By Jennifer Bartman

	The Momentum Dance Company

The fourth annual Miami Beach Dance Festival will present a variety of contemporary dance performances, as well as lectures, master classes, film viewings and a salsa night,  April 12 to 22. Festival-goers can attend events at the Jackie Gleason Theater, Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Byron Carlyle Theater, and Miami Beach Cinematheque during these 10 spectacular days of dance.

According to Festival Director Delma Isles, the goal of the festival is to “engage people from diverse ethnic, cultural, and age groups and educational levels, and with a dynamic menu of dance experiences that are fun, thoughtful, innovative and provocative. We want our community to grow to love dance as an art form.”

In addition to directing the festival, Isles is also the artistic director and founder of Momentum Dance Company, the oldest continuously operating contemporary dance company in the southeastern United States. Momentum not only produces the Miami Beach Dance Festival, but will also be participating in several performances and events.

	Dance Now! Ensemble

Both national and international companies will perform during this year’s festival.

“This is a remarkably diverse menu for our audience to experience and enjoy,” says Isles.  There will be performances by Ballet Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, Mexico; the Carolyn Dorfman Company from New York; The Dance Now! Ensemble; Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, performing with Guest Artist Manolete; and CORE Performance Group, presented by The Center for Emerging Art.

Ballet Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Oaxaca is an internationally renowned Mexican modern dance company founded in 2003. Since its inception, the company has performed in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and the United States, experimenting with socially relevant themes and a truly creative approach to the intersections of dance, music, scenery, sculpture, costume design and art.

Ballet Flamenco La Rosa is a Miami-based international company invested in the magic and evolution of flamenco, and they too will take on a socially and historically relevant theme at this year’s festival, where they will perform the world premiere of Las Bruias de Salem (The Witches of Salem), inspired by The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

	The Carolyn Dorfman Company

The Carolyn Dorfman Company, based in New York and New Jersey, is highly acclaimed for its technical and artistic excellence, and its use of dance as metaphor for human experiences. The company, now in its 24th season, is made up not only of superb performers, but also articulate, thoughtful teachers who specialize in bringing contemporary dance to the public.

CORE Performance Company is the professional contemporary dance company of Several Dancers Core, a dance organization founded 24 years ago and based in Atlanta and Houston. The CORE Company is invested in collaboration with other artists from around the world. At this year’s festival, The Center for Emerging Arts will present CORE Performance Company performing Aria for an Endangered Species: Unearthing the Creation of Art, a work that was inspired by Yoko Ono’s visual art installation “Endangered Species 2319-2322.” This performance will be an interactive, multi-media, salon-style event offering a creative perspective on Ono’s question, “What will future historians think of our civilization?” 

The Dance Now! Ensemble co-founded the Miami Beach Dance Festival with the Momentum Dance Company, and has been performing since 2000. By incorporating contemporary themes and music selections with traditional Western dance, the troupe has been attracting audience of all ages, and is particularly invested in reaching a younger audience, through both their performances and their community outreach programs.

	Ballet Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Oaxaca

On April 14, awards will be presented in the Byron Carlyle Theater to Florene Litthcut Nichols and Pedro Pablo Pena for their contribution to the community as dancers, educators and community leaders.

“We created the Miami Beach Dance Festival awards to honor the unsung heroes of dance in our community,” says Isles. “So many people work very hard to keep dance alive as an art form, to educate children, to develop new ways of presenting dance, and to create opportunities for dance to grow. Most of these unsung heroes receive very little money and recognition.

In addition to the performances and awards ceremony, festival-goers can also attend film viewings, lectures, and participatory events like dance classes and the Salsa Night in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. Dance instructors from Salsa Mía will coordinate that event, providing demonstrations and encouragement to participants who will be enjoying dance for themselves.

	Salsa Mia Dancers

With so many exciting things to see, do and learn about at the Miami Beach Dance Festival, Isles offers some advice for getting the best experience from your visit.

“We recommend that each person come to one event that they know they will love, and then sample one event that provides an experience that is new to them,” she says. “We think of it as similar to ordering in a great restaurant. Have something you love, then taste something new to keep your palate stimulated.”

Tickets to festival events can be purchased online at momentumdance.com. For further information call 305-858-7002.

Miami Beach Dance Festival Schedule of Events:

Friday, April 13
Pre-concert lecture by Theodore Bale 7 p.m.
Core Performance Group from Atlanta performs Aria for an Endangered Species by Yoko Ono
8 p.m., Location TBA
Tickets $20 general admission, $10 students and seniors 

Saturday, April 14
Pre-concert Lecture by Theodore Bale 7 p.m.
Carolyn Dorfman Company from New York
8 p.m., Byron Carlyle Theater
Tickets $20 general admission, $10 students and seniors

Sunday, April 15
Momentum Dance Company & The Dance Now Ensemble
7 p.m., Byron Carlyle Theater
Tickets $20 general admission, $10 students and seniors

Tuesday, April 17
Film Night at Cinematheque
featuring El Amor Brujo by Carlos Saura
and a Spanish dance demonstration 8 p.m.
Tickets $10, $6 for Cinematheque members

Wednesday, April 18
Salsa Night
7:30 p.m., Miami Beach Botanical Garden
Features Salsa dance instruction and dancing by all
Tickets $10

Thursday, April 19
Lecture/Performance: Looking at Dance
Featuring Momentum Dance Company & The Dance Now! Ensemble
7 p.m., Byron Carlyle Theater
Tickets $15 general admission $ 6 students and seniors

	Momentum Dance Company

Friday, April 20
Ballet Flamenco & Manolete 8 p.m.
Jackie Gleason Theater
Tickets $50-$10

Saturday, April 21
Ballet Flamenco & Manolete 8 p.m.
Jackie Gleason Theater
Tickets $50-$10

Sunday, April  22
Ballet Flamenco & Manolete
2 p.m., Jackie Gleason Theater
Tickets $50-$10

Ballet Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Oaxaca
7 p.m., Byron Carlyle Theater
Tickets $20 general admission, $10 students and seniors