The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) celebrates the opening of its Spring/Summer 2025 Season with lauded dancer Herman Cornejo and Grupo Cadabra in Anima Animal. Completing a vision for Argentine ballet begun by Vaslav Nijinsky more than 100 years ago, the moving new work will play The Joyce Theater from February 18-23.
In 1917, legendary dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky was invited to stage Caaporá, a ballet inspired by the Guarani indigenous legend of the Urutaú bird — a mystical creature from the forests in northeaster Argentina. Although he accepted, illness prevented him from completing what would have been his first “Argentine” ballet. Inspired by Nijinsky’s everlasting, groundbreaking artistic vision, renowned dancer and American Ballet Theatre (ABT) Principal Dancer Herman Cornejo revived this narrative in Anima Animal, his first ever full-length production as creator.
Co-produced with the Teatro del Bicentenario in 2022, Anima Animal is a powerful, immersive new work that pays homage to a dance work brimming with potential for over a century. A production created with an entire team of world-class Argentine artists, the evening-length piece features choreography by award-winning Anabella Tuliano and an original score by acclaimed composers DJ UJI and Noelia Escalzo. It will be performed by Cornejo along with Tuliano’s Argentine dance company, Grupo Cadabra. Opening its Spring/Summer 2025 Season with a groundbreaking work 100 years in the making, The Joyce invites audiences to reflect on love, redemption, and compassion for Earth and its creatures.
Cornejo has been a Principal Dancer with ABT since 2003. He has guested for companies including Teatro alla Scala, National Ballet of Japan, Kremlin Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet and Hamburg Ballett. Cornejo has received distinctions such as a 2013 Bessie Award presented by the NY Dance & Performance League, the 2014 Prix Benois de la Danse as Outstanding Male Dancer of the Year, Latin Idol by Hispanic Magazine, and Dancer of the Year by The New York Times. His repertoire consists of more than 90 leading roles in classical and contemporary ballets. He has choreographed Tango y Yo for Dance Open Festival, two sunsets for Dancers Against Cancer, Transcendence for the Kings of the Dance Tour, Milongón amigo for the Vail International Dance Festival, Momentum with concert pianist Bruce Levingston for “Trio Concert Dance,” and a tribute to New York to the score of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for the debut of his new project DANCELIVE in 2020.
Grupo Cadabra, under the direction of Anabella Tuliano, is an independent Argentine dance company that celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021. In 2011, the company premiered its works Domestícame and Cadabra, recognized with the Teatro del Mundo award. Since its creation, the company has received invitations to participate in the Ballet Gala and the Ignacio A. Pane Theater in Asunción, Paraguay. In 2014, the company was invited to the prestigious Teatro Independencia in Mendoza with its third work, No te duermas vencido, and in December 2015 performed a gala celebrating the company’s four years at the Teatro Maipo in Buenos Aires. Company repertoire also includes Idaki, with music by Astor Piazzolla, and Lo que había que ser, which opened the Teatro del Bicentenario in the City of San Juan and the Teatro Plaza (Godoy Cruz, Mendoza) in 2018. Later that year, it would perform in Resistencia, Chaco, where its participation was declared of general interest by the provincial senate, and would be part of the Buenos Aires Contemporary Dance Festival at the Centenario Park Amphitheater. Grupo Cadabra has been highlighted by the Argentine Dance Council to be part of the International Dance Day program (sponsored by UNESCO) on more than one occasion. The company has participated in the fundraising event Danzar por la Paz, sponsored by Unicef, at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes, at the Teatro General San Martín and as a traveling company during 2020 in the cities of Córdoba, Rosario and Rafaela; and was invited to dance alongside the Buenos Aires Ballet.
Anima Animal has been recognized as one of the nine most outstanding choreographic works of 2020, 2021 and 2022 by the prestigious Teatro del Mundo Awards. This honor, granted by the Centro Cultural Rector Ricardo Rojas at the University of Buenos Aires, celebrates excellence in Argentine and international theater and has been awarded for over 25 years.
For tickets and more information, visit www.joyce.org/performances/149/herman-cornejo-with-grupo-cadabra/anima-animal.
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