India Jazz Suites: The Fastest Feet in Rhythm pretty much spells out what will be going down Saturday at the South-Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center. The event is a high-speed hybrid of ancient Indian moves and contemporary tap, created by Kathak dance master Pandit Chitresh Das and celebrated tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith.

Many dancers talk of the energy in their work, but few understand it in the way Das does. The 69-year-old dancer’s pursuit of the sublime doesn’t stop with his deep devotion to Kathak, a classical Northern Indian dance form. He likes to mix things up, juxtaposing the rhythmic structures of his own tradition with others, opening up to improvisation, or as he calls it, a “conversation” between traditions.

Das’ partner in that conversation began his career at age 15 as understudy for Savion Glover in the Broadway production of Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk. Samuels Smith went on to win an American Choreography Award for a televised tribute to Gregory Hines, and founded Los Angeles’ first tap dance festival in 2003. He has tapped his way across prominent stages from London to Chicago, and has appeared as a guest performer on So You Think You Can Dance.

Das’ interest in other traditions began with a ritual fire ceremony six decades ago, marking the start of his training with guru Pandit Ram Narayan Misra, who was more interested in his student’s integrity than his dance technique. In the 18 years they worked together, Misra taught Das the two most important lines within Kathak dance: the sensuality of the Lucknow school and the fierce rhythm of the Jaipur school.

Das’ parents were celebrated dancers in the classical tradition. “It seemed there was never an end to the dancing at home,” he says. “It went on all day and all night. Much of it might have been considered ‘subversive,’ pro-Indian independence reworking of classical works.”

His parents’ dance school was among the most celebrated in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and their son was something of a prodigy. Das’ first public performance was with sitar genius Ravi Shankar.

“I grew up in a golden time,” Das says, referring to his apprenticeship as well as the promise of India in the 1950s. But by the 1970s, fewer Indians seemed interested in their own culture. “One needs to go out of one’s country to understand it,” his mother told him. And so, like so many other young people at the time, Das set out for Berkeley, Calif.

“Everything was going on, some of it wondrous,” he says. “Still, I was isolated from my own roots, my own environment, and when that happens, one recreates one’s own environment.”

Since then, he has recreated that environment all over the world. Today Das has dance schools in Kolkata, Mumbai, San Francisco, Boston and Toronto. He performed at Lincoln Center in New York in 1988 and has been featured in documentaries on PBS and the BBC. He also offers classes to the children of sex workers in Mumbai’s Red Light district and gives workshops at the Blind Opera of Kolkata.

His intention is to honor the instructions of his guru: “To live and to dance as though the [dancers’ ankle] bells, the students, the audience and even a stray chair have all become one.”

In India Jazz Suites, add Samuel Smith’s tapping feet to the sound of those bells. And, Das says, just as when particles collide, “what the audience will be witnessing is energy.”

This appeared in the Miami Herald, 4/16/13

The month-long festival, organized by Momentum Dance Company, will include a wide variety of dance, from flamenco to aerial ballet, a movie and family day, along with new works from the Momentum troupe itself. Opening night kicks off with Luminario Ballet out of Los Angeles.

Spanish guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez and choreographer Niurca Marquez mix up some styles in their latest flamenco concert, infusing Sephardic songs, violin, and bass into the work.

Renowned choreographer Neri Torres is the reigning queen of Afro-Cuban dance here in Miami. And there is a reason why she’s maintained this title.

As founder and artistic director of the Ife-Ile Dance Company, the Havana native continues to carve out complex slices of Cuban life to explore through dance. Whether headlining an outdoor festival in the streets of Miami or a packed auditorium in Dubai, Ife-Ile brings the heat.

Skilled dancers ooze of classic Cuban sensuality as they deliver forms, ranging from the iconic rumba and soulful salsa variations to more sacred folklore. The group’s costumes are laden with rich tropical colors. Let’s not mention the flirty hips of rumberas that punctuate the rhythm of the clave.

For its signature folklore repertoire, the company’s seasoned drummers, also renowned masters of their domain, don traditional white clothing and passionately sing to the Orishas, who are portrayed by undulating, sometimes machete-wielding dancers. These are unfiltered elements of the dance stories that Torres has crafted in the 16 years since she started Ife-Ile.

For her upcoming Jan. 19 gala performance titled “Habana Mix 1,” Torres has meticulously plucked yet another piece of the Cuban experience to explore. Habana Mix 1, she explains, connects the past to the present through contemporary and traditional Cuban dance styles such as rumba, mambo, bolero, salsa and conga, but from a modern dance perspective.

Torres explains that Habana Mix 1 “presents several Cuban dance traditions that have not lost their relevance and influence around the world.” Thus, she says, “The setting of ‘Habana Mix 1’ is today’s urban landscape; where we strive to keep our culture within a different context that also over-imposes its individuality.”

“Habana Mix 1” comprises about eight choreographies, including a selection on abused women. It will be delivered through movements of the Oshun goddess, she explains. Another notable selection, featuring the rumba, will be performed cabaret style. Choreography for the Conga will offer a refreshing contemporary and urban fusion with other dance styles, she explains.

“Most people know me as an Afro-Cuban dancer, but this will offer something different and more contemporary,” says Torres, who explains that classic Cuban dance styles have stood the test of time because they are geared to everyday body movements. “That’s why it’s so enjoyable.”

“Habana Mix 1” is part of the annual IFE-ILE Afro-Cuban Dance Festival that is now in its 15^th year. Saturday’s performance is the first part of the Habana Mix sequence. Fittingly, the more elaborate component will be showcased at this summer’s dance festival.

From the company’s inception in 1996, Torres has continuously kept us intrigued with and educated on Afro-Cuban dance and culture and how it’s shaped other musical genres.

“Cuban culture was injected into American culture about a century ago,” she explains. “The music is still embedded in a layer of contemporary American music.”

Having choreographed for and toured with the likes of Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia, Torres has made quite a name for herself nationally and internationally. Nonetheless, she’s kept true to Ife-Ile’s mission, which is to preserve, promote, and cultivate Afro-Cuban culture through the arts.

“Without culture you are just a wonder in the world,” she says. ”I have to sustain the culture of where I came from.”

Ife-Ile will present its gala performance “Habana Mix 1” on Jan. 19, at the Manuel Artime Theater, 900 SW 1^st Street, Miami, FL 33130. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for seniors and students. They can be bought at the company website: www.ife-ile.org or at the theater door the day of the show.

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Venus Rising performs “Rhythms of Diversity,” mixing in world fusion into its traditional West African dance and drum work, with an emphasis on the female role, form and movement; the Children of Kuumba join in for the South African boot dance.

If audiences feel empowered after a Venus Rising performance, then members of this globally-inspired group have accomplished their mission. “We want to uplift and inspire,” says Founding Director Zeva Soroker, who started the all-female dance and drum group in 2003. “Music is an amazing thing,” she adds. “It helps with harmonizing and healing.”

On Dec. 14, performance-goers can expect yet another energetic installment of this drum thumping philosophy, but with a twist. The free performance aptly titled “Rhythms of Diversity” will offer a slight breakaway from the group’s traditional West African repertoire. “We are headed toward world fusion,” Soroker says.

On stage, Venus Rising is undeniably convincing. As the lights dim, silhouettes of female drummers emerge. Their hands lift and pound down to create tribal beats. Dancers adorned in colorful African garb undulate, jump, kick and sway into the spotlight. “Our performances encourage audiences to delight in the power and beauty of women,” Soroker says. The group fuses West African dance with Caribbean and Middle Eastern dance forms. For the upcoming performance, one work begins as an Israeli folk song and Hora dance and transitions into a South African “boot” dance. The “boot” dance originated from the South African mines, where workers used stomping and clapping rhythms to communicate and make the best of harsh work conditions. “We are really excited about debuting this piece,” says Soroker of Coral Springs.

The Children of Kuumba, a children’s African performance troupe based out of Hollywood, will assist the South African segment with their booted feet, clad with bells. They will also perform a “can” dance for which they make an African-derived krin rhythm with cans. The clanging then fades into the boot dance. “I like to expose the kids to different styles of dance,” says Anita MacBeth, a long-time Venus Rising dancer, who directs Children of Kuumba with dancer, Chipo Harriott. Another anticipated choreography, titled Kpamlogo, is based on a recreational dance and drumming form from Ghana, West Africa.

Overall, “Rhythms of Diversity” is yet another reflection of Venus Rising’s own ethnic makeup. While Soroker is of Russian heritage, members represent Jamaica, the Bahamas, Trinidad, Latin America, the United States and Spain, among other backgrounds. Similarly, Venus Rising’s youngest percussionist is 19-years-old, while the oldest dancer is 60.

“We are a diverse world and the differences between us become the basis of conflict. But diversity can be really beautiful and something we can enjoy,” says Soroker, 48. In 2000, a sponsored trip to Guinea, West Africa allowed the former Barry University and Dade County school teacher to study drumming. “It was beyond my wildest dreams. It was life changing,” she says. Upon her return to South Florida, she continued her passion and eventually “felt a calling to do something with all women,” she says.

Soroker started Venus Rising Women’s Drum and Dance Ensemble with just three female drummers. The vision, she says, “was to have a circle of women and a sisterhood, where we would serve as role models for each other and be role models for younger girls, to show them that all things are possible. That ‘you can play the big drums, not just the tambourines.’”

Today, Venus Rising has grown into a 20-member sisterhood. The group has performed throughout South Florida, including a spot on Telemundo and a 2010 Miami Heat half-time show. They also performed for the Dallas Mavericks in Texas. “I really enjoy it,” says dancer MacBeth, who also works as a dance educator at Bethune Elementary School for the Arts in Hollywood. “I look forward to us growing and sharing with other women the love of movement.”

At 56, MacBeth tries to convey through dance that creative expression has no age limits. “Don’t stop, keep moving no matter how old you are,” she insists.

That type of motivation is what Venus Rising is all about. Says Soroker: “We want to inject more of that into the world.”

“Rhythm of Diversity” takes place at the Old Dillard Museum, 1009 N.W. 4th St., Fort Lauderdale, Fri. Dec. 14. The first set starts at 6:00 p.m., and the second starts at 7:00 p.m.; www.venusrising.net.

Photo credit: Niki Lopez

Coming up on November 3rd, the Stage Miami will host the Global Bizarre Bazaar, a multicultural performance event presented by the Mideastern Dance Exchange. Founded in 1990 by Tamalyn Dallal, the organization has served as a hub of dance and culture centered on bellydance. Tiffany “hanan” Madera, one of Miami’s longstanding bellydance artists (and Artburst contributor), now serves as director. Recently returned from a year-long program in Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Madera brings new perspective and fresh energy to her work. An optimistic enthusiasm is evident in the Bizarre Bazaar’s programming.

Madera is herself the daughter of multiple cultures — she describes herself as “Afro-Chinese Cuban with a Moroccan twist.” Over the course of her career, she has used dance as a means to address cultural misunderstanding and social injustice. Her Dance Empowerment Project was created for survivors of sexual abuse, and the Habibi Trilogy employed the languages of bellydance and hip hop for an interdisciplinary theater and outreach project. For the Bizarre Bazaar, some of the city’s best performers have been assembled, representing traditions around the world. According to Madera, the combination of artists and styles “reflects social justice, community empowerment, philanthropy, education, open borders, fusion and plurality.” Dance and performance are clearly serving here as a language for common understanding, a way for both audience and performers to open to the perspectives of other cultures.

In keeping with the theme of the bazaar, this event promises to evoke the clashing sounds and colors that animate outdoor markets around the world. The event will be held at the Stage’s open-air space as the sun goes down. Performances will be given by Anaizh, Aireen, Alexandra of Bellymotions, Alicia of Bellycraft, Celeste Fraser Delgado, Francesca Sahar, Monika with Echoes of Hawaii, Marisol Blanco and Dancers, Mr. Lucky Bruno, Mecca aka Grimo, Summer Hill Seven, Zizi Zabaneh and others. While the program is clearly rooted in Middle Eastern performance, a good half of these performers represent African Diaspora culture, including Cuban, Haitian, and Afro-American. The diversity of the group is impressive and inclusive, with a wide range of music and spoken word.

The evening’s schedule will be capped off by Madera herself, under the stage name hanan. She will be accompanied by musical group Harmonic Motion, featuring Elias Kilzi and Mostafa Makki. During this final bellydance performance, you’ll have the opportunity not only to see hanan in action, but also to hear rare sounds, including kanoun, a shimmering zither-type instrument, and oud, a stringed instrument whose sound is sometimes compared to the human voice.

Harmonic Motion has been dedicated to Middle Eastern music for years, not only performing but also teaching classes in oud, hand drums, and dance. In fact, many of the other performers in the program are also teachers. For those in the audience who are sparked by the performances, the Global Bizarre Bazaar may well be an invitation to a new and expanded creative world.

The Mideastern Dance Exchange’s “Global Bizarre Bazaar” takes place on Nov. 3, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., at The Stage Miami 170 NE 38 Street Miami Design District; cost is $20.

Photo #1: Mecca aka Grimo

Photo #2: hanan

Does traditional dance have a place on the contemporary stage? Nuevo Ballet Español rendered the debate irrelevant at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium last weekend, boldly opening the 2012-13 MDC Live Arts performance series. The company, whose work has moved through practically every style of dance, committed to pure flamenco for their latest evening-length performance. It was an expression of the traditional as a living, breathing history.

The name of the show, Cambio de Tercio, was borrowed from bullfighting. It indicates a change of phases within the formal structure of a fight. Angel Rojas, one of the company’s two artistic directors, described the show as a kind of cleansing for Nuevo Ballet Español — an opportunity to create space for new directions. This may sound like an intellectual exercise, but in fact the performance seemed to produce a profound realignment with the blood-pulse of Spanish culture. We saw that the past can be a source of vitality as rich as the burst of a groundbreaking idea.

Cambio de Tercio brought forth the soul of a people whose culture has seen an intense depth of experience. Shadows of passion, pride, and pain came through, as well as the line of gypsy inheritance, and male and female roles over the course of centuries. These expressions did not come from theatrics, but instead from an underlying authenticity. In Miami, a city filled with people who often point proudly to their own Spanish heritage, such a bow to tradition was particularly meaningful.

For contemporary artists, tradition is tricky territory. Flamenco, like any folkloric style, easily deadens when it falls into mere repetition of steps. The movement and music presented by Nuevo Ballet Español seemed fed by something genuine — particularly from the musicians who held the stage with as much presence as the stunning dancers. Rojas and his co-director Carlos Rodriguez, decided to bring the musical performers out from their usual place in the background. This may well be what made the experience so vivid. Two women, Rocio Bazan and Davinia Jaen, rooted the show with the power of their wailing voices. A touching duet between the violinist and a dancer was one of the most memorable images of the night.

Cambio de Tercio was visually impressive throughout, with finely-tuned staging, sparkling details, and costumes to die for. Choreographies were contributed by guest artists Rocia Molina, Manuel Liñan, and Rafael Campayo, innovators from Spain’s new flamenco generation. Three of the company’s four female dancers executed the choreography to perfection, with precise rhythms of their feet and castanets. A fourth dancer seemed to have taken cues from male, rather than female, postures, a distraction in an otherwise glorious performance. And directors Rojas and Rodriguez commanded the stage with their solos, even demanding quiet from the cheering audience with a wave of the hand so their detailed footwork could be heard.

The show came to a close with an improvisational exchange between the dancers and the musicians. The full company gathered under bright lights at the front of the stage, almost in the space of the audience, and a few musicians came forward to show their own modest, sometimes endearingly awkward, flamenco steps. On the flip side of a perfect performance are the honest imperfections of dance as an everyday thing. This small detail brought the whole show to life and reminded the audience that art, in any form, is above all a lived process. The performers’ joy and commitment was apparent, and the audience loved it.

The kick of MDC’s Live! art season begins with thisUS premier, mixing traditional dance, flamenco,  and contemporary trends from southern Spain.

The unique two-day festival that highlights Jewish origins in a wide a array of music, from African-American spirituals and jazz to Latin dance, kicks off with a performance “Of Essence & Time/De La Esencia & El Tiempo,” a collaboration of Sepharidi singer Susana Behar, Flameneco guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez, and Nu Flamenco dancer Niurca Marquez. It continues with Klezmer, jazz, and other concerts.