Dance is an unexpected performance element planned for two of the five concerts in Bay Atlantic Symphony’s exhilarating 2025-2026 season. Included are Spanish Flamenco and Indian Kathak dance, a classical dance form that began in North Indian temples.
Originating in Spain’s Andalusia region Flamenco includes guitar, singing, palmas – hand clapping and foot stomping – and castanets. Liliana Ruiz, who has been dancing Flamenco since she was six years old, accompanies Manuel de Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” for Bay Atlantic Symphony’s March 21 and 22, 2026 Concert.
Ruiz has performed classical Spanish dances with the Philly Pops at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, as well as with the Pottstown Symphony, the Tulsa Symphony and the New Jersey Patriots Symphony. In 2013 she founded the Suspiro Flamenco dance company in Philadelphia where she also teaches flamenco dance classes.
Ruiz is joined by acclaimed Mezzo-Soprano Barbara Dever in the “Falla” ballet. The work presents “Spanish culture at its most passionate,” notes Bay Atlantic Symphony Music Director Jed Gaylin. “It’s a celebration of new life and new beginnings, a theme of the Concert which also includes a work by Composer Richard Wagner written for his wife celebrating the birth of their son” and Composer Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” about a pioneering couple’s new life and love.
Indian Kathak dance interpreter Sarah Morelli is part of the five-member Temporal Taal Collective, fusing Indian classical music, jazz and global influences in its “Nightfall Rhapsody” for the May 2 and 3, 2026 Concert. The Taal Collective brings together the soulful sounds of bansuri, tabla, bass and guitar, paired with the intricate footwork, dynamic spins and expressive storytelling of Kathak, one of India’s most revered dance forms. Morelli hopes Concert attendees “feel the vibrant, expressive energy and become part of its deep, heartfelt connection across traditions.”
The piece is paired with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7” for the Concert. Gaylin says he chose the two pieces because while they are stylistically “as far apart as can be,” they share “the same musical essence” of strong rhythms.
In its 2025-2026 season Bay Atlantic Symphony presents five concerts at Guaracini Performing Arts Center at Rowan College of South Jersey in Vineland on Saturdays at 3 p.m. and at Stockton University’s Performing Arts Center in Galloway Township on Sundays at 2 p.m. The new season promises to be “fresh, timeless and exhilarating,” according to Gaylin.
The opening Concert on October 25 and 26, 2025 features Pianist Zhenni Li-Cohen bringing her expressive insight and communicative passion to Mozart’s stirring “Piano Concerto.” A seasonal musical sampler spanning countries and faiths will bring joy to all at the December 13 and 14, 2025 holiday Concert. The January 17 and 18 Concert features Bay Atlantic Symphony’s Concertmaster Ruotao Mao and principal horn and oboe players in solo turns.
Audiences can save on ticket pricing by being a season subscriber to four of the five concerts. Season subscription and single ticket sales are both open and can be purchased on Bay Atlantic Symphony’s website, www.bayatlanticsymphony.org.
