A year ago, Gonzalo Garcia did not expect to be living in South Florida, let alone leading one of the state’s preeminent arts organizations. Nor did Miami City Ballet expect to be bidding farewell to then-Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez on the cusp of the company’s 40th anniversary season. Lopez, who had been helming the organization since 2013, announced her departure with two years left in her contract.
“I’m sure it was a shock for them,” Garcia says. “She had a change of heart, and a change of heart sometimes means an opportunity for an institution to reassess what direction they want to go, and pump fresh energy. And I think that’s what they did with me.”
Indeed, Garcia is so fresh from his dance career he might as well have arrived to Miami vacuum-sealed. He retired from performance only in 2022, capping a 15-year run as principal dancer with New York City Ballet (NYCB), preceded by nine years with San Francisco Ballet. Just before his selection as Miami City Ballet’s artistic director, at age 45, Garcia coached dancers as repertory director at NYCB.
In his decades in the industry, Garcia has not only danced many of ballet’s iconic roles—including leads in “Giselle,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Nutcracker”—but he established relationships with today’s top choreographers. He is eyeing several for his first full season at Miami City Ballet beginning in the fall.
What drew you to dance as a child, and what still draws you to it today?
I was very hyper. Whenever there was music, I seemed to react to it, and wanted to be part of that. And then eventually, I would see singers with backup dancers, and I would mimic it, and I would say, I want to do that. My mom and dad, who didn’t come from an artistic background, decided, once a week, let’s take him to a ballet school—probably to get rid of me for a little bit—and see what happens.
They quickly realized that I really liked it, but I also had some talent. And it turned out that María de Ávila, who was my first mentor of dance, had a school a block away from our home. … I was taken in right away. And that was it. I never looked back.
I have the same sort of passion for it. It’s who I am in many ways.
You’ve led bilingual outreach efforts to expand ballet’s reach and relevance. Why is that important, particularly in Miami?
I feel that it is important for the community to feel included in the narrative. I see Miami City Ballet as one of the strong organs of the cultural world of Miami. … Music and dance is a really big world, so I want the whole community to be part of that world. As someone that came onto the stage when I was 15 years old and I didn’t speak a lot of English, I found a lot of [Spanish-speaking] people through my life in the dance world.
Are there new directions that you hope to take the company in your first full season as artistic director?
Even before I got the job, I dreamed about what a season would look like. So as soon as I landed here, I was eager to unveil a draft of what I thought could be my first season. And people were like, “slow down, you’ll get there.”
I was lucky that my season, everybody sort of loved, and it’s now in the middle of being green-lighted. And while I’m doing that, which is the ‘26-’27 season, I’m starting to think about ‘27-’28.
Have you witnessed audience demands changing for what they want in ballet performance?
Dramatically it has changed. Inevitably, generations keep moving, and that’s already a change. But COVID really sped up the process in many ways. People are more selective. … People don’t want to go to the ballet just to watch a show. They want to feel part of an experience that starts before they get to the theater, maybe, and then in between the performance.
Entertainment has shifted, so the way you present dance also has to shift. There is a wave of people wanting new stories that represent a younger generation, or stories that feel more relevant than some of the stories we’ve been seeing, especially in the traditional works. But also there is a huge comeback of the classics, of those masterpieces that people feel comfort in. “Swan Lake” is still the biggest seller. So is “Romeo and Juliet.” These big numbers in dance are not things that people are tired of. We know from ticket sales that they work. So that’s part of the conversation.
One of the big stories involving the arts in South Florida has been the loss of funding. Is Miami City Ballet feeling the pinch?
One hundred percent we’re feeling the pinch. I don’t know of any arts organization that is not feeling the pinch at different levels.
Arts and culture are so important for humanity to keep moving forward. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity of expressing who we are, of challenging ourselves. That’s why it’s important for me, especially as I’m new, to … keep this community and this company alive in many different ways—not just surviving but thriving.
I’m very much finding ways to collaborate with other arts organizations here in South Florida. … I’m trying to think of ways to take this challenge as an opportunity to grow, not to stay still. We’ve got to stay together and keep this going forward, even if these are challenging times.
For more from Gonzalo Garcia, check out this web extra.
This story is from the April 2026 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
