Drowning incorporates surreal imagery, comic pop iconography, and an often disturbing emotional subtext. Reinhart was impressed by way Herrera used her wildly varied experience -- as Latin showgirl, hip-hop dancer, drag queen choreographer -- and her Cuban background for a theater piece that could be enjoyed on many levels. ''She didn't leave it behind her, she brought it with her,'' Reinhart says. ``You can see [Drowning] on many levels. If you only read comic books, you'll love it. If you read philosophy, you can love it. That's really rare. As visual eye food it's spectacular. But it's also about life.''

If the commission is unexpected, so is Herrera's path in dance. Raised in Hialeah, she began as a cabaret dancer, strutting in towering heels and feather headdresses or twitching her hips in comic skits at El Teatro de las Bellas Artes nightclub in Little Havana.

She was also a hip-hop dancer in concerts and music videos for the likes of R. Kelly, Usher and a host of reggaeton artists, and at the MTV Video Music Awards.

MIME ASPIRATIONS

At 18, Herrera decided she should become a mime because, she says, ''I have this high speaking voice, and I was always typecast as the hooker or the damsel in distress.'' She headed to the University of Florida at Gainesville, intending to study there with a former partner of Marcel Marceau. But she also auditioned for a modern dance class, and was promptly taken into the university dance troupe.

''It changed my life,'' Herrera says. After two years she transferred to the New World School of the Arts, where she got her BFA in 2006. She studied classical singing, and worked with Circ X, a hybrid cabaret performance group, danced with various modern troupes, and choreographed for and performed with drag queen ''houses'' for underground competitions.

Herrera had only created short dances when she got the chance to do Drowning for Here and Now, and the pieces of her artistic life fell into place. ''I struggled with it for so long, the fact that I'm a cabaret singer, a hip-hop and modern dancer, an opera singer -- there's got to be something I can do,'' says Herrera, sitting on the auditorium steps and looking at the long green lawn between Duke's graceful brick Georgian buildings. ``I used to say I have to focus on one thing. But my personality is too complex. When I buckled down and started choreographing, all my education, all these other things made sense.''

Incorporating all those experiences seems to have made Herrera comfortable with the possibilities offered by the American Dance Festival's 385 student dancers, who hail from 27 countries and 38 states. Nearly 300 of them auditioned soon after she arrived in early June. Faced with this extraordinary array of talent, Herrera ended up with 20 performers, instead of her original cast of 12. Many are Asian, and most have limited English.

Herrera had been worried how these more formally trained dancers would take to Drowning, which she created around a group of close friends and collaborators, including actors, two drag queens, the young daughter of hip-hop dancer friends, and a tiny Cuban girl who -- in a sequence that goes from comic to horrifying -- is forced down on a series of elaborately decorated cakes by three men who start as gentlemanly dance partners and become increasingly forceful. Herrera didn't know if the new cast would understand Drowning's Latino or ironic pop culture references. And would she find a drag queen?

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@