By Sue Arrowsmith, Miami Dade College

Back by popular demand, Miami Dade College’s MDC Live Arts presents a powerful performance by trailblazing choreographer Nora Chipaumire. This time, Chipaumire brings Miriam, a stunning dance tribute to the life of South African singer and freedom fighter Miriam Makeba. The performances will take place Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24 – 25, at the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, 404 N.W. 26 St., in the Wynwood Art District.

Acclaimed choreographer Nora Chipaumire pays tribute to South African singer Miriam Makeba in her latest work, Miriam, on Jan. 24 & 25 at the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood.

Miriam is conceived, written and choreographed by Chipaumire and directed by Eric Ting. Chipaumire creates her first character-driven work – a deeply personal dance-theatre performance that looks closely at the internal battles women face between public expectations and private desires, between selflessness and ambition and between the perfection and sacrifice of the feminine ideal. With an original score by six-time Grammy nominee Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa, Miriam layers text, sound and images that enrich the mysterious and haunting world of Chipaumire’s creation.

The inspiration for Miriam springs from the cultural and political milieu of Chipaumire’s own South African childhood, the symmetries in her and Makeba’s exiles and her self-discovery as an artist. But Miriam also reverberates with other literary and legendary influences, including the writings of Joseph Conrad and Chenjerai Hove, and the Christian iconography of Mary.

Chipamuire describes the work as “a solo for two people,” the persona embodied by Chipaumire emerging from a pile of rocks onstage to convey—through movement and text—a woman’s struggles with the burden of objectification and the weight of resistance in a world defined largely by men. Her efforts are abetted and haunted by an otherworldly character, both angel and devil, performed by Bronx-born Okwui Okpokwasili. In their interplay, Miriam renders in vivid images the intensity of women who fight to create themselves despite the dual legacies of strict cultural traditions and imperialist racial views that define female beauty and power.

Tickets for Miriam are $25 for the general public; $50 for VIP and $10 for MDC students with valid ID. You may purchase online at www.miamilightproject.com and at the MDC Live Arts office located at MDC’s Freedom Tower.

Representing another part of the world, the National Theatre of Scotland’s The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart immerses audiences in a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience filled with rhyming couplets, whiskey shots and wittily wild karaoke. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday – Saturday, Feb. 19 – 23, and at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 22 – 23 at Bar 337 (formerly PAX), located at 337 S.W. 8 St.

One wintry morning, Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in the Scottish Borders, the region of Scotland that borders England. As the snow begins to fall, she finds herself trapped in a secluded bar with strangers, only to be swept away on an enchanting, dream-like journey of self-discovery full of magical moments and devilish encounters.

Winner of the Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, “The Scotsman” gives it five stars and “The Herald” declares, “You shouldn’t miss this show for the world….(it’s) rambunctiously life affirming and touchingly beautiful.” The National Theatre of Scotland’s company of actors and musicians indulge audience in an evening of supernatural storytelling, music and theatre inspired by traditional Scottish Border Ballads, Robert Burns and the poems of Robert Service that “subverts the traditional poetic form” according to Scotland’s The Guardian.

“It’s one of the top theater experiences I’ve ever had,” she said. “The show literally happens all around you,” said MDC Live Arts Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. “The cast – which serves as both the actors and the musicians – engages the audience with such inventiveness and fun that you can’t help but be swept up in its magic.”

Tickets for The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart are $30 (plus fees) for general admission and $10 for MDC students (with valid ID). To purchase tickets, and learn more about the 2013-14 MDC Live Arts season, call 305-237-3010, or visit mdclivearts.org.