Patricia Delgado won a Tony Award last year for Best Choreography, shared with her husband Justin Peck for the Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club — yet until now she had never choreographed a work entirely on her own. That changes with Basura, a new musical featuring original music by Latin-pop legend Gloria Estefan and her daughter, musician Emily Estefan, which premieres at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre from May 30 to July 12.

Basura — Spanish for "trash" — is based on the documentary Landfill Harmonic, which follows young musicians in Paraguay who build instruments from garbage at a nearby landfill. The project also reunites Delgado with director Michael Greif, whose work on Rent helped convert her into a musical theater fanatic.

Speaking between rehearsals, Delgado admitted her first instinct was doubt. "I don't know if I can do this," she recalled thinking. Greif's framing changed her mind. "Michael said that Basura isn't a big dance musical, but there are certain moments that need dance to express big emotions, like joy," she said. "I thought, Well, dancing gives me that joy, so I think I can do this."

Research sealed the decision. "The premise of kids being gifted a way to see the world through a different lens because of music really attracted me," Delgado said, citing also "the fact that there were so many young Latin people involved." Hearing the score sealed it: "I was transported to my young self, before I even knew the word 'choreography' and was just making up movement with my sister in the living room to Gloria Estefan. All those things aligning gave me the courage to say yes."

The dance itself diverges sharply from Buena Vista Social Club's model. "There's not an ensemble of dancers like in Buena Vista. It's an integrated cast," Delgado explained. She wanted the movement "alive and breathing in an organic way." Dance surfaces in the staging itself — a sequence on an airplane depicting takeoff and flight — as well as in communal celebration: an asado, a barbecue, where the community dances while grilling and eating. "And then there are moments of dance as poetry, suspension of disbelief," she said. "I've really stretched myself stylistically."

To build her own creative process apart from the one she shares with Peck — her collaborator on both the Tony-winning Buena Vista Social Club and the 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story — Delgado turned to Twyla Tharp's advice about maintaining a daily practice of moving. She generated material from lyrics, scene dialogue and research into Paraguayan folk dance, pairing analytical thinking with visceral studio impulses. Then came the editing: once she had a phrase, she kept refining it. "That kind of rigor, not to be complacent, that comes from Justin," she said. "I've watched how he creates a level of sophistication. He sets a very high bar."

The solo venture is already generating new work. Inspired by Emily Estefan's music, Delgado will collaborate with her on a Miami City Ballet premiere scheduled for next fall — a homecoming for the former MCB principal. "Since I left MCB, I've had experiences that I could never have dreamt of," she said. "But I still do a full ballet class as my warm-up. I still feel very much like a ballerina."

Her central question for that ballet: "How can I infuse Latin rhythms and movement and create a theatrical experience using ballet?" And Basura has shifted her ambitions more broadly. "I don't feel as scared now to say yes to a project where my role would involve making instead of being the vessel," she said. "I'm excited." With Basura opening May 30 and an MCB premiere on the horizon, Delgado's transition from interpreter to maker is now fully underway.