Arts

Off Season Brings Indie Dance with Afua Hall Dances

Late May and into June, after the so-called season has ended and the dancers of Miami City Ballet have put away their toe shoes, a more independent, D-I-Y kind of dance lives on. Choreographers without boards of directors or paid subscribers somehow put together scrappy productions that are often my favorites of the year. This weekend, what I’ll call the off-season continues with new work by Afua Hall Dances. The Jamaican-American choreographer who gives the company her name is a beautiful, lyrical mover with a knack for storytelling and uplift. Formerly of the renowned company Philadanco, Hall returned to Miami in recent years and has served as an artist in residence at MDC Kendall, where she presented works-in-progress that draw from both contemporary concert dance and Jamaican dancehall idioms. I am looking forward to seeing how her years in South Florida have inspired her work since then.

Afua Hall Dances performs on Friday, June 11 at 11am and 7:30pm and on Saturday, June 12 at 7:30pm; McCarthy Theater, Rm. 6120, Miami Dade College Kendall Campus, 11011 SW 104 Street, Miami, FL 33176; 917-541-8861; $5 suggested donation.