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Swamp Spirits – Dale Andree’s Magical “Everglades Imprint” for AIRIE

An escape from Miami hustle to the quiet of the Everglades seemed like an ideal way to mark the end of a frenzied 2018. But choreographer Dale Andree’s Everglades Imprint offered much more: a spiritual journey, a transformative moment of immersion in the wilderness at Florida’s heart, a place that is mostly abstract to most…

Looking Back and Paying it Forward – Christopher Rudd and Getting a Chance

NOTE: I wrote this story as a freelance writer for the Miami Herald in 1995. I reproduce it exactly here as perspective on my just posted storyFull Circle – Choreographer Christopher Rudd returns to Miami with Dance NOW! EXPLORING BALLET, A FIELD OFTEN CONSIDERED OFF-LIMITS FOR BLACKS, THESE YOUNG MEN TAKE A LEAP OF COURAGE. Reporter:…

Full Circle – Choreographer Christopher Rudd returns to Miami with Dance Now!

Even as a first grader at RR Moton Elementary in South Miami-Dade, Christopher Rudd wanted to dance. But a teacher at the arts magnet school told Rudd dance wasn’t for boys, and so instead he tried art (disastrous) and acting (also.) And that could have been that for him. But when he was in fourth…

Our Story Here and Now with One Night in Miami

With One Night in Miami, the riveting play that just kicked off Miami New Drama’s second season, artistic director Michel Hausmann hits straight to the heart of his troupe’s mission – presenting work that’s central to Miami. Not only because of the play’s uniquely Miami story. But because that story speaks to and for a…

Dance Deja Vu – Edward Villella and Three Generations of Ballet in Miami

When Edward Villella first performed Tarantella, the rocket-powered pas de deux that George Balanchine made on him and Patricia McBride in 1964, he had to drop to his hands and knees to catch his breath every time he shot offstage. Today in Miami he watched, smiling, as Eric Pikieris and Claudia Lezcano, of Dimensions Dance…

Voluptuous Rigor – Trisha Brown Dance Company at ICA Miami

Luscious and austere. Severely abstract and exuberantly physical. In her half-century long career, choreographer Trisha Brown traversed the limits of expression to create a unique and profoundly influential body of work. Which makes it an extremely big deal that the Trisha Brown Dance Company is performing at the ICA Miami this week, their first time…

Piano Man – Cuban maestro Chucho Valdés returns to Miami

In his 70 plus year career, the great Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdés has gone from revolutionary to institution. Both aspects will be showcased Friday, when Valdés leads Irakere 45, a tribute to the groundbreaking Cuban jazz fusion band, at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The almost sold out show, which launches a U.S. tour that…

Desire and difference – Miami New Drama’s Queen of Basel remakes a classic

The rich, oblivious, self-centered white girl. The dark-skinned Cuban guy seething with ambition and anger. The desperate Venezuelan woman who fled the violent chaos of her home country. We think we know these characters, just like they think they know each other. But by the end of Queen of Basel, the new production from Miami…

A big boost for Miami artists

ArtCenter South Florida announced a major new artist grant program Wednesday, the most striking product yet of the possibilities created by the $88 million sale of one of its Lincoln Road properties in 2014 and the first major initiative of new CEO and president Dennis Scholl. The Ellies, named for ArtCenter founder Ellie Schneiderman, will…

Don’t Get Weary – Alvin Ailey’s leader on Dancing in Troubled Times

(Photo – AAADT in Robert Battle’s Mass. Photo by Paul Kolnik.) In what has become a beloved Miami tradition, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Adrienne Arsht Center today through Sunday, marking a full decade of regular seasons here. This year the highlight is work from the company’s two Miami-bred members, artistic…