After a quiet holiday weekend, the dance season is back with a vengeance. The Miami Dance Festival begins with Ori, a full evening featuring the repertory of Brazz Dance Theatre. The highlight should be choreographer Augosto Soldade’s new work Kayala, based on the Afro-Brazilian tale of the goddess of the sea bringing night to the earth. A sneak peek at the work a shopping strip on a recent Saturday afternoon hinted that a full production of Kayala will be stunning.

This same night, the Miami City Ballet season ends. Despite an ever challenging economic climate for all dance companies, MCB gets stronger every year and seemingly with every performance. If that logic holds, this season closing program of Jerome Robbins Dances at a Gathering and George Balanchine classic Who Cares? should be the company’s best performance yet.

Miami Dance Festival presents Brazz Dance Theatre in Ori at 8:30pm on Friday, April 9 and Saturday, April 10, 2010 at the Byron Carlyle Theater, 500 71st Street, Miami Beach. Tickets cost $12 to $23.

Miami City Ballet performs Dances at a Gathering and Who Cares? on Friday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 10 at 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, April 11 at 2:00 p.m. at the Adrienne Arsht Center Ziff Ballet Opera House, 1300 NE Biscayne Boulevard. Tickets cost $19 to $85.