From nothing to the cutting edge of dance | Arts & Entertainment

Inspiration can strike at the most unlikely times. Seeing a billboard while driving; a quick glimpse of lovers in a park; an unexpected sighting of an animal in an unlikely place. 

For Jonah Delgado, one of the principal dancers at DanceAspen, it came while he was watching the Australian Open tennis tournament on television back in January with a group of friends. 

“I was watching this tennis match and I was struck by the fierce intensity of it,” Delgado said in an interview. “Just watching and seeing how visceral the players’ reactions were, from the sounds they made to the emotions they expressed when they won a point or lost a point, I felt that same intensity that exists in dance. It just struck me that I wanted to try and bring the two together and choreograph a dance piece around tennis.” 

Inspiration struck Delgado at the perfect time as DanceAspen was looking for one more dance to fill out their program for their winter performance “Ember Glow” at the Wheeler Opera House on Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. 

Delgado teamed up with fellow DanceAspen colleague Meredith Harrill and the two choreographed a piece called “Love All” which they will both perform together Saturday night. It is Delgado’s first ever main stage piece that he has choreographed. 

“DanceAspen has grown into such a beautiful company and has given the dancers the opportunity to choreograph,” Delgado said. “‘Love All’ uses tennis as a metaphor for love — how people start off competitive, and ultimately shift when love gets involved. I’m very excited to be sharing this work with the Aspen audience.”

The centerpiece of “Ember Glow” is a piece choreographed by DanceAspen’s Matthew Gilmore who was commissioned by the Wheeler Opera House to create an ode to the storied theatre’s rich history and capture the spirit of the iconic Aspen landmark. 

The dance primarily tells the story of how the Wheeler burned down and came back to life. The set design for “Ember Glow” was done by artist Andy Millner in a collaboration between The Aspen Art Fair, Buckhorn Public Arts and DanceAspen. 

The symbolism of something burning down and a phoenix rising out of its ashes is also emblematic of DanceAspen itself. 

During the quarantine, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet made the difficult decision to discontinue the performance piece of the company and they became a presenting ballet company and school only. 

Former ASFB company member Laurel Winton founded DanceAspen in 2021 (she now serves as the executive director) as a local professional dance company in the Roaring Fork Valley and in four short years the company now supports seven dancers and a small administrative staff. 

In November, DanceAspen announced the addition of three new artists to the company — Michaella Ho, Paulio Sóvári, and Nicole Bui. In a testimony to the caliber of artistry the company attracts, three of the seven current members of the company are Juilliard graduates. 

For “Ember Glow,” DanceAspen has brought in two guest choreographers, NYC-based Gabrielle Lamb and Chicago-based Guest Choreographer Noelle Kayser.

Lamb’s piece is called “No Chance, No Parts.” 

“My piece explores the idea of metamorphosis, a never-ending process of falling apart and finding ourselves again,” Lamb said in a release. “The DanceAspen artists have a remarkable capacity to embody both classical form and contemporary articulation. Their moments of pointe technique reveal an architecture of possibility. These dancers balance on the edge between control and imminent collapse, yet always on the verge of dissolving into something entirely new.”

Kayser will present her piece “Alpine.” 

“The work explores human ambition and its evolution,” Kayser said in a release. “It considers ambition through the lens of being a dance artist — the mental and physical rigor and stamina demanded by the craft.”

Delgado danced with ASFB before the pandemic and returned to DanceAspen in 2023. He noted that the newly reinvigorated DanceAspen has more of a local focus than ever before. 

“I feel like DanceAspen has come back tenfold with integrating dance into the community,” Delgado said. “With Aspen Santa Fe, the majority of our shows were actually not in Aspen. But since coming back, DanceAspen has had such a strong presence here. The community has so many more opportunities to see us and we’ve done a lot of collaborations with other local organizations — from Food and Wine to Theatre Aspen, to TACAW just to name a few. Hotel Jerome has been an amazing partner of DanceAspen’s, we perform there frequently.”

A two-night stand at the Wheeler Opera House with a rejuvenated company on Presidents Day weekend is testimony to how far DanceAspen has come. Winton could not help but savor the moment as the curtain prepares to raise this weekend. 

“With four world premieres, two from internationally acclaimed choreographers whose work has never been presented in Aspen and two from our very own in-house artists, ‘Ember Glow’ is not to be missed,” Winton said. “DanceAspen started from nothing. We were just a group of passionate artists determined to keep dance alive in Aspen. In just a few years, we’ve built a million-dollar budget, created a home where innovative artists can thrive full-time, and established Aspen as a destination for cutting-edge contemporary dance. The momentum is incredible, and we’re just getting started.”