The Miami City Ballet Company (MCB) will close its 2012-2013 season this weekend at the Arsht Center with Broadway and Ballet, a valentine to Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine. No surprise there, since the MCB has been acclaimed far and wide for its devotion to the masters, especially Balanchine. What makes this program so delicious is the unpredictable pairing of the works as well as the works themselves.

The first part of the performance belongs to Jerome Robbins. So successful was he as a choreographer of Broadway musicals — “West-Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The King and I” are only a sampling of his handiwork — that it is easy to forget that Robbins loved ballet as well. And ballet as pure as it gets: that’s what his “Dances at a Gathering” is all about.

Originally created by Robbins in 1969 and set to the piano music of Chopin, it marked his return to more classical forms, most particularly pas de deux. The ballet has no props, and hardly any set. Five couples came together in no less than 18 movements, nearly all of them waltzes and Slavic mazurkas. This “Gathering,” in the hands of the rotating cast of MCB, which includes Jeanette and Patricia Delgado as well as Rene Penteado, is a nearly encyclopedic examination of flirtation. One may as often sigh at its sheer beauty of a piece as laugh aloud at its wit. There are the twists that Robbins was so fond of: a gesture at odds with the lyricism of a movement that manages to zap up its impact. And there are the times when flirtation becomes surrender. Look out then.

If the evening begins with elegance and a delight in non-narrative movement not ordinarily associated with Jerome Robbins, the evening ends with bawdiness and very nearly a funk not ordinarily associated with Balanchine. His ballet, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” was originally a play within a play, part of a Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit, “On Your Toes” from the 1930s. Several decades later Balanchine dusted off his work and expanded it into a stand-alone ballet filled with ladies of easy virtue, silly coppers, sly gangsters and a very deadly competition between two male dancers centering far more on their skill as dancers than any issues of romantic attachment. The real question seems to be, can a great classical dancer become a great hoofer if circumstances demand.

Yep. Especially with a little help from one’s friends, or in this case one Phillip Neil, tap-dancer, former New York City Ballet principal and current South Florida resident. Suddenly — that is after a bit of tutelage — several MCB members  including the great Yann Trividic, become the irrepressible hoofers and jazzistas   “Slaughter” demands. Patricia Delgado, dancing in very high heels, plays the love interest in a climax that could wake the dead.

If all this weren’t enough, on Friday night, the part of gangster gunman will be played by retired Major League Baseball catcher extraordinaire, Mike Piazza. He promises no errors.

Miami City Ballet’s Program IV Broadway and Ballet, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the Ziff Ballet Opera House, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300  Biscayne Blvd., Miami; tickets range from $20 to $175; www.arshtcenter.org.

This review also appears in Miami New Times.

Photo: Daniel Azoulay

In a single weekend, we will be able to see two of this country’s reputable dance companies, both selecting ballets made in the United States and in a variety of American styles, in one Broward setting.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts is offering a ticket deal — $99 to see both companies on two separate days. And, like many things American, each of the five ballets delivers a distinctive taste, influenced by a worldly palette. The red hot contemporary Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) will perform three of McIntyre’s ballets, flavored by traditional Basque dancing, Shakespeare and more, Friday and Saturday at the Center’s Amaturo Theater. South Florida’s Miami City Ballet (MCB) will present repertory of George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), and Jerome Robbins, best known for his Broadway choreography, Friday through Sunday at the Au-Rene Theater.

Local dance-goers might already have plans to see MCB, which conducts four programs plus The Nutcracker annually at the Broward Center (it will be in Miami at the Arsht Center May 3 through 5). They might also be familiar with the 10-member TMP, who performed there last year, led by the much sought-after choreographer McIntyre, who has created dances for ballet companies from Moscow to Santiago, New York to Chicago. Seeing both in one weekend, a viewer can observe how choreographers working in the United States have made different soups from the same stock — the stock, in this case, being classical ballet vocabulary.

Dancer Elizabeth Keller embodies many of dance’s histories and experimentations. Born in Dubai to Pittsburgh-native parents, she trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dance and in Houston and Philadelphia. Dancing with MCB for 10 seasons under founder Edward Villella, formerly a leading dancer at NYCB, she absorbed the speed, clarity and precision of Balanchine technique. Earlier, in Pennsylvania, she fell in love with Balanchine’s choreography by working on it with the French ballerina Violette Verdy, Villella’s colleague and one of Keller’s mentors. Keller remembers Verdy describing the circular movement rond de jamb in this appealing way: “Stir, stir the chocolate  fondu. It’s gooey.” A striking movement, frappé, was “sharp, sharp like cheddar cheese.”

Now in her first season with TMP, Keller challenges her ballet-trained body with new tasks. McIntyre’s rigorous choreography includes not only pointe work, but also weighty, grounded movement. Dancers are sometimes called upon to rotate their legs externally, as in ballet, but Keller now must also engage other parts of the body to work in a parallel stance. Additionally, Keller says, McIntyre “encourages us to be present and almost, in a way, vulnerable,” both in the studio and on stage. In rehearsal for Queen of the Goths (2007), loosely based on Titus Andronicus, McIntyre pushed Keller to investigate each moment and detail of choreography — “It has to mean something, it has to cost you something,” she recalls him saying about a series of gestures by her character, Tamora, who unwittingly eats a meat pie made from the remains of two of her slain sons.

MCB’s offering of Balanchine’s burlesque Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1968), based on the 1936 musical On Your Toes, tells a lighter story. And Robbins’ elegant Dances at a Gathering (1969) depicts human relationships through the physical expression of Chopin’s music. Keller says that, like Robbins, McIntyre encourages his dancers to engage with one another on stage, drawing the audience into their world and stirring their imaginations.

McIntyre’s Pass, Away, commissioned by the Broward Center and premiering this weekend, and Arrantza (2010), join Queen of the Goths on the TMP program.

This is the deal: for $99, you choose one night in an orchestra seat to see TMP, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday or Saturday; one night day or night to see MCB, on Friday at 8:00 p.m., or Saturday and Sunday at either 2:00 or 8:00 p.m. The Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Ft. Lauderdale; for tickets call 954-462-0222.

Photo: MCB’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”; photo: Daniel Azoulay

This also appears with Miami New Times.

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 lovely weather down here these days, the vibrant cultural scene, the ethnically diverse food options, all those are reasons that have Alison Chase jumping for joy. It is pretty cold, by the way, in Maine, where she lives.

But more important than all that: the modern dance giant — she co-founded, oh, some little groups you may have heard of, like Pilobolus and Momix — is thrilled to be in South Florida this week to hold the world premiere of her work Red Weather, at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (SMDCAC) on Saturday.

Red Weather is part of a four-piece show that Chase’s touring program, Alison Chase Performance (from her dance theater production company, Apogee Arts), will be performing in our area, where she and her dancers have also been sharing with the community by way of workshops.

“I am doing a whole week of outreach here, and one workshop was very exciting because it involved kids from the area and a senior citizens group, and so we did a transgenerational workshop,” says Chase from the SMDCAC facilities. “I am looking forward to working with local choreographers and dancers… I would like to come down and just do research, with the music and the restaurants. This is a really rich, wonderful, community here.”

The opportunity to teach in South Florida is a welcomed one for the choreographer, professor and 67-year-old mother of three who brought a highly kinetic style to dance, adding film, aerial performances (expect that in her South Miami-Dade show), and multidimensional storytelling to create a signature style.

“We don’t have such a dynamically diverse community,” continues Chase about how South Florida differs from her region. “We enjoy teaching people the process of invention, and encourage them to blend whatever kind of dance they do, whether it’s merengue or salsa, to approach it playfully, and to expand that vocabulary out.”

And expanding the vocabulary of dance is what St. Louis-born-and-raised Alison Chase has been doing most notably since October 1971 when, along with several colleagues at Darmouth College, what would become one of the world’s best known and most important contemporary dance companies, Pilobolus Dance Theater, took its first steps.

Chase’s life with Pilobolus abruptly and stunningly came to an end, however, in December 2005. Reports surfaced that Chase had been fired due to differences with the company’s board of directors, who wanted her to sign over ownership of her innovative works.

She refused.

Pilobolus, meanwhile, disputed her version of ownership rights in the media.

When asked about this episode today, Chase responds that she can’t comment on it. “Well, I have moved beyond. I have signed a gag order,” she says. “I am delighted to be doing what I’m doing.”

After the Pilobolus chapter, the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1980), among many other awards, free-lanced, until she officially founded Apogee Arts in 2010.

“I realized that I passionately enjoy making dances, and if I had an ensemble that I could sort of be free to direct into new choreographic adventures, and teach them, I felt there would be great freedom in a small organization that’s not trapped by such a heavy, heaving touring schedule,” she explains. “And I’ve enjoyed doing it with a pacing and a phrasing that I can control and that it’s not overwhelmingly frenetic. I like to work slow.”

Slow, however, is definitely not an adjective to describe her work.

Alison Chase Performance at SMDCAC, 10950 SW 211 Street, Cutler Bay, Saturday, April 13, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $35 (a select number of $5 Cultureshockmiami.com tickets are available for ages 13-22); www.smdcac.org; 786-573-5300; www.cultureshockmiami.com.

This article also appears with Miami New Times.

When performances are “based on” something, we all get that the inspiration is real, the interpretation not recognizable. Then there is the up-coming concert from the Montreal dance company Compagnie Marie Chouinard, which will feature a truly novel way of re-imagining an original work. As one of the last of Tigertail Productions offerings this season, the piece “Henri Michaux: Mouvements” is both avant-garde and accessible. It is based on a 1951 French book, which combined poetry and 64 pages of India ink drawings, black-and-white images that were, according to the choreographer Chouinard, a “feast of bursting lines, spots and kaleidoscopic arms,” which she then translated to a dance for the stage. True to the source material, the dancers are all dressed in black, the stage is white, and they morph into silhouettes – they are animated drawings, dancers, and moving art works all at once. Not surprisingly, Chouinard — who establisher her company in 1990 and has won numerous awards since then — has a background in set, costume and lighting design as well, which all comes out in her complete and stunning creations. “Mouvements” comes to the Colony Theatre (1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) on Friday and Saturday, at 8:30 p.m., with an opening each night of “Etude for Duets”; cost is $25, $35 $50; tigertail.org, www.mariechouinard.com.

See also the interview with marie Chouinard in the Miami Herald, www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/11/3338438/poems-drawings-inspired-new-piece.html

Hailed as the “greatest tap dancer who ever lived,” Savion Glover will bring more than thrilling footwork to the Arsht Center this Saturday. His latest project “SoLe Sanctuary” is a “meditation” on the dance form that he says is his life — and an homage to the late dance greats, who paved the way.

Performing with him is Miami’s own Marshall Davis Jr., a long-time collaborator and like Glover, an accomplished torchbearer of the hoofing tradition.

“SoLe Sanctuary’ rekindles the legacies of Gregory Hines, Steve Condos and Sammy Davis Jr., among other tap icons who left an indelible mark on the dance world and American society at various eras. The touring show is intimate and features a candlelit stage and a white-clothed human prop who meditates on stage for the duration of Glover and Davis’ rhythmic sequences. As critics have said, the stage is literally an altar for the late legends.

“People will enjoy themselves,” says 39-year-old Glover. For Davis, coming back to where he got his start makes the show even more heartfelt. “I’m really looking forward to it. When I left, the Adrienne Arsht Center didn’t exist,” says the 35-year-old, who resides in New York.

Both Glover and Davis rose to stardom as child prodigies. Glover, with his signature dreaded hair and joyful animation, was credited for reinventing tap dance with his hard-hitting style and improvisational choreography, a groundbreaking fusion of jazz, hip-hop, be-bop, and world music patterns and rhythms. The two-time Tony Award winner has enjoyed an illustrious career on Broadway, television and motion pictures, including starring roles with his trainer and mentors Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Similarly Davis, trained by the late Condos, performed in the award-winning “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk” on Broadway (the show that gave Glover a Tony Award) and Disney’s Oscar-winning motion picture “Happy Feet,” which was choreographed by Glover.

Before heading to Miami, Glover spoke to Artburst about what he and Davis hope to convey through ‘SoLe Sanctuary.’

AB: Could you explain the concept of “SoLe Sanctuary.”
Glover: The concept is basically an opportunity for myself and Marshall to pay homage to the men and women who came before us and some of the greatest contributors, the greatest expressionists and greatest dancers we’ve had. All of my productions are dedicated to them, but this is the first one that speaks to that point and that the audience can hear better.

It’s mostly improvisation and an evening of meditation. It’s like that person is meditating to the sound of the dance and thinking about and praying for the women and men that the production is about. If I wasn’t dancing, that’s what I would be doing. It’s like subconsciously, I am that person.

How has it felt to have worked personally with such dance greats who have passed on.? Do you feel a renewed drive to carry the torch?

It’s motivating. It’s everything. It gives me more of a sense of purpose. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of them. They are my life. They are my teachers, my fathers, my friends.

Tap dance is seemingly less prevalent than other performance art. Do you feel that it’s a challenge to keep it relevant?

I’ve been hearing this my entire 32-year journey, but to us it’s alive. Tap is as popular as the individual chooses it to be. Since there has been air and gravity, there has been tap dance.

Besides touring for “SoLe Sanctuary,” are there any upcoming productions, movies or collaborations that you are working on?

I’m not working on any movies or anything. I am continuing to work at my craft. As far as collaborations, all of the people who I’ve wanted to collaborate with have already passed on, like Michael Jackson, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Maybe I would do a collaboration with Sade or Anita Baker. But I’m pretty cool and grateful that I’ve been able to collaborate with the ones who I have collaborated with.

You emerged as hip hop music hit its stride and many associated you with that generation. But given your work with the likes of Hines and Sammy Davis, you were also perceived as the bridge between the old and new. Do you see yourself in that role and do you make an intentional effort to connect with younger generations?

I am doing what I set out to do. I’m not gearing my work to any generation. Every generation has their own following. It’s obvious that people of my generation will be aware of me. Tap dance is loved by all. But I do not wish to associate what I do with hip hop. Now, because I grew up listening to that music at a point in my career it was very aggressive, but I’ve moved far passed that. My dance is universal.

Showtime for “SoLe Sanctuary” is 8:00 p.m., April 6, at the Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center for Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. Tickets cost $50 to $125. For more information, visit www.knightfoundation.org or call 305-949-6722.

Traditions are kept alive by constant change. The roots music of the 21^st century is being created as much with electric guitars, sequencers and laptops as with drums and flutes.

That’s one of the ideas behind The Rhythm Foundation’s Heineken TransAtlantic Festival, coming this weekend, which this year features as headliners the Argentine-Uruguayan electro-tango group Bajofondo and the Colombian electro-tropical Bomba Estéreo, as well as the duo Zuzuka Poderosa & Kush Arora, Miami’s own trio The Hongs, Krisp, Beat Machines, the neo-funk boogie big band Psychic Mirrors and DJ Mr Pauer.

“Simón [Mejía] started the group with the idea of mixing roots music and electronic music before I joined,” says Liliana “Li” Saumet, Bomba Estéreo singer and lyricist, speaking from the band´s bus on route to a show in San Francisco. Saumet was born in Santa Marta, on the Atlantic coast of Colombia, a place with deep African traditions. “It’s not that I bring the folklore to Bomba Estéreo, the idea was there. It’s just that when I sing, you can hear la costa because that’s what comes natural to me. That sound is what I grew up with.”

In fact, Saumet says her singing approach refers to that of the cantadoras, the troubadour women in Afro-Colombian culture who, in their singing, preserve and pass on the stories of their people. “They are my reference, especially La Niña Emilia [1932-1993],” says Saumet. “And they have a distinct way of singing, very deep but also without a musical training, and that’s what came out when I started singing. It’s the singing of my roots. That and rap are my main references.”

Now, in her work with Bomba Estéreo, Saumet might be also updating and keeping alive the cantadora tradition.

Bomba Estéreo was founded by Mejía, a visual artist turned full time bassist, programmer and producer, and released its first recording in 2006. It drew from traditional music, most obviously cumbia, but also DJ culture, electronic and hip hop. The result was both substantive and danceable, fun. Since then, the group became a hit at festivals — and SXSW and has just released Elegancia Tropical, its  third recording.

They are textbook headliners for the TransAtlantic Festival, which The Rhythm Foundation started in 2003 as a way to connect with new audiences as well as celebrate the traditional.

It was an “interesting time in Miami,” says Laura Quinlan, director of The Rhythm Foundation.  “It was the time of the Internet boom and new media and there were all these really cool people moving in from Latin America, interesting, creative people who were setting up companies, business and art galleries. It was a real revitalization in the city. But our audiences were not reflecting that. As an organization we were not connecting with this renaissance.

“And there was also this new sound I personally loved, which was the mix of electronica and World Music,” says Quinlan. “Now this sound has become kind of standard but I remember the first time I heard [the Tijuana-based] Nortec Collective, the birth of Latin-tronica, I couldn’t believe it. Now it’s not so shocking, you hear it in car commercials — but I still love it.”

Since its first edition, the TransAtlantic Festival has featured artists and groups such as Seu Jorge, DJ Da Lua, Bossacucanova, Chambao, Juana Molina, Ojos de Brujo, Aterciopelados, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, and Nortec Collective.

“When you are programming and running a cultural organization you have to keep your circle open, you have to stay open to new sounds, new collaborators, new partners or your impact in the community starts to shrink,” says Quinlan. “That openness has always been central to TransAtlantic.”

Meanwhile, Saumet sees the work, and success, of Bomba Estéreo as part of a larger picture.

“It’s something that’s happening not only in Colombia but México, Perú, Venezuela, Argentina, all throughout Latin America,” she says. “We are looking to our roots, to our culture not just rock and we coming to what is ours. And I think the perspective has changed too. We used to look North, to the Anglo world. Now I think the Anglo world is also looking at us.”

The 11th annual Heineken TransAtlantic Festival features Bajofondo, with an opening set by The Hongs, on Friday at 7:00 p.m. Bomba Estéreo, Zuzuka Poderosa & Kush Arora, and an opening set by Krisp, take the stage on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. At the North Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach; tickets cost $23 for each night, or $35 for the weekend (there will also be a launch and a wrap pert, free); 305-672-5202 ; transAtlanticfestival.com.

This preview also appears in the Miami New Times.

Celebrated dance critic Margaret Putnam once wrote: “Tango is the Everest of social dance. Impossible. Demanding. Intricate. And therefore irresistible.” Astor Piazzolla must have believed this to be true as well, as he poured every one of those adjectives into every musical note of his life’s work, also adding a few more like violent, sad and secretive. María de Buenos Aires, his “Tango Operita,” was part of a double bill last Thursday evening along with american composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez’ Tango presented on Florida Grand Opera’s “Unexpected Operas in Unexpected Places” program. The venue, Design District’s The Stage, was not all that an “Unexpected Place,” since it regularly hosts live music, film, and theater — but this was a first venture into nightlife for FGO.

The doors opened at eight o’clock, a good time to arrive since seating and standing room was limited. Furthermore, guests were informed that the performance would take place throughout the entire space, both indoors stage-side and the outdoor patio. Sharply at nine o’clock the pre-show started with FGO Young Artist Lyndon Meyer announcing the evening’s proceedings with the piano, moving on to  exquisitely soulful renditions of Alberto Ginastera’s Canción al Árbol del Olvido (Song to the Tree of Forgetfulness) and Kurt Weill’s Youkali by fellow FGO Young Artists Rebecca Henriques and Carla Jablonski. Meyer’s colorful and extremely sensitive playing was the musical heartbeat of the evening, in more ways than one.

First on the bill was Rodriguez’ Tango, with a text based on newspaper articles about the the tango craze about a century ago, was brilliantly executed by tenor Matthew Newlin, also an FGO Young Artist. Although mostly recited with the occasional chant and recitativo-like passages, Newlin managed to bring life and coherence to what seems more like a comedy sketch than an opera. Also, this seems like the perfect moment to start lauding, with a full brass orchestra, the highly virtuosic and achingly passionate dancing of Jeremías Massera and Mariela Barufaldi, indisputably the soul of the entire performance.

After a brief intermission for cocktails, guests were instructed to take their seats to welcome Catalina Cuervo as María de Buenos Aires. The music, unmistakably by Piazzolla since the first bars, was excitingly delivered by a small band formed by FGO Orchestra members who, much to my pleasant surprise, did not sound like a bunch of classical musicians playing some other type of music. A source for their inspiration must have been bandoneón player David Alsina, of whom Piazzolla himself would have been proud.

Less inspiring, unfortunately, was  Cuervo’s performance. Whether because of opening night jitters or embarrassingly noticeable technical difficulties with the sound system (her mike didn’t work at all for her opening number), she failed to convince me about who María is and who or what she later becomes. Cuervo, strikingly beautiful, is endowed with a deep, raspy voice much like that of the great Amelita Baltar. Gorgeous, yes, but there is not enough pain in her voice for this role.

Distractingly, Luis Sosa, a Venezuelan actor who played the poet-narrator El Duende, did not even try to speak in an Argentine accent, making his treatment of tango slang lunfardo annoying at best.

Thankfully, velvet-voiced Luis Alejandro Orozco, with his skip-a-beat good looks, tied it all together as El Cantor (here, a singer delivering décimas, usually improvised 10-line poems). The Mexican baritone appeared to be the only cast member who understood what Piazzolla’s opera is about.

José María Condemi’s staging worked beautifully. With creative and precise use of the space, Mr. Condemi is a natural theatrician. He even joined the action at times, sidling up to the women of the chorus at the bar.

Maestro Ramón Tebar looked like he was having the time of his life conducting the band, as always, displaying command and comfort. I must also give a final Bravo! for dancers Massera and Barufaldi, who supplied the evening’s sustenance, breath, sex, torment…in short, the tango.

]]> http://artburstmiami.com/2013/03/24/it-takes-fgo-to-tango/feed/ 0 http://artburstmiami.com/2013/03/22/pie-solo-takes-worthwhile-risks/ http://artburstmiami.com/2013/03/22/pie-solo-takes-worthwhile-risks/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:24:13 +0000 Mia Leonin http://artburstmiami.com/?p=3391

In “Pie Solo,” created and performed by Pioneer Winter, the Miami-native taps his way into new creative territory. Running about an hour, Winter’s first solo piece integrates contemporary movement, tap dance and video; however, the centerpiece of the show is his monologue. It’s a risky choice, considering the dancer/choreographer has never before utilized his voice in a performance. “Pie Solo” is part of Miami Theater Center’s Sandbox Series, designed to help contemporary artists create new work. The show runs through March at MTC in Miami Shores.

Winter’s monologue raises issues about family and religion, but the piece primarily weaves a narrative that explores Winter’s identity as a gay man. Portraying himself, Winter delivers his text in a frank, sincere tone. He neither falls on his sword, nor does he hide from the audience. At times though, he loses momentum as he struggles to pace breath, vocalization and movement.

One of the unique aspects of the performance is the integration of tap dance. The 25-year-old began taking lessons when he was four. In one of the show’s most powerful scenes, Winter stands in a makeshift bathroom stall with a small video of an anonymous pair of shoes on display in the next stall. In conjunction with the video, Winter taps out a darkly humorous depiction of two strangers having sex in a public bathroom. The coordination between live tap and the dancing on the video is riveting. This is a moment where Winter’s tap dancing skills transcend performance and create a rich metaphor.

Another such moment occurs in an anecdote about his grandfather’s death. He explains that in ceremonious moments, his father would always say, “Tap dance, son.” In this poignant, yet funny segment, Winter recalls tap dancing furiously on the dock of a lake to placate his grieving father while his grandfather’s ashes blew in his face. This is a moment where the performer’s refrain: “I only want to please” fits perfectly. Often, though, it feels like a throw away line.

I would like to see Winter organize the show around a powerful metaphor such as tap dance, or as he mentions at one point, the celebration of the first quarter of his life. The show needs organizing principles that will allow for a broader scope of material. For example, he introduces some intriguing tidbits about religion and family that go undeveloped. Winter’s mother, who also tap danced, died when he was nine years old. His family, of Russian-Jewish descent, converted to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

There’s also room to tighten some scenes. For example, an interactive scene where Winter gives an audience member a foot rub and “blow job” (by playing a saxophone between the man’s legs) is very humorous and serves as an effective transition to Winter’s coming out story; however, it goes on too long.

“Pie Solo” has some challenges to work out; however, Pioneer Winter’s charismatic presence and the show’s moments of clarity and humor make for an interesting performance.

A version of this review first appeared in the Miami Herald, March 19.

“Pie Solo” by Pioneer Winter runs through March 30 at the Miami Theater Center, 9806 NE 2^nd Ave., Miami Shores; at 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturdays; cost is $20; info: 305-751-9550, www.mtcmiami.org

Photo credit: Javi Geovanni

 

 

 

 

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Choreographer and dancer Emily Johnson’s critically acclaimed work The Thank -you Bar was a Bessie-Award winner that placed her on the international stage. The piece explored ideas of displacement, longing, language, history and pre-conceived notions about native culture in Alaska. Now, Johnson is back with a second in this series, Niicugni, where she delves into how places and moments are vibrant mirrors that both reflect and project all that has come before and will follow.

Niicugni comes to Miami courtesy of Tigertail Productions this Friday and Saturday.

Johnson grew up in Alaska, before moving at the age of 18 to Minneapolis where she is now based. She is of Yup’ik descent and has strong emotional ties to the landscape of South Central Alaska and the Yukon delta. She was immersed in the family rituals of hunting and fishing, then smoking, drying, canning and freezing food. This experience of physically preparing one’s own meals informs some of the more obvious set pieces, namely the fish-skin lanterns that cover the stage.

Niicugni means “listen” in the Yup’ik language.  But in less literal terms the word is a entreaty to pay attention, to have cognizance of all that is around us. The work exists in layers of dance, live music, story telling and those fish-skin lanterns in a space occupied not just by the performers but the audience as well. It will be performed by Johnson and includes dancer Aretha Aoki, composer James Everest, violinist/electronic musician Bethany Lacktorin and lighting designer Heidi Eckwall.

En route to Miami from her starting point last week in Arizona, Johnson stopped at a roadside restaurant with wi-fi in Mississippi to answer some questions.

Referring to the title of the piece, Niicugni — in our current society there are so many demands placed on our attention. We have 24-hour news sources and streaming and so on. Yet it seems that even with the constant sharing of information, we only seem to know the most functional things about each other.  How do you address this?

I try to look at the world from the corners of my eyes, with an encompassing view, rather than a dead on, tunnel like search. This way of looking, of paying attention, makes me realize that I am within the context of what is around me.

This is what we need to see — that by not paying attention we harm everything, the world, ourselves, our relationships.

When the BP Deepwater Horizon was gushing oil into the gulf I stood at Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis. It’s a creek that feeds into the Mississippi River, which of course, feeds into the gulf. I stood there and because of that creek, I felt immediately close to the horror of the oil spill. And because I could feel that connection, I had to do something. I got online; I found an organization I could volunteer for even from far away. I’m not saying I made a huge difference by myself, but it’s this kind of connection to place, events and people, that can create a collective change.

In your production notes you ask if, in the moment of a performance, the audience “recognizes the importance of everyone in the room.” It’s an interesting question in terms of the evolution on how we view and experience performance art. Why do you think it is important that we are aware of each other during a performance?  

The isolated, personally involved experience doesn’t just happen in theaters — it happens in grocery stores and on streets. Sometimes I will catch myself — I’ll come out of a store and realize that I didn’t actually notice anyone else in there! How could I walk past several people, have an exchange with someone at a cash register and still not fully acknowledge anyone? How disrespectful! That this happens in many theater-going experiences is absurd to me.

The inclusion of local people in this show is actually an essential element of Niicugni. We gather volunteers who work with me and then perform for a short moment during the piece. They sit in the audience and at pre-determined moments, come onto stage for usually simple, and I think beautiful, moments.

Unfortunately, in Miami …. I do know that [this] will be in a much smaller way.

Your 12-minute video on how to create fish-skin lanterns was fascinating.  Your personal and historical account of how “Salmon Brings Us Together” is worthy of its own spread in National Geographic. How is this part of the piece? 

There is the story of the fish, there is my history with fish and family, there are all these lanterns that were made by volunteers across the country; their time and effort embedded onstage. There are the processes Aretha and I go through and imagine as we dance and tell stories. There is the always-changing interaction with the audience.

There is such an integral tapestry of the outdoors and natural spaces in this work.   Is it hard to translate those natural wonders to a traditional indoor theater space, create that same sense of awe?

What I describe as “wondrous” is actually very routine: salmon migration, for example. I am always trying to create an experience for audiences and part of that experience is about where we are and what is outside of the theater walls. I do try to bring the outside in.

Can we see the wondrous routine of this? The cycle? Of work … of eating, of living, of dying? Isn’t this cycle (symbolic of all cycles) enough to make us all want to make the world a really beautiful place to live?

Emily Johnson/CatalystDance will perform Niicugni on Friday & Saturday, March 22 & 23, 8:30 pm, at the On-Stage Black Box at Miami-Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler St., Miami, Tickets are $30 General Admission; $20 students and seniors; tigertail/org/events_niicugni.html.

A version of this preview first appeared in the Miami Herald, March 20.