BALAM Dance Theatre

🎭During August, BALAM Dance Theatre celebrates American Artist Appreciation Month and honors the creativity of artists in the company enriching local communities and the nation's cultural identity.

🕺Find news about our performances with Mosaic Dance Theater Company, La Fiocco, Lotus Music and Dance, and Gotham Early Music Scene and the opening of our Dance Adventure Series this fall at Marblehead School of Ballet and other updates!

Learn more about these performers, choreographers, and others in the issue: Anna Tonna, mezzo soprano Robin Gilbert, Carlos Fittante, Yumiko Niimi (Yumiko Ballet NY), Nani Devi, Toshinori Hamada, Islene Pinder, and others.

🖇Get the August newsletter in the Comments below or scan the QR code.👇

Photo: BALAM’s final tableaux in Salsa Romántico, presented at the Hempstead Public Library, New York. Photo Credit: Julie Lemberger Photography with background enhanced by AI

💫BALAM’s newest company members — twin sisters Erin Hunter Jennings and Faith Hunter Kimberling — are in rehearsals preparing for 'Sirens, Muses, and Fairies’.

In this new BALAM Baroque dance program, they appear as two identical visions of the character Armide.

Trained in American modern dance, the Baroque dancing of this dynamic dance duo has a nuanced vitality that is enjoyable to see.

Photo: Erin Hunter Jennings and Faith Hunter Kimberling rehearse.

Photo Credit: BALAM Dance Theatre

Thank you Luhrs & Associates for bringing attention to nonprofit organizations, including BALAM Dance Theatre (BALAM). BALAM looks to Balinese dance and culture for inspiration. Our passion for world cultural dance styles like Spanish, Latin ballroom, Japanese Noh,and Baroque dance inspires our diverse fusion and traditional repertoire.

🌟 Celebrating National Nonprofit Day! 🤝❤️
Luhrs & Associates applauds the daily contributions of nonprofit organizations. National Nonprofit Day is commemorated annually on August 17 to recognize the extensive, important work nonprofit organizations undertake each to make our communities stronger! 🏘️🌈

Did you know? 📊 • nearly 1.9 Million nonprofits are changing lives 🌍 • 10% of U.S. workers make up the nonprofit sector 💼 • Nonprofits contribute approximately $1Trillion annually to the U.S. GDP 💡

Luhrs & Associates sends a big shoutout to these nonprofit agencies working daily to enrich our lives and address pressing needs in the community! 🙌
BALAM Dance Theatre, North Shore Civic Ballet headquartered at Marblehead School of Ballet, Northern NJ Community Foundation / ArtsBergen, Leonia Arts, LEO Inc.., Hispanic Culture Arts, Family Promise of Bergen County, New Jersey Center for Nonprofits, Community of Friends in Action, The Community Chest of Leonia, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of New Jersey, Bergen County CASA, Franciscan Community Development Center, Bergen County Habitat for Humanity, League of Women Voters of the US, League of Women Voters of New Jersey, Newark Science and Sustainability, Inc., The POP Program, YWCA Northern New Jersey, York Street Project, Women's Rights Information Center, Puffin Cultural Forum, First Nature Foundation, ArtPride NJ, Americans for the Arts, Arts Action Fund, Danisarte, thelightupproject7, Putnam County DANCE Project, Farmstead Arts Center, Foundation For Post Conflict Development, Keys 2 Success, Music in the Somerset Hills, Encounters In Black Traditions, Inc., The Art School at Old Church, Bergen Volunteers, HSF

✨Share in the Comments a nonprofit making a difference in your community.

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📰If you enjoy our updates, sign up for our monthly newsletter, BALAM Dance Theatre Digest!

👬Tell a friend or a dance lover and invite them to discover BALAM’s latest news and backstage stories.👭

📩Send us and email and write “Subscribe to Newsletter” in the subject line and in the body of the email.

📥Email us here: [email protected].

Photo: Nani Devi in Margapati. Photo Credit: Karen Mancinelli

💫BALAM’s incomparable Robin Gilbert will be featured in the company’s new program, Sirens, Muses, and Fairies, with La Fiocco on October 24 and 25, 2026. See Gilbert’s debut as the Muse of Dance to Handel’s timeless hit, Chaconne de Terpsichore (circa 1734).

This Baroque showstopper, encapsulating the era's musical genius, will be interpreted through Carlos Fittante’s original Baroque choreography.

Photo: Shall We Dance (2013)
Ensemble: Kingsbury Ensemble based at Washington University, St. Louis
Role: Folia
Choreography: Carlos Fittante
Dancer: Robin Gilbert
Costume: Bonnie Kruger
Photo Credit: William Long

⌛As BALAM prepares to debut it new program with Gotham Early Music Scene in 2027, look at this flashback to our December 2017 Midtown Concert performance of La Lyre Enchantée.

Photo: (Left to right) Musicians Beverly Au and Adam Cockerham, performer Inma Heredia, dancer Carlos Fittante and musician Lisa Terry (Lisa Terry Viol).
Photo Credit: BALAM Dance Theatre

💫Did you know BALAM’s Founding Director, Islene Pinder, was not only a choreographer, dance professor, and Balinese dance expert, but also a movement analyst? Interested in movement analysis, she studied with Dr. Judith Kestenberg, the originator of the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP).

Later, Pinder served as a KMP movement pattern demonstrator at Kestenberg’s Center for Parents and Children, established to help mothers attune to their babies’ body language. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

💫Keep BALAM Dancing! 'Sirens, Muses, and Fairies' and 'A Baroque Extravaganza: Period Dance and Music from Five Nations' are just two ambitious projects that BALAM is currently working on. To realize them, we need your support now!

👐A donation in any amount makes a real difference for the company. Your gift helps us cover the many expenses incurred, including rehearsal studio rental, costumes, artists' fees, transportation, and general operating expenses. Donations are tax-deductible, as permitted by law.

By supporting these unique productions, you are directly investing in:

🏛• living history: bringing rare, centuries-old court notation to life with a fresh American boldness and vivid theatrical imagination;

🇪🇸• rare cultural discovery: introducing audiences to 18th-century Spanish Zarzuela—exquisite masterworks often overlooked; and

⌛• audience inspiration: transporting modern viewers into a living history that inspires a connection with timeless aesthetics.

Donating is easy! Visit BALAM's blog (see the Comments 👇for the link) and click the DONATE button or send a check payable to:

BALAM Dance Theatre
319 West 18th Street, 4C
New York, NY 10011

Your interest and support mean the world to us.

🙏Thank you,
Carlos Fittante
Artistic Director/President

Photo: Erin Hunter Jennings in BALAM's 2026 GEMS Show, Dancing the Lyra Way.
Photo Credit: Julie Lemberger Photography

🐝What’s happening at BALAM Dance Theatre? Check our July newsletter for:
🎶BALAM's A Baroque Extravaganza: Period Dance and Music from Five Nations Chosen by Gotham Early Music Scene for its NYC 2026-2027 Midtown Concerts!
🎪 BALAM to Perform Sirens, Muses, and Fairies in La Fiocco’s Fall Program with Robin Gilbert featured
💃Twin Sisters Erin Hunter Jennings and Faith Hunter Kimberling to Debut in a Duet Version of Passacaille d’Armide
✨Honoring the Ancestors :Islene Pinder and the Kestenberg Movement Profile
📰More News

🖇Get the Details Here: https://tinyurl.com/BALAMJuly2026

Photo: Robin Gilbert as the Muse of Dance, Terpsichore.
Photo Credit: William Long

🎭 La Fiocco commissioned BALAM Dance Theatre to create a new Baroque dance program, 'Sirens, Muses and Fairies'.

Mythic characters in opulent Baroque costumes and masks will cast their spell to the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully, George Friderich Handel, and Henry Purcell in La Fiocco’s October 24 and 25 concerts in Princeton, New Jersey and Solebury, Pennsylvania.

💫Follow us on social media and on our blog for behind-the-scenes news about casting, choreographic discoveries, and costume innovations!

Photo: Rinaldo & Armida 1771 by Angelica Kauffmann
Photo Credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons