(noticia) Dance This Fest Around

BY LYSSA OBERKRESER
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Courtesy of Miami Beach Dance Festival
They'll dance to anything


They may be beautiful, lithe, and mesmerizing to watch, but dancers also need to be savvy in times of diminishing funds for the arts. Rather than competing against one another, local dance companies are combining resources for the first annual Miami Beach Dance Festival. "We started the festival about a year and a half ago when the state arts' budget was cut by two-thirds," says Delma Iles, artistic director of Momentum Dance Company and coproducer of the festival. "Medium-size groups were really hurt by the funding cuts, and the festival was a way [for us] to work together; it's a creative response to financial crisis."

Hannah Baumgarten, codirector of the Dance Now! Ensemble (along with Diego Salterini) and coproducer of the festival, credits Iles and Ballet Flamenco la Rosa artistic director Ilisa Rosal as being mentors to her and Salterini. "Instead of being competitive, there is a real camaraderie amongst the arts community," says Baumgarten. "It's always a tough game in the arts with funding cuts, so this is a way to serve ourselves and the community a lot better." Dance Now! is known for pulling together different styles of dance to keep performances fresh and interesting. "There is enough diversity in our program that you may love some and hate another [part], but you will be touched by something," says Baumgarten. The Dance Now! Ensemble will perform Friday, April 22, at 8:00, and Sunday, April 24, at 7:00. Their show includes excerpts from Suite 305 and the premiere of a new duet by assistant director Colleen Farnum. "Go, Go, Go is about different kinds of strong and sexy women," says Baumgarten of Farnum's work. Salterini will also premiere his original work Chronicles, which Baumgarten describes as "abstract but with an Americana feel."

(leer +) [vía miami new times]