Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce News Newswire

TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA at the Arsht Center

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADRIENNE ARSHT CENTER MEDIA CONTACTS:

Suzette Espinosa Fuentes Eva Bordeaux Silverstein

(786) 468-2221 (786) 468-2323

sespinosa@arshtcenter.org esilverstein@arshtcenter.org

MIAMI DADE COLLEGE MEDIA CONTACTS:

Juan Mendieta Tere Estorino

(305) 237-7611 (305) 237-3949

jmendiet@mdc.edu testorin@mdc.edu

MIAMI DEBUT!

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

and Miami Dade College present

TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA

JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT MASTERWORKS SEASON

SIGNATURE DANCE SERIES

Straight from Mexico City, one of Latin America’s most accomplished and honored

contemporary dance companies performs in celebration of Mexico’s

200th anniversary of independence

“Visually arresting… unabashedly sensual, subliminally erotic, and achingly human.”

-- The Boston Globe

October 2, 2010 at 8 p.m.

Tickets $25 - $90

Special $5 ticket offer for Miami Dade College students and staff!

Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House

MIAMI, FL August 23, 2010 – The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and Miami Dade College’s Cultura del Lobo Performance Series proudly announce the Miami debut of Mexico’s premier contemporary dance company, TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA. One of the most acclaimed contemporary dance companies in all of Latin America, TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA will present a program of exquisitely theatrical and evocative dance works on October 2, 2010 at 8 p.m. in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House.

Tickets range from $25 to $90, and may be purchased through the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at www.arshtcenter.org. A special $5 ticket offer for Miami Dade College students and staff is available in person at the Adrienne Arsht Center box office with a valid Miami Dade College I.D.

Born in Mexico City, Tania Pérez-Salas is an award-winning dancer and choreographer whose work has been seen across the globe. In 1994, she founded TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA as a platform for her distinctive choreographic vision – combining intense emotions, driving passion, and flawless classical dance technique. The company’s engagement at the Adrienne Arsht Center marks its first Miami appearance and celebrates Mexico’s 200th anniversary of independence with a program of thrilling dance works from Pérez-Salas’ acclaimed repertoire.

“Tania Pérez-Salas is a fresh and innovative voice making major waves on the international contemporary dance scene,” said M. John Richard, president and CEO of the Adrienne Arsht Center. “We are thrilled to include her astounding body of work as the opening dance performance of our 5th Anniversary Season and the 2010-2011 Masterworks Season, Signature Dance Series, celebrating Mexico’s anniversary of independence with this soaring, independent artistic spirit!”

TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA has appeared throughout Mexico, Canada, the Unites States, South America, China, and Europe to widespread acclaim. The company arrives at the Adrienne Arsht Center directly following their engagement at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., showcasing Pérez-Salas’ elegant company of dancers and her powerful, theatrical dance works. The program includes “Fourteen Sixteen,” a hauntingly romantic piece with a sweeping abstract ballet vocabulary and set to a musical collage including Antonio Vivaldi, Francois Couperini, and Giovanni Batista Pergolesi. “EX-STASIS,” Pérez-Salas’ latest choreographic feat, tackles the idea of connecting mind, body, and spirit through an exploration of dreams and sensuality. The program closes with Pérez-Salas’ signature work, “The Waters of Forgetfullness,” flooding the stage with water to create a cinematic landscape full of shadowed romantic encounters and dramatic duets.

Tania Pérez-Salas has worked in dance, theater, and films as an actress, dancer, and choreographer. She is one of Mexico’s most highly acclaimed figures on the contemporary dance scene, and is the recipient of several awards including Best Female Performer in the National Dance Competition in Mexico City, Mexico’s National and Continental Prizes for Choreography, and the award for best choreography at Mexico’s International San Luis Potosi Festival. Her work has been commissioned and presented by the Mexican Fund for Culture, the 2002 Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, France and performed at venues including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York’s City Center, and The Great Theatre of Shanghai during the International Shanghai Festival of the Performing Arts.

CALENDAR LISTING

The Adrienne Arsht Center and Miami Dade College’s Cultura del Lobo Performance Series present

TANIA PEREZ-SALAS COMPAÑIA DE DANZA

John S. and James L. Knight Masterworks Season: Signature Dance Series

“Pérez-Salas’ work is not only visually arresting but unabashedly sensual, subliminally erotic, and achingly human. But what´s most distinctive about Pérez-Salas´ work is its imaginative, extravagant theatricality.” -- The Boston Globe

Brilliant technique, visceral power, and intense emotions are hallmarks of Tania Pérez-Salas Compañía de Danza, and its director and choreographer is one of Latin America’s most accomplished and honored contemporary dancers and choreographers. The company comes to Miami direct from Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, as part of an international tour celebrating Mexico’s 200th anniversary of independence.

Pérez-Salas’ ensemble performs a full season at home in Mexico, and tours extensively to international festivals. Her work — extraordinary in its originality, yet very human and natural — has been commissioned and presented in Madrid and Barcelona, and she was awarded the prize for best choreography by the audience at the International San Luis Potosi Festival in Mexico.

October 2, 2010 at 8pm

Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House

Adrienne Arsht Center

1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, FL 33132

Tickets: $25 - $90

Special $5 ticket offer for Miami-Dade College students and staff (with valid I.D.)

For reservations, visit www.arshtcenter.org or call the box office at (305) 949-6722.

This performance contains partial nudity.

Visit www.arshtcenter.org for up-to-date information for details and schedules.

Editor’s Note:

Related high-resolution photos are available at www.arshtcenter.org/press and www.mediafire.com/arshtcenterphotos.

Prices, artists, dates, times, and program are subject to change without notice.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is made possible by the public support of the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council and the City of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency. The Adrienne Arsht Center also receives generous support from private contributions to the Adrienne Arsht Center Foundation through its Visionary Society membership program and Encore Circle major gifts program; American Express Company; Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Arison Arts Foundation; Association of Performing Arts Presenters; Bank of America Charitable Foundation; Dade Community Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Ford Foundation; Funding Arts Network; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Community Connections Fund of MetLife Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts; Southern Arts Federation; The Cowles Charitable Trust; The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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About the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is one of the world’s leading performing arts organizations and venues. Made possible by Miami-Dade County’s largest ever public/private-sector partnership, the Center is home to the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy. In addition, numerous South Florida arts organizations perform in its theaters regularly. Since opening in 2006, the Center has emerged as a leader in offering and presenting innovative programming that mirrors South Florida’s diversity, as a catalyst for development in Miami, and as a host of impactful community outreach and education programs.

Designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the venue is comprised of the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, the 2,200-seat John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, the black box Carnival Studio Theater, the Peacock Education Center, a restored Carnival Art Deco Tower, the Peacock Foundation, Inc. Studio, the Peacock Foundation, Inc. Education Center, and the outdoor Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts. The Carnival tower, an architectural icon from one of Miami’s oldest Art Deco buildings, houses the street-level BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Lounge (scheduled to open in fall 2010). Events impresario and restaurateur Barton G. Weiss brought his signature style to the Center in 2009 with PRELUDE BY BARTON G, a full-service upscale restaurant.

Visit www.arshtcenter.org for more information.

About Miami Dade College

Miami Dade College is the largest and most diverse institution of higher education in the nation. With eight campuses and more than 170,000 students, the College offers more than 300 major areas of study and several degree options, including vocational, associate, and baccalaureate degrees. It is home of the renowned New World School of the Arts, The Honors College and the richest cultural program in the region. In fact, MDC produces and hosts The Miami International Bookfair, The Miami International Film Festival, the Florida Center for Literary Arts, the MDC Art Gallery System, acclaimed theaters at several campuses, numerous cultural programs at its National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower, the Tower Theatre in Little Havana, and the Cultura del Lobo Performance Series, among others.

The mission of MDC’s Cultura del Lobo Performance Series is to produce and present the newest, most challenging contemporary and culturally specific work being created in the U.S. and abroad, with an emphasis on the Americas, and to present work that is reflective of our multi-ethnic community. Established in 1990, Cultura del Lobo is unique among arts presenting organizations in its emphasis on the commissioning of new work and commitment to residency opportunities that allow artists to engage the community in the process of making art. The Cultura del Lobo Performance Series brings exceptional national and international performing artists to the region annually and provides opportunities for extensive community engagement through residency activities in the public schools, on-site within the eight-campus college, and through partnerships with local arts providers, social service agencies and community centers.

Visit www.mdc.edu/culture for more information.

Ingenuity & Tough Choices

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Carvalho’s Corner

by Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho, Miami-Dade County Public Schools

August 2010

Ingenuity & Tough Choices: Values-based Budget Positions Miami-Dade Schools for Strong Year in Tough Times

It will take more than magic to make the Miami-Dade school district’s budget crisis disappear, with both state revenue and local property value down. With ingenuity and tough choices, however, we have crafted a budget that follows the District’s guiding principles—no teacher cuts, protection of the most vulnerable members of the District’s workforce, no reduction to art and music classes—while shrinking class size, improving the District’s bond rating, holding the line on local taxes, and maintaining the District’s fiscal viability.

Created more with a surgeon’s needle than a magician’s wand, the proposed budget reflects an unprecedented level of transparency, with input from top business executives, chambers of commerce, school administrators, parents and others. When Miami-Dade School Board members officially consider the proposal next month, they will find a budget that balances the protection of our workforce with the protection of the classroom and respect for the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County; they will find a budget that reflects our unshakable commitment to our core values yet also includes more than $80 million in savings initiatives.

Holding fast to what we value can be a challenge, especially as plunging revenues, rising costs, and state mandates have forced us to cut more than $400 million from our budget since 2007-08. Through this budget, however, we hold firm, boosting reserves by $21 million to bring total reserves to more than $100 million—a level we haven’t reached in more than a decade. It is this type of fiscal responsibility that has strengthened Wall Street’s confidence in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), with Moody’s recently affirming the district’s A1 rating and lifting a negative outlook. As a result of significant fiscal improvements in district management over the last two years, the outlook is now “Stable.”

To maintain such stability without raising taxes requires improved efficiencies and strategic cuts, including a recommended $8 million from the central office that brings total central-office cuts over the last two years to more than 33 percent. As a result, we will recoup $26 million in savings, for example, by having staff complete maintenance programs previously outsourced to contractors.

Unlike many other school districts across the state and nation, Miami-Dade has managed to balance its budget even as its total budget has shrunk by more than $1.5 billion—without resorting to layoffs or compromising the District’s academic or fiscal integrity. In fact, despite the economy Miami-Dade’s schools and students have made notable academic strides in the last three years, with M-DCPS third-graders outperforming or matching their counterparts in every large Florida district in FCAT reading and mathematics gains this year. Likewise, M-DCPS students outperformed their counterparts in such major U.S. cities as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in mathematics on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment, overcoming such hurdles as a high rate of poverty, language differences and disabilities in the process.

The recommended budget for 2010-2011 positions the District to build on this trend of success, poised to start the new school year this month in a position of strength.

Still, worse days may be yet to come, with federal stimulus dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set to run out in 2011. Unless Washington and Tallahassee act now to plug that hole, M-DCPS and other districts across the state face a funding catastrophe that could well force us to cut the programs we hold most dear.

For now, however, we can take hope in knowing that, whether through sorcery or surgery, a sound, solid M-DCPS will live on for another year of service to our students and community, using its given resources to reach ever-higher levels of student achievement and continue giving our students the world.

South Florida Council, Boy Scouts of America Names Hispanic Heritage Honorees and Co-Chairs

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

South Florida Council, Boy Scouts of America Names Hispanic Heritage Honorees and Co-Chairs

Miami, FL - August 12, 2010 – The South Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America named Carlos J. Arboleda of Stephen James Associates, Ed Feenane of Epstein Becker Green, and Alex Hernandez of Sabadell United Bank Co-Chairs for Hispanic Heritage. This year the South Florida Council will honor, Carlos Manuel de la Cruz Jr. - CEO Coca Cola Bottling of Puerto Rico., Benjamin Leon Jr. - CEO Leon Medical Centers., & Mario Trueba – CEO Sabadell United Bank. Additionally, Carlos J. Arboleya – Retired Vice Chairman Bank of America, will receive the lifetime achievement award. The event will take place on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 at the Doral Golf Resort.

About:

The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetime by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

The South Florida Council proudly serves over 37,000 young men and women throughout Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.