Myth has it that a Cuban who doesn’t dance is a rare creature. Like the endangered Florida panther, you could live an entire lifetime without ever seeing one. “We come from a dancing island,” explains Fernando Sáez, founder and executive director of Cuban contemporary dance company Malpaso. From Afro-Cuban ritual…
Artistic director Peter London is never at a loss for words. That’s especially true when he describes what compelled him to undertake two powerhouse pieces of music for his newest performance venture of the Peter London Global Dance Company, which will be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Theater…
What happens to old dances? Do they slowly disappear as choreographers and dancers move on to other projects? Not if an effort is made to revive the piece — reconstruct it and present it anew to an audience. That’s the case with Ritmo Jondo (Deep Rhythm), a seminal work by Doris Humphrey, one of the foremost choreographers and dancers of modern dance.
Grisi, the legendary ballerina who originated the role of Giselle in 19th-century Paris, must be smiling down on Lauren Fadeley from dance Heaven. Portraying the titular heroine of Giselle, the most celebrated French ballet, can well be considered the zenith of any career. And not only did Fadeley get to…
One of the highlights of Tigertail’s fall season, The Way You Look (at me) Tonight, comes to the Miami stage this weekend. It runs Friday and Saturday, October 14-15 at the Miami Dade County Auditorium’s On.Stage Black Box. A collaboration between self-described disabled choreographer and performer Claire Cunningham and choreographer…
Director Paula Ortiz’s brilliant spin on Federico García Lorca’s classic play Blood Wedding unfolds within the film’s first few seconds. La Novia (The Bride) opens with an overhead shot of a woman who appears almost mummified in a torn and bloodied dress. After a sudden gasp for air, actress Inma Cuesta peels…
It’s perhaps the most exotic dance music to hit Miami in recent memory: contradance. It’s Americana, the real thing, a far more sophisticated version of the square-dancing you may remember from gym dances in elementary school. A band called Cornbread and just as tasty is in the house each Thursday…
As the season winds down in South Florida, it’s a good time to catch up on what some of the Miami’s local favorites have been up to. Take Alfredo Triff, for instance — our town’s resident philosopher-king, MDC philosophy professor, and all-around dynamic jazz violinist. This year, Triff produced the…
Black Violin, made up of Will B. and Kev Marcus, has been creating a special blend of classical and hip-hop music for almost two decades. Natives of Fort Lauderdale and graduates of Dillard High School, they met in orchestra class and have been making music together ever since. On the…
It may still be a stretch to call Miami the artsiest city in the United States (as some news outlets have proclaimed). But the Magic City is no longer that sleepy provincial town, even in the summer. And artist and chief curator of Edge Zones’ Miami Performance International Festival (M/P16),…
Imagine it’s February 7, 2013, and you’re leaving Miami after a monthlong visit with family and friends and resuming your dance career in Israel. At the airport, TSA agents repeatedly search and interrogate you, causing you to miss your connection. Why? Maybe it’s because of your Cuban passport and the…
When founder and artistic director of the non-proft Antiheroes Project, José Manuel Dominguez, set out to create a new work, he stumbled across the nothing short of epic life of French aviator and writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The author’s Little Prince is still one of the best-selling books in publishing…
Out in the Tropics is a weeklong celebration presented by FUNDarte that boasts a diverse lineup of talented artists and performers. In its seventh year, the fest will feature music, theater, and dance events in locations throughout Miami and South Beach. The founder and executive director of the performing arts…
A Coral Gables church’s annual summer treat for music lovers begins with a performance by one of America’s favorite TV musicians. Doc Severinsen, who led The Tonight Show band for 25 years when Johnny Carson hosted the program, stars Thursday at the Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ. The…
June is Miami Film Month, highlighting the city’s growing place in the world of cinema. The festival, now i n its third year, gives both visitors and locals a good reason try something new. Many organizations will be hosting special events including discounted or free film screenings. The Pérez Art…
Ilisa Rosal founded Ballet Flamenco La Rosa in 1985 and the company soon cultivated a renowned reputation for presenting flamenco, in all its forms, to local, national, and international audiences. This weekend it will premiere “La Gaviota,” a flamenco ballet and “Al Grano.” The program showcases the talent of artists…
Dance Now! Miami brings choreographer Edward Stierle’s evocative Lacrymosa home to South Florida this weekend. The performance comes more than 20 years after its premiere with the Joffrey Ballet and since the untimely death (at age 23) of Stierle, a Hollywood, Forida native. In Lacrymosa, the work and the life…
Miami’s Karen Peterson and Dancers company brings its 26th season to a close this weekend with a series of premieres as well as collaborations with two of Portugal’s leading dance companies, Amalgama Companhia de Danca and Plural. These groups, like Peterson’s, are committed to exploring what physicality and mixed-ability are…
Founded in 1988 in Havana, the DanzAbierta company began under the direction of Marianela Boan. Considered a precursor to Cuba’s avant-garde dance movement, the company was known for its experimental stance towards cultural identity. In 2003, the group came under the artistic direction of Guido Gali, and later, Barcelona native…
The Teatro Cinema theater company is one of the most genre-breaking groups to present their work in South Florida. Frustrated by the limits of both stage and screen, they fuse them. Although it isn’t as simple as using background images as stage sets. For one, they use a scrim between stage…
If Dale Andree could come back as an animal in her next life, she’d be a seal. The National Water Dance founder and artistic director, a self-confessed “water baby,” has a kinship with h20. Is is that connection that helped her to realize an artistic vision that has now become…
“Old age ain’t no place for sissies,” Bette Davis once said. It’s no fun either for caregivers when elderly family members withdraw — whether to treasured memories or in abject despair. For dancer/choreographer Marissa Alma Nick, her two grandmothers – Abuela Maria Gran Nick and Grandma Jean Teemer McCracken –…
