Joffrey Academy of Dance performs "Rita Finds Home"

The Joffrey Ballet is proud to present the world premiere of Rita Finds Home, a family-friendly program and collaborative project between The Joffrey Ballet and Miami City Ballet. Rita Finds Home was conceived by a nationally recognized, women-led creative team including Amy Hall Garner, a featured choreographer of the Joffrey’s Winning Works Choreographic Competition in 2011; Karla Estela Rivera, the Chicago-based author and Executive Director of Free Street Theater (West Town); as well as award-winning children’s book author Elisa Chavarri. The ballet will be danced by the Joffrey Studio Company and Academy Trainees of the Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet.

Rita Finds Home, a roughly 45-minute production, centers on Rita, a young artist who paints and dreams of one day living in the big city despite the lush tropical island in which she now lives. When a hurricane thrusts Rita and her mother into a new life in an urban metropolis, she struggles to adapt to her new environment. Feeling lost and like everything she knew, including her talents, were washed away by the storm, Rita embarks on a journey that helps her re-define what home means to her. With help from her new friends and her family, Rita’s spirits lift as she explores the beauty of her new city, igniting a new sense of home, and the realization that her talents never left her.