Tania Vergara Perez grew up in Cuba, where she trained as a dancer in the demanding and disciplined government-run ballet system and experienced the restrictions of life under the repressive Fidel Castro regime. So it is not surprising that after she immigrated to Florida – speaking little English and reliant on a handful of fellow Cuban immigrants for social connection and employment – the deeply-rooted and intertwined mangroves that help preserve Sarasota’s shoreline instantly became for her a symbol of strength, resilience and perseverance.

That metaphor is the source material for “HuMangrove,” which Tania Vergara Dance-Theater, the contemporary ballet company she birthed in Cuba more than two decades ago and revived in Sarasota in 2023, presented this weekend as part of Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s In-Studio series.

The piece first debuted at the 2025 Squeaky Wheel Festival as “The Paradox of the Mirror,” where it was voted the “audience favorite.” Since then the choreographer – who, like an obsessed writer, loves to continue to tinker with her work long after it’s “finished” – completely revised the piece, giving it a new name and deepening and extending the metaphor to facilitate a greater audience comprehension and appreciation.

It starts with the dancers – Isabella Serrano, Anais Arreola-Pilarte, Bethany Vollmer and Aiden Bjorkland – dressed in nude bodywear and intertwined in stillness on their hands and knees like a tangle of roots, a colorful video projection of the winding entrails of a mangrove thicket projected on their bodies as well as on a back scrim. As the projections turn to close-ups of details of a painting of mangroves by Vergara Perez’s husband, the artist Guillermo Lopez Gonzalez, the dancers, with flexibility and fluidity, make the painting’s entwined and interlaced roots come to animated life.

Music by the late Eduardo Coma, who hailed from Vergara Perez’s native Camaguey, and the Peruvian composer Pedro Suarez, as well as spoken word poems – “Carribean Marsh” by Muna Lee and “I Am the Mangrove,” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (read by Sun Love Peace) – emphasize how the mangrove, like humankind, endures through adaptation and persistence.

While all of Vergara Perez’s work has a deep foundation in classical ballet technique, her contemporary vocabulary is a far cry from its narrowly-defined restrictions. The serpentine and out-of-alignment use of arms and upper body, the daringly off-balance distribution of weight, and intricate partnering that looks deceptively fluid and organic despite its difficulty make her work both unexpected and engrossing to watch.

There are multiple movements to “HuMangrove,” each distinctive but all interrelated. In one, Vollmer, dressed in colorful bell-bottoms, returns alone, holding an unlit cigarette which she anxiously and repeatedly draws to her lips, human angst visible in every inch of her mile-high extensions. In another, the other three dancers, also in vibrant bell-bottoms, return for a playful, bouncy romp, the compulsive, percussive beat of Indian Kathak music standing in for human chatter.

One segment is devoted to a video of Serrano, doing an improvisational dance in the shallow waters of the Gulf’s shoreline, rising and falling with the steady beat of the waves. The next is a touching pas de deux between Serrano and Bjorkland, emphasizing the human longing for connection and need for interdependence.

Throughout, the fluid, grounded movement and ensemble-driven choreography clearly but not simplistically reinforce the mangrove/human dichotomies of vulnerability and strength, support and resilience, heritage and evolution. The dance’s effectiveness is achieved not only through the choreography, but thanks to the skill and commitment of the dancers, all of whom (we learn in a post-performance talkback) have never worked together previously; have other full time jobs; and had less than 40 hours of rehearsal to bring this complex 40-minute work to life.

My observation of Vergara Perez’s work over the past several years has strengthened my conviction that she represents one of the most original and compelling choreographic voices on the local dance scene. With both gravity and humor, she tackles some of the thorniest struggles of the human condition, balancing the choreographic need for arresting visuals and unique movement with deeply resonating but not overwrought messaging.

Although there are no additional performances of ‘HuMangrove” currently scheduled, over the next two months, the company – which is really not yet a full-fledged troupe given the fact that it is made up of freelance, project dancers and lacks a home of its own – will present two more of the choreographer’s original works.

“Echoes of My Barrio,” based on audio recordings Vergara Perez captured of street life in her native Camaguey, will be presented as part of The Ringling’s MicroWIP (works-in-progress) program at 7:30 p.m. May 8, Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota. “Casa Havana,” which addresses Cuban life and politics, will be presented during the 2026 Squeaky Wheel Fringe Festival, 7 p.m. June 3 and 2:30 p.m. June 8 at the Cook Theatre, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

If you’ve yet to discover Tania Vergara Dance-Theater, these productions provide an opportunity to do so you’re unlikely to regret taking.