Pity Party, Rosie Herrera’s Theater of Precarity

Posted on October 16, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

Another day, another paper proposal, this time for a conference called the Affect Factory at NYU in February. Pity Party: Rosie Herrera’s Theater of Precarity

Miami’s glitzy tourism economy obscures the grit of one of the most impoverished cities in the United States. The eternal happy face of hospitality is imperative for low-wage workers from the hotel industry to the sex industry to the entertainment industry. Choreographer Rosie Herrera learned to affix a permanent smile as a Little Havana showgirl at the age of 15, and as a regular dancer in Latin and hip-hop music videos. A frequent choreographer for burlesque and fetish shows, and a member of the Miami-based CircX “interactive entertainment” troupe, Herrera has labored in Miami’s tourism complex for more than a decade, performing for clients from nightclubs to arts institutions to corporate branding events. The Rosie Herrera Dance Theater undermines the compulsory affect of hospitality by unveiling the pain behind the glittering smiles of drag queens, divas, and disco queens. Continue reading →

The Big Lie, Cultural Economy as Cabaret

Posted on October 14, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

Here’s my proposal for psi18: While public arts budgets have been slashed across the United States, Miami-Dade County has avoided cuts through a strong cultural bureaucracy and powerful lobbying by local arts groups. That success is premised, according to the county’s top bureaucrat, on a “big lie”: a national economic impact study that claims that the nonprofit arts “industry” generates nearly $1 billion in economic activity in the county each year and supports more than 20,000 full-time jobs. Continue reading →

The Popardo’s Spots

Posted on October 14, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

Tonight the lovely Colombian-American singer Cintia Lovo joined me at Miami Bridge. I haven’t hired a visual artist yet — and find it incredible that after all these years of Colombian-hood by association, I haven’t been able to come up with a Colombian artist for this project — so we spent the evening reviewing Barranquilla Carnival. Continue reading →

Shirin Neshat, Still Turbulent

Posted on October 13, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

Today I’ve spent the day putting the final touches on the online version of our modern currents in the humanities course. This was a good excuse for reviewing Shirin Neshat’s work, which I first encountered haphazardly at a show in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica in April, I think, of 1999. I went with two other dance scholars/dancers, and we couldn’t help dancing in the dark space between the two separate projections of men and women on opposite walls. We saw Rapture, not Turbulent, but both pieces are equally haunting.

Brazilian Artists Set for Carnival Arts Homestead

Posted on October 12, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

For 5 years now, the Carnival Arts program has been blessed with phenomenal artists, in the same way that Miami is blessed, with so many fantastic dancers, musicians, and visual artists. The upcoming session of Brazilian Carnival at the Miami Bridge Homestead campus is no different. We are honored to collaborate with percussionist Claudio Silva, visual artist Rebeca Gilling, dancers Ilana Reynolds and Willie Brown. Continue reading →

La Negra Means Love

Posted on October 10, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

This afternoon we kicked off the 2011-2012 season of Carnival Arts. 12 Barry students turned out to support 7 teen artists from the Miami Bridge Central Campus. After our usual name game, we stayed in our big circle and tried out basic steps for cumbia — a rhythm played during the Barranquilla Carnaval. With one foot in half-point, like ladies in high heels, we hitched our hips and pushed right, then reversed the whole thing and pushed left. After we got pretty good at that, Keinny Merchan broke out the tambores, and taught the group some basic beats. When we grew tired of that, I had everyone learn the first two verses and the chorus from “La Pollera Colora” (The Red Skirt). Continue reading →

Miami as Cabaret

Posted on October 9, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

“I’ve discovered that I’m a buffoon,” Octavio Campos told me on Thursday morning during a four-hour debrief after his return from a 2-month residency in Australia. Not that he felt like a fool for going Down Under. Quite the contrary: his performances at the Melbourne Fringe Festival confirmed his twin commitments to 1) Miami and 2) cabaret.

I’ve been thinking about Miami as a cabaret town for a while now. Since the deadline for next summer’s performance studies international conference is coming up, I thought maybe that idea might fit into the conference theme of performance and the culture industry. Continue reading →

Airport Art

Posted on September 4, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

The little girl looks to be about 6 years old. She is hopping on one foot, landing first on a piece of coral, then on a sea anemone, then a starfish, and so on, all outlined in bronze and embedded in the floor of Terminal D at Miami International Airport.

She could hop across this black terrazzo sea flecked with bits of mother-of-pearl for half a mile, if only her mother would let her. Continue reading →

Acts of Faith

Posted on August 13, 2011 by CelesteFraserDelgado

Sunday is a day for quiet contemplation at South Florida art museums. The crowds are sparse and the halls are quiet. Three current shows offer reflections on the mysteries of life, prompting questions often reserved for more formal houses of worship: Who made the world? Why do humans suffer? How best to celebrate birth or mourn death? Continue reading →

Celeste Fraser Delgado

Arts, Media, Community