june 17
The Florida Dance Festival continues this week, incorporating films and discussions with a bevy of dance performances. This evening at 7:00 Dancemaker, Matthew Diamond's Academy Award-nominated documentary about the Paul Taylor Dance Company, screens at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; 305-534-7171). Also tonight at 7:30 Dale Andree and Roberta Kjelgaard host "Looking at Dance: Audience Critical Response," an informal presentation of works by Florida choreographers followed by a question-and-answer period at Miami Light Project's Light Box (3000 Biscayne Blvd.; 305-576-4350). Admission to the film is six dollars. The lecture is free. The festival runs through June 26. Call 305-674-3350.(NK)
friday
june 18
Cuban-music aficionados will be surprised to hear that Elio Reve will be appearing in Miami. Reve, whose seminal dance band Orquesta Reve served as a sort of university for the island's best musicians, died in 1997. But his spirit lives on. Reve's son, Elito, has taken over as director of the band, Elio Reve y Su Charangon. The group will appear tonight and tomorrow at Timba (2898 Biscayne Blvd.), performing Papa Reve's quintessential Cuban big-band music plus new songs. The show starts at 9:00 p.m. Tickets cost $20. Call 305-576-5866. (JC)
saturday
june 19
Nothing like watching a teenager expertly playing a violin to remind you how much you hated those music lessons your parents forced on you as a kid. All those practice sessions may have wiped out your eagerness to master an instrument, but they didn't vanquish your love for classical music. Tonight at 8:00 the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra performs at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach), where you can watch a collection of ultratalented youngsters play those tunes you just can't get enough of. Conductor Dimitri Liss leads the musicians in a program of works by Ellington, Rachmaninoff, and Szymanowski, the last of which showcases Siberian violin prodigy Mikhail Simonyan. Yes, the little fiddler is all of thirteen years old. Tickets range from $10 to $25. Call 305-673-7300. (NK)
It's safe to say that over the past five years, Tigertail Productions, the organizers of FLA/BRA, the festival that celebrates new works from Florida and Brazil, has been teased incessantly about the ostensible reference to lingerie in their event's name. Well, they've finally decided to get smart and have the last laugh by staging the first annual FLA/BRA Auction. They've enlisted a slew of local visual artists (Carlos Betancourt, William Cordova, Robert Flynn, Michelle Weinberg, David Rohn, Dina Knapp, and Miralda, to name a few) and asked them each to create their own interpretation of a bra. You heard right: artist-made undies for which you will probably pay big money. Dancers and special guests will model the brassieres and New York City-based cowboy rumba crooner, tunesmith, and auctioneer Ned Sublette will direct the bidding. A discerning panel of judges will dole out awards for the best work. Can't wait to see those push-up versions! The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. at Bar Room, 320 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. Tickets cost $75 and, of course, benefit Tigertail and the upcoming festival. Call 305-324-4337. (NK)
The Coconut Grove Playhouse (3500 Main Hwy., Coconut Grove) is falling apart. Seems some construction geniuses in the Twenties mixed beach sand into the cement and some supporting metal structures are now corroding faster than you can say "flop." It's going to cost around six million dollars to restore the joint. Let the fundraising begin! First up tonight at the playhouse at 8:30: Rhythm to the Rescue, a concert by Latin singing sensations Willy Chirino and his wife Lissette, with special guests. Tickets range from $45 to $250. Call 305-442-4000. (NK)
sunday
june 20
Pair burly macho director John Huston and literary pip-squeak Truman Capote to collaborate on a movie script and the result is bound to be really weird. The odd combo got together in 1953 and wrote the lines for Beat the Devil, a hilarious spoof of international thrillers based on a novel by James Helvick. The plot concerns a bunch of con artists all trying to claim the same uranium-rich land. Who needs Mike Myers when you have a cast that includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida, and Peter Lorre? The film, which Huston also directed, screens at noon today as part of the Cinema Vortex series at the Alliance Cinema, 927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. Tickets cost four dollars. Call 305-531-8504. (NK)
monday
june 21
Hard to fathom that babe-and-a-half author Brad Gooch (City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara) has trouble attracting the same sex. But the awful truth is now revealed. Or maybe not. Perhaps Gooch just sympathizes with all his desperado gay brethren and that's why he recently wrote Finding the Boyfriend Within: A Practical Guide for Tapping into the Source of Love, Happiness, and Respect. Or maybe he's just a greedmeister cashing in on other people's misery. Whatever the reason Gooch was compelled to pen a self-help book, it seems he's in accord with playwright Oscar Wilde, whose great line from An Ideal Husband says: "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance!" Get the goods on Gooch and listen to his advice about finding that one true love tonight at 8:00 at Books & Books, 933 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. Admission is free. Call 305-532-3222. (NK)
tuesday
june 22
Want to see the epitome of the ugly American? Take a look at the work of Michael Carlebach. The photojournalist, documentary photographer, and professor of American studies at the University of Miami is the author of three books: The Origins of Photojournalism in America; Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida; and American Photojournalism Comes of Age. His most recent tome, This Way to the Crypt, features scads of black-and-white photographs of average people doing everyday things, whether it's dancing, changing a tire, or sitting around patiently waiting. The photos were taken between the Sixties and the Nineties all across the United States, but especially in South Florida, and they reaffirm Carlebach's contention that there is no typical American citizen. Geez, just hanging around Miami a couple of days is bound to convince anyone of that! See the shots in the exhibition Michael Carlebach: This Way to the Crypt at the Miami-Dade Public Library, 101 W. Flagler St. Admission is free. The show runs through September 3. Call 305-375-2665. (NK)
wednesday
june 23
Legendary percussionist Luis Miranda has performed with renowned musicians such as Machito, Cal Tjader, and Charlie Parker. Tonight at 8:00, however, he really gets down when he joins local experimental jammers the Spam Allstars, featuring Andrew Yeomanson, Nicole Martinez, and Robin Carter, for a show called El Piquete Que Corta (the cutting-edge group) at Esperanto Music (513 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). Poets will be on hand to share their rhymes and special guest musicians are slated to improvise. Wine and cheese will be served as well. Admission is free. Call 305-534-2003. (
