Empower 2026

The Rosin Box Project, San Diego’s premier contemporary ballet company, will open its 2026 season, PARALLAX: When Perspective Becomes Movement, with EMPOWER, presented in three performances only March 20–22 at The Light Box, Liberty Station. Empower opens the Parallax season like a prism, splitting one beam into many–a celebration of perspective, power, and authorship in motion.

PARALLAX is TRBP’s 2026 season theme, inspired by the phenomenon of apparent shift: the way something can change simply because you change where you stand. Across four programs, Parallax treats each performance as an optical instrument, a different way of seeing. The season moves between revelation and reflection, inviting audiences into experiences that are intimate, immersive, and actively connective, where viewpoint becomes part of the art, and beauty is revealed in movement itself.

Through its prismatic lens, Empower features three new premieres by Carly Topazio, Jeremy Zapanta, and guest choreographer Adriana Pierce. Like light passing through glass, the program refracts contemporary ballet into distinct choreographic worlds, each shaped by its own perspective, creative logic and emotional temperature. The result is a season-opening program built to generate momentum, not only for the company, but for the full ecosystem around it: artists, audiences, and the broader community that gathers to witness the beauty in shifting perspective.

Adriana Pierce | Guest Choreographer | Premiere

Adriana Pierce brings a choreographic voice shaped by ballet’s precision and the storytelling instincts of theater and film. Her work is known for intricate partnering that gives dancers of all genders equal agency, dismantling traditional dynamics in a way that reads as modern, fluid, and deeply human. A former New York City Ballet and Miami City Ballet dancer and an artist whose career spans Broadway and screen, Pierce carries a cinematic sense of pacing and image-making into the studio. She is also the founder of Queer the Ballet, an initiative expanding classical ballet through queer work by queer dance artists, and was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2022.

Jeremy Zapanta | Premiere

Jeremy Zapanta brings a choreographic voice rooted in contemporary dance, drawing from a range of movement styles to build work that feels both kinetic and sharply intentional. His choreography is often driven by rhythm and structure, using clear patterns, fast shifts in focus, and textured dynamics that can move from expansive ensemble energy to intimate, tactile detail in a heartbeat. Zapanta’s movement language favors grounded weight, fluid transitions, and surprising changes of direction, creating choreography that feels current, genre-bending, and alive.

Carly Topazio | Premiere

Carly Topazio adds a new premiere to TRBP’s repertoire with a choreographic voice that has become central to the company’s identity: athletic contemporary ballet with precision, edge, and emotional immediacy. Her work is known for bold spatial design, intricate partnering, and phrasing that moves quickly between velocity and stillness, letting intensity and tenderness exist in the same frame. As TRBP’s Artistic & Executive Director, Topazio’s choreography is shaped by a commitment to making ballet feel close, current, and deeply human, work that meets the audience with directness and lingers after.

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