Now that the brand new, high-tech South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (SMDCAC), which is operated by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, officially opened this past weekend, let the performances begin.

South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center’s stated goal is to bring local, national and international multidisciplinary artists to the (formerly) performing arts-starved community of Cutler Bay and the rest of South Miami-Dade. The first scheduled performance is the premiere of “The Um-Hmm Chronicles,” a singing and dancing performance by Thr3e Sistas Enterprises. According to one of the company’s founding three sistas, Dolores Gray, the “Um-Hmm Chronicles” is both a mystery and a love story. It will also give the audience a lesson in the multiple nuanced meanings of um-hmm that bring everyone to tears and laughter. The show opens this week from Oct. 7 through 9.

Read an interview with playwright Gray, of Thr3e Sistas, here.

In November, the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center will present two extraordinary works everyone should see. These highly acclaimed dance companies blend Afro-Caribbean (Garth Fagan Dance) and Afro-Brazilian (Brazz Dance Theater) dance with modern dance traditions. Garth Fagan Dance, one night only on Saturday, Nov. 5, is a once-in-a-lifetime event with an extraordinary choreographer, whose work has spanned more than 20 years. Fagan won a Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1998 for his work on Walt Disney’s “The Lion King.”

Watch and listen to Fagan talk about Afro-Caribbean dance: youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y32mOnYzOkk&feature=player_embedded.

Another performance I highly recommend opens on Nov. 11. Brazz Dance Theater, led by South Florida’s Augusto Soledade, will execute a piece developed exclusively during the dance company’s month-long residency at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. (An exclusive interview with Soledade is coming soon.)

The center, which prides itself on being a community center, not just an art center, serves the larger South Miami-Dade community with educational and cultural outreach opportunities that connect the performing arts community with the community at large. Many of the performances scheduled at the center will give back to the community in various ways. By its very existence, the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center provides the space for the transformative power of the performing arts to work its magic on the edges of Miami-Dade County.

For a full listing of all upcoming performances at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, visit http://www.smdcac.org/shows.html.