The Obama administration is handing out visas to Cuban artists again, and Cuban musicians have begun showing up on Miami stages after a nearly decade-long hiatus. So the digital bridge artist Sage Lewis built to connect an acting ensemble in Miami with another in Havana in this weekend's U.S. premiere of multimedia drama "The Closest Farthest Away" is not strictly speaking necessary: the Cuban actors could come here to perform live. But the project, first seen at the Havana Film Festival in December, does not just bring Cuban actors to a Miami stage, it brings Cuba itself. Continue reading 'The Closest Farthest Away'
In Miami, March is the cruelest month. You would have to take a month's leave from work to keep up with all the culture surging through town. For starters, there's Miami Made, a festival of new works by local artists at the Arsht Center all day everyday this weekend (more on that tomorrow). Carnaval Miami kicks off tomorrow night with Carnaval on the Mile running through the weekend, then culminates in the world's biggest street fair, Calle Ocho. But then so does the Miami International Film Festival, running from gala to gala all across town, through March 14. After that, we get nine days to rest up before Winter Music Conference convulses the county with electric beats. That's why I appreciated a little calm before the storm last night during a hard hat tour of the under-construction Coral Gables Art Cinema. Continue reading 'In the Midst of Festivals, a New Film Institution'
It's uncanny: whenever a New York play about race comes to Miami, the issues are so similar, yet so different. Sometimes the differences are glaring, like that play about La Lupe where the star blackened her face for the Miami performance but for the New York performance you bet she didn't. The differences were more subtle in Platanos and Collard Greens, a thoughtful comedy about a star-crossed love affair between a Dominican girl and an African American boy that played to full houses at the Arsht Center over the past two weekends. Continue reading 'Platanos and Collard Greens'
If I had my way, live theater and dance would be programmed throughout the day and night, all week long, just like the movies. Augusto Soledade did his part to make my dream come true by scheduling a Brazz Dance Theater performance at 2:30 last Saturday afternoon at the Area Stage Theater in Coral Gables (in a strip mall on US 1 where I used to watch movies back in the day).
Choreographer Soledade's new piece, Kayala, featured explosive movement and lovely moments of contact among the dancers. This beautiful new piece tells the story of how the daughter of Yemanja, the Afro-Brazilian deity of the sea, came to an earth in eternal daylight, fell in love with a man, and summoned night for the first time to the human realm. Throughout the program, Soledade came on stage to give background on what we were about to see. His explanation of Kayala was helpful, since his piece does not literally represent these events. Instead, the movement is meant to convey divine curiosity and later passion for human kind and the power of the elements.
Yet a certain strip-mall-in-the-middle-of-day lethargy blunted the impact and gave the affair the air of a lecture demonstration. The dancers executed the steps with technical skill, especially Liony Garcia and Ilana Reynolds. Yet their emotional expression did not match the power of Soledade's choreography. It was telling that the most expressive moment on stage was when the cast bowed at the end, when they dropped their intense concentration and simply connected with the audience. It made me wish they'd been there with us all along.
In Miami, we hear so much about art revitalizing communities that the words get a little worn. But sometimes you have to leave home to appreciate what you have. Right now I'm in Syracuse, New York, where I'm burrowed under a comforter and wearing two scarves, while in an ostensibly heated house. The cold is the least of Syracuse's problems: this is a city I literally had to be paid to visit (I'm here on a grant to do some research in the Syracuse U. library). Locals at a cocktail party I attended Saturday night referred to their city as Toilet Town. Yet somehow Sunday morning, I found a pearl: Sugarpearl Cafe. Continue reading 'A Sugarpearl in Syracuse'
I knew Tuesday night that I had to tell you: my life would be empty without the music you bring. I know, I know, you've brought Le Nouvelle Vague before, always on the cutting edge of cool. But sometimes it takes a while for us to appreciate what you have to offer. Sitting in the sold-out crowd at the Manuel Artime, I knew I was not the only one enraptured. Continue reading 'Love Letter to the Rhythm Foundation'
Yesterday evening at least, the Center's lobby was bustling with fans sampling snacks before the gorgeous 270-seat theater was filled with dance enthusiasts and the stage electrified with movement. Rarely does such a wide variety of Miami dance come together on one stage. In an effort to raise money for the Haiti Relief effort, resident company Dance Now Ensemble invited the other dance companies sharing the space to offer a sample of their work as DNE inaugurated its 10th anniversary season. Continue reading 'Signs of Life at the Little Haiti Cultural Center'
"C'mon Adrienne Arsht Center, make some noise!" Somehow that old hip-hop chestnut sounded like an oxymoron when host DJ Cynic shouted out from the stage of the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center during the Nas show last Friday night. Continue reading 'If Nas Ruled the Arsht Center'
Beth Boone describes her vision for the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse (without the pesky pole made famous in the old Light Box Studio).
For 20 years, the Miami Light Project has programmed some of the most bracing work to come to town and commissioned many of the most inspiring performance pieces created by local artists. Now director Beth Boone is trying to take that support a step further with a shared space for arts groups to pool back office costs and boost creative synergy. With $400,000 each from the Knight Arts Challenge and developer and arts patron Tony Goldman, she's asking for potential co-conspirators to send in proposals (jump to the bottom to see the full request for proposals). Continue reading 'Let There Be a Light Box'
Photo: Rick Diaz, Liony Garcia, Ricardo Guerrero, Federico Nessi, Alex Puentes and Sleeper
Yesterday was my birthday and I could not have wished for a better present than Ana Mendez's dance piece, "Tribute: A Summoning," which as the program notes explain is based on the life and recorded sounds of Joe Meek. Since I'm usually celebrating that day, I guess the knowledge never stuck that pioneer pop music producer Joe Meek shot his landlady and himself on February 3, 1967 (the year I was born!). Or that his contemporary Buddy Holly, as well as a number of other rock and roll pioneers, went down in a plane on that day in 1959. Oh, February 3, so full of life and death. Continue reading 'Ana Mendez Is Anything But Meek'
