Momentum Dance to Host 7th Annual Miami Dance Festival

The Momentum Dance company is hosting the 7th annual Miami Dance Festival from 4/9 through 5/29 featuring performances by seven dance companies and special guests displaying diverse international dance styles, all sharing a common passion for the art. Returning to the festival this year is a performance of Obamanomics, an encore of last year's popular contemporary dance work satirizing the economic crisis. The festival will also feature awards, lectures, film, parties and social events.

The festival is set to begin with a performance of Ori by Brazz Dance Theatre, on 4/9 and 4/10 at the Byron Carlyle Theater. Blending Afro-Brazilian, modern dance and folkloric dance styles with astonishing imagery; Brazz Dance Theatre presents a contemporary interpretation of various aspects of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion with origins in West African culture.

Other highlights of this year's festival include:

• The Dance Now! Ensemble and Dade Heritage Trust presenting Dance Now!
• The Dance Now! Ensemble presenting Little Haiti Neighborhood Nights.
• Ballet Flamenco La Rosa performing an interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth in La Dama Macbeth. "La Tati" who is an internationally known Spanish dancer will play Lady Macbeth.
• Dance Now! presenting an afternoon at the Bandshell.
• A Miami/Mumbai evening with Guest Artists Geeta Dias and NeSh Dance.
• The Dance Now! Ensemble performing highlights from its 10th anniversary season.
• Momentum Dance Company in Concert with Guest Artists Andrea Seidel and the Isadora Duncan Dancers.
• A lecture/performance of "Ballet and Modern Dance - Understanding the Difference" presented by Momentum Dance Company.
• Momentum Dance Company joining Shakespeare Miami for an informal evening of poetry readings and improvisational dance based on Shakespeare's poetry.
• Moving Current Collective (Tampa) in Some Things Revealed in collaboration with Brazz Dance Theater.

"Our bodies allow us to share emotions without words. That's the beauty of the art of dance. It transcends cultural boundaries," says Festival Co-Founder and Director, Delma Iles. "We're elated to bring such a talented group of dancers to Miami to present a cultural variety of emotions."

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.momentumdance.com.

The Momentum Dance Company is a not-for-profit organization. The Miami Dance Festival has been made possible with support from: the National Endowment for the Arts; the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs; the Miami Dade Department of Cultural Affairs and the Board of County Commissioners; the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council and the City of Miami Beach Mayor and Board of Commissioners; the City of Coral Gables; the City of North Miami, Citizens Interested in Arts; Funding Arts Network, the Thoresen Foundation; WLRN Public Radio.

Obamanomics is a comic contemporary dance work satirizing the economic crisis. Choreographer Delma Iles comments on belt tightening, shrinking dollars, corporate bailouts, golden parachutes, economic advisors, and more in this laugh-out -loud witty take on the state of our economy. It was created in the spring of 2009 but continues to be relevant as our economy sags. It is not meant as a criticism of President Obama (who had just been inaugurated when it was conceptualized and created - but we just could not pass up the opportunity for such a great title!), or as a partisan commentary. Rather it finds sympathy with the plight of common people who have worked so hard and lost so much. "At this point in time, I think we could all use a laugh - the President included" says Iles.

Stretching the Budget and Tightening the Belt finds the dancers in their underwear being issued clothing that is far too small. They stretch, tighten, pull, and distort themselves trying bravely to make their new clothes fit.

Fanny and Freddie presents a "fiddling while Rome burns" scenario as it mocks out of touch corporate executives looking for handouts. Dancers in fat suits engage in vaudevillian acts of self-absorption while oblivious to the world around them.
Golden Parachute depicts a corporate fat cat having parasol cocktails at a resort while workers struggle to make ends meet. The dancers scrub, lay bricks, drill, paint, dig, and dream longingly for a break.

Economic Advisors offers a variety of economic plans, each crazier than the previous one as the Advisors offer pirouettes, can-cans, Mambo, and other ideas to solve financial problems. One Advisor pulls a new plan out of her ass.
A recurring vignette is a worker with a bunch of balloons (life savings, lost mortgage, investment portfolio, lost job - use your imagination!) and an evil ballerina. The image slowly evolves as the ballerina pops the balloons one by one.......
In the end, the dancers decide that the best solution is to throw out greed and turn to love (and maybe a bit of sex).