Miami City Ballet

Miami City Ballet (MCB) founded in 1985 by Miami philanthropist Toby Lerner Ansin and Edward Villella, earned its place as a globally recognized ballet company through Lourdes’ daring programming of bold collaborations and commissions, nurturing new choreographic voices, and championing Miami centric works. Today it is recognized nationally and internationally for its artistic excellence and vibrant style.

Lourdes Lopez served as Artistic Director from September 2012 to May 2025, a period that exponentially grew MCB’s Repertory to include more than 100 ballets that reach 100,000 patrons annually. Her leadership was marked by excellence, resilience, and community engagement achieving global recognition as a first-tier ballet company. Additionally, Ms. Lopez served as Chairman of Miami City Ballet School (MCBS), where in 2015 she conceived and helped launch the Ballet Bus program, a comprehensive dance scholarship program for underserved children in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, providing fully subsidized training, transportation, dance attire, and family support. Through the Ballet Bus program, Miami City Ballet School supported each student by offering a year-round, fully subsidized path to classical ballet, making a ten-year commitment to students and their families to provide comprehensive training that could prepare a child for a professional career in dance.

An accomplished fundraiser, Ms. Lopez made donor engagement and securing essential financial support a central part of her leadership. She played a pivotal role in the Transforming Lives Campaign, which raised more than $65 million between 2018 and 2022. Publicly launched in 2019–2020 and completed in April 2022, the campaign supported artistic programming, the school, general operations, cash reserves, endowment growth, and expanded community initiatives. Originally targeted at $54 million, it became the largest and most successful campaign in the organization’s history.

For the Miami community and MCB’s core constituencies, Ms. Lopez was able to keep the Company performing through creative choreographic endeavors and using outdoor venues during the initial COVID period. Miami City Ballet was widely considered a model for the performing arts return post-lockdowns.

The George Balanchine Trust uniquely granted Ms. Lopez the right to reimagine several signature ballets including Firebird, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Square Dance, and George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®.  Ms. Lopez is the only individual entrusted with such authority. In these reimagined productions, she introduced Floridian semi-tropical and marine elements and a contemporary look to the productions in collaboration with local artists such as Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Michele Oka Doner, and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Additionally, Ms. Lopez commissioned the North American Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Swan Lake with five-year exclusivity complete with new sets and designs. Upon its premiere, critics determined “This Swan Lake has become the one by which we should judge all others.” In 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, she helped guide Miami City Ballet through the loss of millions in anticipated ticket revenue by securing permission from The George Balanchine Trust to stage an innovative outdoor multimedia production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, blending live dancing on a rock-concert like stage with ultra-high definition video and projection on a 90 ft wide digital screen that appeared three dimensional. She extended special invitations to first responders as a gesture of gratitude. Demonstrating resiliency and foresight, Miami City Ballet was the only leading company able to continue live performances during this period while the dancers continued their training and rehearsing.

In 2022, as Miami City Ballet emerged from COVID, Ms. Lopez led the company in joining other cultural institutions to help the City of Miami Beach pass a $160 million bond initiative. Of that amount, $16 million was allocated to the ballet for critical facility infrastructure, including $4 million designated for the ballet school. This funding secured much-needed dormitories and housing for Miami City Ballet School and workforce housing for young professional artists and first responders.

Under Lourdes’ leadership, MCB performed across the United States, Canada, and Europe. MCB’s 2016 debut at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater was celebrated with an acclaimed review by The New York Times’ Alastair Macaulay: “Of all the ballet troupes who have visited the Koch in recent years, none looks so truly and completely a company”.