december 26
Beauty and the Beast: The Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach) becomes an ice rink tonight at 8:00 as the Russian All-Stars Ice Theatre presents an ice-ballet version of the classic tale Beauty and the Beast. Choreographed by skating coach Tatiana Tarasova, with music by David Essex and book by David Wood, the production features a troupe of 24 Olympic skaters in a Broadway-style spectacle. These dancers are literally skating on thin ice -- the stage will be covered with thick plastic sheets rigged with refrigerant-filled tubes, then covered with a two-inch-thick ice veneer. Tickets range in price from $12 to $35. Performances continue through January 5 at 1:00 and 8:00 p.m., except Tuesday (1:00 only), and Wednesday (8:00 only). Call 673-7300. (GC)
Indian Arts Festival: Soak up a little nature and a lot of culture at the Miccosukee Tribe's 22nd annual Indian Arts Festival. Native American dancers, musicians, alligator wrestlers, and entertainers from throughout the Americas perform all week; arts and crafts booths and traditional Native American foods abound. The festival runs today through Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Miccosukee Indian Village (about 25 miles west of Miami on the Tamiami Trail). If you stay late, you can watch the sun set over the Glades without city lights and pollution. Admission is eight dollars for adults, six dollars for kids ages six to fourteen, free for kiddies under six. Call 223-8380. (GC)
Kwanza Celebration: Honor the fruits of your labor as the Center for African Cultural Studies hosts a weeklong African cultural festival to celebrate Kwanza (which in Swahili means "first fruit of the harvest") at the Pioneer Mall (224 Washington Ave., Homestead). Each day the festival highlights one of the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles of Kwanza), which are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith). The festivities include the lighting of the first mshumaa (candles) today at 4:00, and a village feast on Tuesday beginning at 4:00 p.m. The fest runs today through Wednesday from 4:00 to 6:00, Saturday from 7:00 to 9:00, and Tuesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., with speakers discussing the meaning of each principle. Admission is free. Call 239-0039 for more information. (GC)
friday
december 27
Junior Orange Bowl Parade: The Junior Orange Bowl Festival culminates with its 48th annual parade on Miracle Mile (Coral Way between Douglas and Le Jeune roads), rolling tonight at 7:30. Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio leads this year's "World of Sports" parade as grand marshal, with WTVJ-TV (Channel 6) news anchor Jackie Nespral and tennis great Mary Joe Fernandez as MCs, plus floats, marching bands, giant balloons, and street performers. Preceding the parade at 6:45, choreographer Kimberly Beck Thomson leads Dance Unlimited in a performance. Tickets cost $6.50 for those choosing grandstand seating, $10 for box seats; free for all other spectators. Call 662-1210. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
saturday
december 28
Holiday Comedy Jam Explosion: Damon Wayans is proof that you can be naughty and nice at the same time (sorry, Santa). He's played the rogue hero in action flicks like Bulletproof and The Last Boy Scout and goodhearted yet misguided characters in comedies like Major Payne and Mo' Money. On-stage Wayans can spew a torrent of off-color commentary and still come away as affable as ever. Tonight at 8:00 at Sunrise Musical Theatre (5555 NW 95th Ave.), he headlines an evening of comedy, with little brother Shawn of the TV show The Wayans Brothers opening. Tickets cost $23.50 and $26.50. Call 954-741-7300. (GC)
Orange Bowl Parade: Thanks to the money-hungry Bowl Alliance, the Orange Bowl and Orange Bowl Parade have been shuffled around to new dates and locations. The 60th annual parade, traditionally held on New Year's Eve, steps off tonight at 6:30 in downtown Miami (beginning at Biscayne Boulevard and SE Second Street) for a 2.2-mile trek, featuring Don Shula as grand marshal, R&B star Tevin Campbell, Latin jazzster Tito Puente, Grammy Award-winning country artist Bryan White, and the band Rockapella, plus more than 80 floats, marching bands, giant inflatable characters, folkloric dance troupes, and street entertainers. Admission is $12 for bleacher seats, $20 for grandstand seats, and $25 for box seats. See our "Calendar Listings" for more Orange Bowl Festival events. Call 373-4622. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
sunday
december 29
Gabriela Montero: Classical pianist Gabriela Montero returns to South Florida to perform a solo recital tonight at 5:00 at the Lincoln Theatre (555 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) as part of Community Concerts' 40th season. Montero began performing in her native Venezuela when she was just five years old and made her first appearance with a major orchestra at age eight. Since then she has been compared to the legendary Teresa Carreno for her explosively dramatic style. Montero took a seven-year hiatus from the concert stage, then re-emerged triumphant when she represented the U.S. at the thirteenth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland, in September 1995, where she became only the third American laureate in the competition's history. Tickets cost $15, $18, and $28. Call 538-2121. (GC)
Continuity and Contradiction: Along with its new name, the Miami Art Museum (101 W. Flagler St.) has the beginnings of a new permanent collection. Now through February 23, you can view the MAM's embryonic holdings alongside 50 works that belong to San Diego's Museum of Contemporary Art, a center that has been collecting since the Fifties. The show includes painting, sculpture, installations, and photography from the 1960s to the 1990s. The San Diego Museum's collection reflects the tastes of different administrations as much as artistic tendencies -- there's a logical emphasis on California artists, and the most recent acquisitions demonstrate the current director's interest in socially committed work. Unfortunately, Chris Burden's The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, consisting of 50,000 nickels and matchsticks laid out on the floor, stayed at home. But you can view works by Judith Shea, Sophie Calle, John Baldessari, Lorna Simpson, Martin Puryear, and other well-known contemporaries. Admission is five dollars. Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Tuesday through Friday (except Thursday till 9:00 p.m.), and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5:00 p.m. The museum will be closed this Wednesday. Call 375-3000. (JC)
American Experimental Cinema, 1940s to 1970s: The Cinema Vortex film series closes the year with a two-hour program of hand-picked examples of innovative film works by American directors. Screening today at noon at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach), the program includes shorts by Kenneth Anger (director of Scorpio Rising and author of Hollywood Babylon), Stan Brakhage (Fox Fire Child Watch), James Broughton, Bruce Conner, Maya Deren, and Ian Hugo with Anais Nin. Admission is four dollars. Call 531-8504. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
monday
december 30
Van Morrison: Legendary Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison is a fluid combination of Celtic bard and soul singer, a mystical, musical visionary if ever there was one. His influence is unrivaled by any living rock artist, with the exception of American counterpart Bob Dylan -- and perhaps so is his temper. But it's that fire that lights up the soul of albums such as 1971's Tupelo Honey, 1982's Beautiful Vision, and his most recent, 1995's Days Like This. (See "Music," page 89 for more.) Morrison rocks your soul with his first South Florida performance in more than twenty years tonight and tomorrow night at 8:00 at the Sunrise Musical Theatre (5555 NW 95th Ave.). Tickets cost $25, $35, and $50. A limited number of tickets remain for tomorrow's New Year's Eve show, but there are plenty of seats left for tonight's concert. Call 954-741-7300. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
tuesday
december 31
Big Orange New Year's Eve Celebration: Now that the parade has moved, traffic and parking should be a little better for this year's Big Orange New Year's Eve Celebration at Bayfront Park (301 Biscayne Blvd.). Nah, don't count on it. Considered the biggest New Year's Eve bash south of Times Square (commonly 100,000 attendees), the fest features music on two stages beginning at 8:00 p.m. Pop-hippies the Spin Doctors headline at the Amphitheater, with locals Center Stage and the aptly named Tymes Square opening. Salsa king Frankie Ruiz headlines the Hispanic stage, with openers La Secta and Venezuela en Gaitas. The party, which kicks off at 4:00 p.m., also features carnival rides, children's games, laser and fireworks shows, and the drop of the 35-foot Big Orange. Admission is free. Call 375-8480. (GC)
Howie Mandel: Since his days on the television drama St. Elsewhere, comedian Howie Mandel has been making people laugh by behaving obnoxiously. He is kind of like an overgrown six-year-old, but that's where his charm and talents lie. Perhaps it is this intrinsic understanding of a child's mind that led Mandel to participate in educational projects such as 7th Level's CD-ROM games The Great Math Adventure, The Great Reading Adventure, and The Great World Adventure, and to create his successful, Emmy Award-nominated animated show Bobby's World (now in its seventh season on Fox). Mandel closes the year with two performances of his wacky yet decidedly grown-up "One-Women Show" at 6:30 and 10:00 p.m. at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale). Tickets range in price from $26 to $46. Call 954-462-0222. (GC)
Three Tall Women: New Year's Eve isn't just a time for partying -- it's also a time for reflecting on the year gone by. Appropriately, the Broadway Series has chosen tonight to open its production of Edward Albee's 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about life and remembrance, at 8:00 at the Parker Playhouse (707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale). Lawrence Sacharow directs and Laurie Kennedy, Lois Markle, and Christina Rouner star in the play, in which a wealthy, vain, and domineering 92-year-old widow reflects on her sad, selfish life. The other two tall principals are a middle-aged woman attending to the widow's health and a young lawyer hired to sort out the old woman's affairs. Tickets cost $38 and $41. Performances continue through Saturday at 8:00, with a 2:00 matinee on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday (except January 12, when the performance runs at 7:00 p.m.) through January 19. Call 954-764-0700. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
Continuity and Contradiction: See Sunday.
Van Morrison: See Monday.
wednesday
january 1
Florida Panthers: Put the New Year on ice for a day when the Panthers meet Anaheim's Mighty Ducks today at noon at the Miami Arena (721 NW First Ave.). As of this writing, the Panthers were ahead with 18-6-7 (behind only the Philadelphia Flyers in the Atlantic Division), and the Ducks were 11-16-5 (ranking last in the Pacific Division), so it looks like an easy win for the Panthers. Superiority feels good, doesn't it? Tickets cost $24 and $35. Call 530-4444. (GC)
Beauty and the Beast: See Thursday.
Indian Arts Festival: See Thursday.
Kwanza Celebration: See Thursday.
Three Tall Women: See Tuesday.
