Characterized by fervent stomping and virile poses, the farruca is a macho flamenco dance with origins in Galician popular culture. Manolete, the world-renowned flamenco dancer and long-reigning farruca king who first performed it in 1983, has described its manly moves as “very daring.” A risk-taker, who is nonetheless known for…
The first thing to remember if you want to tell a joke successfully is the joke itself. Nothing kills a funny tale faster than having the teller read it from a crib note. You have to feel it. Also, if you’re going to tell an Irish joke you better say…
Now 24/7 “Summer time is our special time,” claims the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau Web page plugging Summer Festival Season, its new marketing campaign co-sponsored with the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority. Seems Miami in the off season is about more than just cheapo Euro tourists showing…
Friday June 20 You haven’t been successful at blocking out your children’s plaintive wailing, meaning you’re well aware that the latest Harry Potter book goes on sale precisely at midnight. You’ll have to purchase the book anyway, so why not surprise them with a trip to the magical land of…
Saturday 6/21 Sure, New Englanders have their striking autumn colors, but we have vibrant Royal Poincianas. In its 66th year the Royal Poinciana Fiesta, Miami’s oldest continuously running festival, fills Fairchild Tropical Garden (10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables). The event begins at 10:00 a.m. with a tree-cultivation and care…
Saturday June 21 The cockatoos have yet to strap on their little roller skates or jump on their tiny bicycles for your amusement at the new Watson Island incarnation of Parrot Jungle, now dubbed Parrot Jungle Island. The official grand opening is a week away. Nevertheless a variety of fundraising…
Wednesday June 25 To 35 million Argentineans battered by high unemployment, tumbling governments, and economic turmoil, pop star Diego Torres has been the sole defender of hope. Last year, “Color Esperanza,” his optimistic ode in which he sings, “I know we can do it/I want us to do it/Get rid…
Thursday June 19 From refugee smuggling to gangland murders to church bake sales, something newsworthy is always happening in Miami. And photojournalists have always been among the first to arrive to document an event. Today the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (101 W. Flagler St.) pays homage to the shutterbugs…
Of all the stage companies in South Florida, the Edge Theatre is perhaps the best named. Jim Tommaney’s ragtag outfit has survived for many years on the far fringes of the local theater scene and his choice of programming is almost always sharp and provocative. The literate, Ivy-educated Tommaney is…
The emotional, even healing, power of music is only one of the themes that interests acclaimed Chinese director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon) in his beautiful new film, Together. Other, equally important concerns include father-son relationships and the way China, in its headlong pursuit of modernization, is abandoning…
Talk about your insanely ambitious projects: Filmmaker Jacques Perrin got it in his head to record, on film, the many varieties of annual migration to be found in the avian world. Animal actors in general are tough enough, but birds in particular are recalcitrant and skittish subjects, particularly when they’re…
French putz Xavier (Romain Duris) is depressed. The poor guy lives in Paris, has Amélie’s Audrey Tautou as a girlfriend, eats gourmet vegan dinners prepared for him by his free-spirited mother, and is being set up for a graduate degree in economics by a friend of his father’s. “I don’t…
Like a contact improvisation piece that stretches over two decades, the Florida Dance Festival has morphed and sprung into new dimensions over its 25-year life span. With Sunday’s opening of Giovanni Luquini’s Slices, the festival kicks off its silver anniversary season — one that attests to its relevance and commitment…
The history of film in America is incomplete if it omits African Americans. Not playing servants or clowns. But actors in every role, directors, writers, and producers, for blacks had a cinema of their own that developed concurrently with the rise of Hollywood. “Close-Up in Black: African-American Film Posters,” a…
Sunday June 15 She may look happy when she body-slams her tonnage onto a pool of water, but deep inside, Lolita, the hardest-working killer whale in Miami, is suffering. At least that’s what the growing throng of activists who line the entrance to the Miami Seaquarium believe. Ever since she…
Saturday June 14 In a watery world off Key Biscayne, with its multimillion-dollar homes and condos, sits Stiltsville, one of the last vestiges of Miami untouched by the hand of “progress.” Yet, anyway. The seven remaining structures hovering above Biscayne Bay have survived hurricanes, but politics is another matter. Which…
Saturday June 14 Since 1989 El Redondel (The Circle) has thrilled thousands of children in Buenos Aires and around the world with its unique blend of comedy, dance, and outdoor theater. This year the Argentine troupe makes its debut at the International Hispanic Theater Festival with a performance for kids…
Friday June 13 Nightlife maven/fashion designer Gerry Kelly has good reason to make a spectacle out of his birthday. If criminal-turned-witness-protection-program-member Chris Paciello would have had his way, Kelly would have grandly celebrated his own birth for the last time in 1999. That fall Paciello ruminated on government wiretaps about…
Saturday June 14 The name says it all — sort of. The second annual C.R.A.P. Fest is not an ode to all things turd or a swipe at the performers. It’s just an acronym covering the sounds tonight at Tobacco Road: country, roots, alternative, and pop. Don’t be misled by…
Thursday June 12 Day chaos dies as koto sings harmonious release, tortured soul The ancient sounds of the Japanese koto take center stage tonight as the Toho Koto Society of Miami presents Yoshiko Carlton, a virtuoso master of the multistringed instrument. Carlton performs and teaches about the history of this…
What does it take to succeed on Broadway these days? Nobody has the exact answer to that question, but many think they do. One long-standing strategy is to import London hits. Another is to stuff the show with movie stars. A third, and perhaps the most widely used ploy, is…
One of the finer moments I have had looking at contemporary art was sitting on the floor between Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt in front of their House of Cards at the Miami Art Museum. The piece consists of a twelve-foot building made of giant playing cards, supported by wooden…
