Explore Daniel Catanach's repertory with endless vitality!

Daniel Catanach's Bless Me, Ultima is a coming-of-age novel by Rudolfo Anaya centering on Antonio Márez y Luna and his mentorship under his curandera and protector, Ultima. The ballet reflects Anaya's interpretation of Hispano culture of the 1940s in rural New Mexico. Daniel uses Anaya's use of Spanish, mystical depiction of the New Mexican landscape, use of cultural motifs such as La Llorona, and recounting of curandera folkways such as the gathering of medicinal herbs, gives the audience a sense of the influence of indigenous cultural ways that are both authentic and distinct from the mainstream.

Illuminated by the original music of Susie Ibarra and Assif Tsahar. Catanach creates a distinctive study of where one can think dance lives and where dance goes to live. He uses Ibarra’s wildly illusive percussive beats, which conflict and then harmonizes with the sassy moods of Tsahar’s saxophone, to fashion an inspiration of a mixture of old and new, which lends to an extraordinarily new dance vocabulary.

The piece has received critical acclaim in the past, in which William Kerns, A-J Entertainment writes...“El Hambre” is the Program’s highlight, choreographed by Catanach...“El Hambre” manages to be rhythmic and wild, sexy and tragic...their performance was so dramatically piercing that one wishes it were available on tape for repeated viewings... it works because of Catanach’s skill at forcing audiences to feel while often leaving interpretations open... Catanach cannot be ignored...”

With music by Alberto Ginastera Estancia celebrates the vitality and energy as well as the struggles of the people of the Latin Americas. The Journey of so many of these cultures is represented abstractly by the constant energy of the movement throughout the ballet. The four movements represent the four levels of their journeys: Creating energy and reason amongst the workers, the peace found in the land, the wrestlesness of the struggle and finally the celebration of hope for the future. 

A world premier is being created to set off the Urban Ballet Theater ten-city visit to Catanach’s home state of New Mexico. It will be based on several versions of the well-known story told through the ages of the young woman who drowns her children and wanders the rivers looking for them. Catanach himself grew up being told this story to get him and his eight siblings to behave and go to bed on time.

Urban Ballet Theater’s signature piece questions and celebrates the diverse culture of Latin communities and explores our desire to know and understand our heritage. The ballet portrays a young man who grew up in the Chicano culture of the American Southwest. However, life now places him in an urban environment that exposes him to immigrants from all cultures of the Americas and the Caribbean. Along with this new environment comes the new label of "Latino". Trying to fit in, he mistakenly identifies the many cultures of his Latino friends with their music, and creates a fictional identity, which he thinks is Mambo. It is through this music that he begins a journey to understand these cultures that are so foreign to him. Along the way he discovers that the true meaning of Mambo does not include his roots. This brings about a new understanding and acceptance of his own culture, and identity. New York Times called it …“restless and passionate”…

Based on the poetry by the award winning New Mexican Poet, Levi Romero. Romero’s poetry, which is presented in English and Spanish, is based on growing up in the small Northern New Mexican town of Dixon. Catanach’s family used to spend the fall in the same area helping to harvest apples. After being introduced to Romero’s poetry by Catanach’s brother, he decided to create the critically acclaimed ballet, which shares the same title as Romero’s poem Of Dust and Bone. Catanach threads six of Romero’s poems together to tell the story of a young man’s hunger for life, and his realization that the same thing that gives you life, can also take it away. (An English translation for one of the Spanish lines from Romero’s poem about a Santero.)

Created to represent a community rarely intruded by outside influence, a group of dancers content in doing the same movements at the same time are disrupted when a new dancer enters with different steps, which subtly disrupts the harmony. His new ways attract one of the community’s members. It is a study of acceptance and non-acceptance of outside influence representing the subcultures of the inner cities and their subtle segregations.

A new work choreographed by Daniel Catanach in collaboration with emerging choreographer Andres Gonzalez set to live DJ’s spinning original beats and compilations.

Surface will feature six male dancers who are connected by their background but have grown towards different types and levels of journeys and success’s.The ballet will be presented in three parts: Celebration, Struggle and Triumph.The first section, Celebration will bring together the six dancers who at first seem the same but as the work progresses their true personalities surface.The second part will utilize the sound of water to flood the struggles of the world onto the dancers as they work together and individually to stay above the surface.The third part will represent what happens after the storm and the dancers surface to triumph over the struggles and continue life.

The premier in 2003 was highlighting the return of Amar Ramasar, who began his dance training at the Abrons Arts Center with Daniel Catanach. In 2005 Catanach expanded this passionate duet into a full, five-part ballet including a web of ballerinas in an elegantly powerful opening, an all-male work with an untamed spirit that challenges ballet’s technique. The work is set to music by The New Tango Orquesta.

This would set the standard for UBT’s ability to invoke realities that reflect the current tempers of society. Trouble is a study on the effects of war from different points of view, the passion from which it is blindly pursued, and its most likely outcome.

Set to the Aaron Copland music score of the same name. Catanach presents a ballet to raise the question: Is there a bad kid? After two years of researching the legendary Billy the Kid. Catanach came to the realization that society still needs to take a new responsibility towards helping young people, by not letting them think they have only one choice. “Live by the gun,” not for power but for survival. “Run with a gang,” not to glorify or put down gang life, but make people aware of why these chosen families exist. Catanach follows the legendary outlaw from his humble beginnings in the Irish slums of New York City to his demise in the Ft. Sumner, New Mexico.

Set in the New York’s Lower East Side, retelling the traditional Nutcracker tale in the neighborhood’s diverse cultural vernacular and remaining loyal to Tchaikovsky’s original music. In the story little Clara lives with her mother in a housing project, and helps her mother run the household of her spoiled, “not so nice” aunt who moved up in the world by marrying a jeweler. Clara’s kindness at a holiday party takes her on a special evening of dreams which leads her to a hip-hop battle of hood rats and toy soldiers, the Land of Snow and finally to the Land of all that is Sweet, where she learns that her mother, who in real life takes care of her by working as a maid, is really the Sugarplum Fairy who reins over all that is good in the Land of all that is Sweet.

This creation was conceived by Daniel Catanach to bring a contemporary version of a classical opera to the stage through the media of dance, theater, film, photography and music. With a storyline which is loosely based on the opera, Carmen, by Bizet, Daniel Catanach has invited many artists to collaborate on the theme and variation of the original story, the look and style of the presentation, and a new score loosely based on Bizet’s original one. 

As a cultural exchange between UBT and the New Orleans Ballet Association and the New Orleans Recreation Department UBT was re-invited in 2004 for a 3 week residency to create this original work. The Kid from Elysian Fields was created by Catanach in New Orleans, with the help of local artists and dance students from New Orleans and set to a score of local musicians of New Orleans. It tells the story of a teenager whose life represents children who grow up exposed to life’s harsh realities on a daily basis. Drugs, the absence of adult mentors and financial hardships are only a few. He places the story on a corner near Elysian Fields Avenue, which offers the choice of two roads to travel. Storylines were based on writings by the participating New Orleans dance students who have grown up around similar situations. Collaborations with local choreographers and musicians have allowed Catanach to infuse the ballet with authentic cultural flavors of New Orleans.