By Abdo Sayegh Rodriguez, TU Dance

TU Dance artistic directors Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands will open the company 11th season with a debut performance in Uri’s hometown. Uri was born in Miami and trained as a professional dancer with several local schools before dancing with Philadanco and, as a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among other companies.

​The South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center received support from the Knight Foundation​ to bring TU Dance​ to their venue. TU Dance​ will be performing on November 8 at 8:00pm. The concert features works by ​Sands including “High Heel Blues” (2005), the story of one woman’s infatuation and the charm of a smooth salesman; “One” (2013), honoring the legacy of Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cell; and recently choreographed “Hikari” (2014), a full company work created in collaboration with wood block print artist Hiroki Morinoue. Also, the program features “If and Or” (2013), a vibrant full-company work choreographed by Dwight Rhoden. The company will engage the community by offering several master classes, lectures-demonstrations, and other community educational activities.

TU Dance would like to thank Eric Fliss, and the staff at South Miami Cultural Arts Center for ​this collaboration, and to the Knight Foundation for making this tour possible.