga is an ongoing collaborating costume designer with Adele Myers and Dancers including recent projects T.W.I.S.T and a world gone FABULOUS.
Kathy Couch: Lighting Designer
Kathy Couch is an artist, educator, advocate, and Bessie Award-winning designer living in Northampton, MA. Working in mediums of light, space, collaboration, and movement improvisation, Couch creates visual landscapes for performance and installation with/in traditional and non-traditional spaces nationally and internationally. She is a long-time collaborative member of Yanira Castro’s project a canary torsi and has current collaborations with Adele Myers and Dancers, Jenna Riegel, Deborah Goffe/Scapegoat Garden, improvisation ensemble The Architects, and musician Batya Sobel. Her work has also been seen at Danspace Project, The Chocolate Factory, Abrons Arts Center, LaMaMa, the New Museum, the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, the streets of Prague. She is the co-director of A.P.E. (Available Potential Enterprises), an arts organization that stewards galleries and a performance space in Northampton, MA. Kathy is a founding board member of the Northampton Community Arts Trust which seeks innovative ways to preserve space for creativity and imagination.
About Miami Light Project
Founded in 1989, Miami Light Project is a not-for-profit cultural organization, which commissions and presents artists from all over the world and throughout Miami. We support the vanguard in contemporary performance – dance, music, theater and multimedia artists who are internationally recognized for risk-taking innovation, technical virtuosity and thought-provoking content. Our programmatic vision has led the way in establishing Miami as an internationally recognized center for art and culture, with a vibrant locally based artistic community. Miami Light Project’s artistic programs focus on issues of relevance to our community within the context of an evolving global field of art and culture.
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