Sabor on the street! Ballet Hispánico’s 55th birthday bash

West 89th Street, New York City
September 14, 2025

How do you mark important anniversaries of the founding of a dance company? Well, for Ballet Hispánico, America’s leading Latinx dance organisation, who some may remember from their two successful UK visits to Leicester’s Let’s Dance International Frontiers festival in 2022 and earlier this year, the answer was to hold a block party.

So, on a very warm, very sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-September, West 89th Street in New York, home to the company since its beginnings and also known as Ballet Hispánico Way, was closed off for four hours as the company, school and dancers were joined by families, neighbours, and culture lovers for a street party.

The company’s first block party since 2018, Celebración Latina was a truly joyous few hours. The street thronged with people. A temporary stage erected under the shade of a conveniently sited tree was the venue for performances by BH2, Ballet Hispánico’s junior ensemble, created to help pre-professional dancers develop their artistry and prepare them for life in the professional field.

Between those performances, which included ballet, modern, flamenco, all with a Latin flavour, the audience got chances to dance too with salsa and merengue sessions led by teachers from the Ballet Hispánico School. There was also live music from the terrific Tempo Alegre.

Elsewhere, there were surprise giveaways, free dance classes in the company’s studios, food trucks, family-friendly art activities, and stalls by cultural partners including Lincoln Center, New York City Center, Children’s Museum of Manhattan and El Museo Del Barrio.

It was a high-energy afternoon, one of dance and culture, but perhaps more than anything, one of community and family, a point emphasised by artistic director and CEO Eduardo Vilaro during his address.

Speaking the next day, Vilaro told me just how important family is. “Family means community. This organisation was born out of that need and has always held it as a value. I feel, especially for people of colour, the idea of gathering is deeply ingrained in us with family.”

And when Tina Ramirez founded Ballet Hispánico back in 1970, the area and the city was very different with the world discussed very much in terms of black and white, with the Latinx community to some extent hidden.

Vilaro explains, “At that time, in New York City, there was a flight to the suburbs by the middle class, mainly white or wealthy people. The block was not the same, even when I first entered the company’s doors in 1985. Buildings were being left as landlords tried to push people out. People were marginalized, very much so. Traumatised too. All kinds of immigrant families, I’m talking the full spectrum of colour, who were living in these areas were desperate for better living conditions. It was a very hard time.”

And the need for community is just as important today, with the way the world is, he agrees. While recognising we have such intersectionality in who we are and who we’ve become, because of many things, we have to come together and remind ourselves of our values, he believes.

“It’s important more than ever to gather now to show our strength, and to show that we are an important part of the fabric of American society. We’ve helped build this society in so many ways. Our Celebration Latina is a way to say, come out, be very visible, to come together. It doesn’t matter who you are. This is not about exclusion, it’s about inclusion.”

Having said that, Vilaro is absolutely not going to be apologetic about the work Ballet Hispánico does. “Some of the work can be challenging and some can be fun like what we saw. But we’re going to continue to push the conversation.”

Over his forty years with the company, Vilaro says that it has certainly changed on the outside as it has moved with the times. “But while we might change the way we say things, the values persist and are still clear. Ballet Hispánico is still about passion for the culture and community and education, in particular for young people.”