Limón Dance Company honors Daisy Expósito-Ulla.

The José Limón Dance Foundation is pleased to announce that it is honoring Daisy Expósito-Ulla, the well-known advertising business-woman, at its 2011 Gala on June 9th at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City.

“We wanted to honor Daisy as a gesture for our sincere gratitude for the work her agency, d expósito & Partners, has done for our organization over the past two years, as well as for being a pioneer in Hispanic communications, a Latino cultural advocate and a supporter of the Arts. The agency has been an invaluable partner. They have helped us reinvigorate the Limón brand with a new identity, and they have created beautiful advertising and direct mail pieces to promote our performances,” says Gabriela Poler-Buzali, Executive Director for the Jose Limon Dance Foundation.

Other honorees include Isabel & Augustín Coppel, entrepreneurs, collectors and social benefactors from Sinaloa, Mexico, and Betty Jones, founding member of the Limón Dance Company and master teacher. Guadalupe A. de Ramos Cárdenas will serve as Gala Chair, and the Mexican Ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhán, will be among the special guests for that evening.

The evening will commence with a performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre at John Jay College. The highlight of the program will be a revival of 1958 dance masterpiece, Missa Brevis, an epic work by José Limón, legendary dancer/choreographer. “We deliberately selected Missa for this year’s gala performance because of its deep significance and relevance to our times,” says Carla Maxwell, Artistic Director for the Limón Dance Company and protégé of José Limón. “This masterpiece has a message of hope and rebirth, as it is scored to Missa Brevis in Tempori Belli, composed by Hungarian composer, Zoltan Kodaly, at the time when the Russian army was besieging the Nazi-occupied Budapest. With Limón’s stirring choreography, this masterpiece powerfully depicts the indomitable human spirit rising up after near destruction, and it serves as a poignant reminder that, with hope, we can prevail during difficult times.”