Dance NOW! Miami Presents “Stories for the Holidays”

What better way to ring in the season than with a new program of premieres and historical works from one of Florida’s leading contemporary companies, Dance NOW! Miami? And that’s just what audiences will get with their Program I, Stories for the Holidays, on Saturday, December 11, at 8:00 pm, at the Miami Theater Center, in Miami Shores.

The evening will include a suite of reconstructed iconic works from dance pioneer Isadora Duncan, along with South Florida premieres and work from the company repertory, with the South Beach Chamber Ensemble live onstage accompanying select works. 

Isadora Duncan was an American pioneer of concert dance at the turn of the 20th century, a self-styled revolutionary, whose innovative free-spirited style broke with the dominant rigidity of ballet and led to what is now called modern or contemporary dance.

Past Artistic Director of Miami’s Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble, Andrea Mantell-Seidel, has restaged the Duncan pieces this fall. The four short works are Ave Maria, Harp Etude, and two of Duncan’s “Russian revolutionary dances,” Varshiavianka and Dubinushka. The program is part of the ongoing Masterpiece in Motion series.

The evening also features Solstice, from guest choreographer Jon Lehrer, as part of Dance Now’s New Voices initiative; the revival of Artistic Co-Director Diego Salterini’s Three Moments in Time, with a score by Tomaso Albinoni; a revival of Baumgarten’s Die Frauen, a commentary on femininity, set to Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes; and more.

Dance NOW! Miami was founded in 2000 by Artistic Directors Hannah Baumgarten and Diego Salterini. The company presents several major projects annually, including original work from the Artistic Directors, created individually and collaboratively. In addition, their Masterpiece in Motion series honors the rich legacy of dance through the reconstruction of historic works of ballet and modern dance from the 20th and 21st Century.

Tickets for Stories for the Holidays are $40 open seating, $25 for Miami Shores residents and $15 for students, with IDs. Advance tickets can be purchased only at www.dancenowmiami.org/events/program1.