Dance review

Goblen digs deep, flies high in ‘Pet’

Falling in love means taking a risk, and Rudi Goblen takes plenty of risks in his new solo theater piece, PET.

Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation picks 66 Arts Challenge finalists

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation on Monday announced 66 finalists for its Knight Arts Challenge, which has pumped $86 million into South Florida’s creative community since 2006.

Performing arts

Performance artist Rudi Goblen is a master of re-invention

Voracious virtuosity has propelled Rudi Goblen to the top of Miami’s live-arts scene

Dance

Miami City Ballet’s ‘Dances at a Gathering’ not all there

Something subtle but crucial was missing from Dances at a Gathering, the evanescent Jerome Robbins masterpiece Miami City Ballet is dancing for its fourth and final program of the season. The obvious pieces were in place at Saturday’s performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale: the 10 dancers executed the choreography well, sometimes thrillingly so.

Natalie Cole makes Spanish singing debut at Latin Songwriters gala on Miami Beach

Natalie Cole looked and sang like a diva at the inaugural Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame gala at the New World Symphony on Tuesday night, delivering a lovely rendition of Acercate Mas (Get Closer) in a “Unforgettable” style duet with video of her father Nat King Cole. “It’s not easy being first, and Dad was a first in so many ways,” Cole told the audience at the New World Center on Miami Beach, as she accepted the Premio Pionero Desi Arnaz on behalf of her father, who was friends with the famous Cuban actor and singer. Nat King Cole was revered in Cuba for recording three albums of Latin American songs. “I can only imagine Desi and my Dad are looking down on us.”

Billboard Latin Music Awards

Billboard Latin Music Awards reveal industry’s struggle to find new stars

Viewers of Thursday night’s Billboard Latin Music Awards, broadcast live from Coral Gables on Telemundo, might get a strong feeling of déjà vu. On stage will be longtime salsa-pop favorite Marc Anthony (that was him, too, in 2012, 2011 and 2010), pop diva Paulina Rubio (a repeat from 2012 and 2010) and reggaeton star Don Omar and veteran Mexican pop-rockers Mana (both appearing for the third year in a row).

Dance review

Peck’s piece for MCB duo a vivid part of New World’s ‘New Work’ program

The pas de deux Justin Peck created for Miami City Ballet was just one element of the New World Symphony’s “New Work” evening, but Chutes and Ladders, vibrantly performed by Jeanette Delgado and Kleber Rebello, made a vivid impression even amid the rich array at New World Center Saturday.

Latin music

Band’s ‘El Hielo (ICE)’ becomes anthem of immigration-reform movement

The debate over immigration is highly political, but for the Los Angeles-based group La Santa Cecelia, the issue is painfully personal. Lead singer Marisol Hernandez’s parents came to L.A. from Mexico without papers, and accordionist Jose “Pepe” Carlos is undocumented.

Performing arts

New World Symphony, Miami City Ballet collaborate on evening of new works

Two young artists are at the center of the adventurous “New Work” program the New World Symphony will present April 20. Choreographer Justin Peck, 25, created a pas de deux for Miami City Ballet for the occasion, and Zosha Di Castri, 28, composed a piece the orchestra will premiere.

Concert review

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ tour lights up AA Arena

The best revenge Taylor Swift could have against media sniping, celebrity ex-boyfriends and Kanye West-style haters would be that, after Justin Bieber and a generation of boy bands have fallen into oblivion, she makes the transition from teen prodigy to grown-up star.

Music review

Cubafest closer showcases Gema Corredera’s luminous talent

The annual Global Cubafest closed with a concert that beautifully expressed the event’s goal of celebrating and exploring Cuban music throughout the diaspora.

Latin music

Musicals, video-game score on Gustavo Santaolalla’s overflowing plate

Gustavo Santaolalla never stops forging into new territory. The Argentine producer of seminal Latin rock artists including Juanes, Café Tacuba and Molotov, composer of Oscar-winning scores for the movies Brokeback Mountain and Babel and co-founder of the tango-fusion group Bajofondo has a host of new projects in new genres including a dance musical, a video game, an animated film — and a winery.

Juanes is back, re-energized and determined to keep life in balance

The only instrument you notice walking into Juanes’ sun-dappled home on Key Biscayne is an upright piano, covered with lesson books for his daughter Paloma, 7, who on this weekday morning is sprawled on a sofa, along with siblings Luna, 9, and Dante, 3, in pajama-clad, spring-break bliss. The 16 Grammy Awards, racks of guitars and other trappings of the 40-year-old Colombian rock star’s career are in his recording studio upstairs.

Electronic dance music

Think Ultra Music Fest revelers are living large? Get a load of the SoBe VIP crowd

Think Ultra Music Fest revelers are living large? Get a load of the VIP sections in South Beach clubs.

Nigerian bio-musical ‘Fela’ gets crowd onto its feet at Arsht Center

Fela! boasts hit songs, thrilling dances and a riveting story. But this Broadway success, which runs through Sunday at the Adrienne Arsht Center, is also radically different from other musicals. The show, which opened Tuesday evening, brings us inside the seething, incandescent and precarious life of the Nigerian musical and political revolutionary Fela Anikulapo Kuti. That it succeeds in captivating American audiences with a world that would seem to be utterly foreign and disturbing to them is part of its achievement. Fela! does not lecture. But like the life of its subject, the show is celebratory and tragic in equal measure.

Musical theater

Musical ‘Fela!’ tells story of musician’s extraordinary life

Inspirational musical ‘Fela!’ chronicles the life of an extraordinary Nigerian

Dance review

Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia mixes traditional, contemporary at Arsht Center

Thursday’s performance by the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia, the Spanish troupe that is this year’s offering for the Flamenco Festival Miami, showed all the strengths and the weaknesses of this annual event — now in its sixth year at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Dance

Andalusian troupe to open sixth Flamenco Festival Miami on Thursday

The Spanish flamenco world seems permanently obsessed with the tension between maintaining its genre’s powerful traditions and adapting to modern culture. One of the latest efforts to reconcile the two comes to Miami this week, when Spain’s Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia brings Metafora to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts for the sixth annual Flamenco Festival Miami.

Dance review

Revered teacher Peter London’s dance troupe showcases Miami dancers

Peter London has been a revered and beloved dance teacher at the New World School of the Arts since its launch in 1987, and his devotion and success as a mentor were apparent in the Peter London Global Dance Company concert Sunday evening at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. His troupe consists of 13 impressive current or recent New World students, and three alums now with major New York companies returned as guest stars.