Dance Professor Takes Her Talents To South Beach Pool To Stage A Water Ballet

Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus dance professor Delma Iles staged a water ballet show this summer at the National Hotel in Miami Beach, five dancers, all in pink bathing suits delicately danced throughout two pools.

Their bodies flowed in sync with the music playing in the background. Sometimes they mirrored each other and other times one of them led the rest through the song. The captivating performance was a part of the 12th annual Miami Dance Festival.

At the May 21 performance, Iles said Etude, with its delicate and graceful setting accompanied by classical music by John Field, shows the luxuriousness of being in the water. It was the piece with what she called the more artistic expression.

Iles describes Sparkle as a contrasting, fun piece because it is more modern, accompanied by the electropop music by Hooverphonic. Its crisp beats and complex rhythms allowed the dancers to present a more contemporary interpretation of ballet in a very wet setting.

Both pieces showcased a cohesion between the lyrical style of the music and the symmetry and symbolism portrayed by dancers.

“If you want to have an evening, everything shouldn’t look alike,” said Iles.

The bathing dancers, Kristen Aoki, Barbie Freeman, Rebecca Pelham, Justice Rodriguez, and Paula Vasquez, were all members of Iles’ Momentum Dance Company, now in its 32nd year.

Iles started the Miami Dance Festival in 2003 in response to the severe funding cutbacks imposed by the State of Florida.

She was only five-years-old in Texas when Iles first realized she wanted to be a dancer, while watching the Bolshoi Ballet perform Swan Lake with her mother and grandmother.

“I had a whole career as a professional dancer first,” said Iles, who has danced with the Pittsburgh Valley Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, and the Cincinnati Ballet, as well as several smaller companies in New York and two Broadway shows.

She holds an M.F.A. degree in dance from New York University and a B.A. in Teaching of Dance from Virginia Intermont College.

Iles started dancing in Miami with the Fusion Dance Company. After it went under, she and two fellow dancers came together to form Momentum Dance Company in 1982. Thirty-two years later, the contemporary dance company, which does everything from historic works to ballet and works for children, as well as presenting the Miami Dance Festival, remains strong, and Iles believes it is due to its ability to adjust to current times.

“It’s an ever-evolving organization, and it has to be,” said Iles. “If you don’t evolve and grow and change with times, you won’t last. There are very few modern dance companies in the United States that have been around as long as Momentum.”

While teaching dance at MDC, her classes follow a very intimate and interactive setting. As she is instructs, she corrects her dancers’ faults as soon as they are noticed, leaving little room for misinterpretation and communicating thoroughly with her students. In her Modern Dance I class, open to all majors, her students are exposed to various styles of music, including, ragtime, baroque compositions and Appalachian music.

“Her strength is her patience and attention to new students,” student Stephanie Elmir said. “She really takes the time to teach us properly. As a beginner, I learned just how functional the body can be.”

Fellow student Chrissy Rubenstein described Iles as very passionate and interactive.

“She’s never in a bad mood, and she’s full of energy,” said Rubinstein.

Iles is looking forward to future projects, including an insect inspired dance. She would also like to hopefully do a performance on the Metromover in downtown Miami later in September.

“We’re pretty open minded about what dance can be and where it can take place,” Iles said.

Whether she is dancing, choreographing, or teaching, Iles enjoys being able to do what she loves.

“I feel really lucky, because not that many people get to do that,” Iles said. “I love being here at the college. I love my students here and it’s great working with them. Teaching is something I don’t just put up with, I really enjoy it.”