Merce in Miami

Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. From Feb 23rd through Mar 4th, 2007Carnival Center for the Performing Arts will present Merce in Miami, a landmark cultural event honoring a creative visionary and one of the greatest living artists of our era, Merce Cunningham. The city-wide festival, which showcases the life and work of the legendary choreographer and will feature performances at the Center by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (in its inaugural visit to Miami), includes a music festival featuring the work of Cunningham’s collaborators; a live performance by Sigur Rós; a rare public interview with Cunningham; workshops, lectures, and other creative collaborations with Museum of Contemporary Art, New World School of the Arts, Florida Dance Association, Miami Dade College, South Florida Composers Alliance, and the interdisciplinary Sounds Arts Workshop (iSAW) – producer of the Subtropics Experimental Music and Sound Arts Festival. Merce in Miami will feature performances of five masterworks by the American genius, including the world premiere of his newest work eyeSpace, a piece commissioned by Carnival Center for this festival in which David Behrman unites Cunningham’s choreography for the first time with designs by Miami visual artist Daniel Arsham and music by David Behrman. Three other major Cunningham works to be performed on the stage of the Ziff Ballet Opera House include the U.S. premiere of the revival of CRWDSPCR (1993); Crises (1960) and Split Sides (2003), which will feature a rare live performance by the Icelandic ambient rockers Sigur Rós and recorded music by Radiohead. Finally, Cunningham’s mammoth masterwork Ocean will be staged in the Knight Concert Hall.