(Last Updated 9/28/98)
4th Annual 1998 FLA/BRA Festival
The 4th Annual FLA/BRA (Florida/Brazil) Festival, produced by Tigertail Productions, is Florida’s premiere festival of new work from Brazil and Florida. FLA/BRA is a three-month long festival featuring new and innovative work in music, dance, theater, poetry, film and video by Florida and Brazilian artists. It presents in Miami and Brazil the best of the newest artists of Brazil and South Florida. FLA/BRA is a highly successful festival in a long line of events and festivals produced by Tigertail since 1979.
FLA/BRA 1998 will feature more than 50 artists in more than 30 events throughout Miami from September 10-November 15, 1998. Concerts, artist residencies, master classes, workshops, lectures, receptions and informal discussions will take place throughout the festival. All events are open to the public and are held at a variety of venues in Miami-Dade, including the M-DCC Wolfson Centre Gallery in downtown Miami, the Albion Hotel on Miami Beach, Ambrosino Gallery in Coral Gables, Alliance Cinema on Miami Beach, Area Stage on Miami Beach, the Wolfsonian Museum on Miami Beach, at MetroRail locations in downtown Miami, the Coral Gables Congregational Church in Coral Gables, Books and Books on Miami Beach and the Colony Theater on Miami Beach. Events in Brazil will take place at ALUMNI in São Paulo (an English teaching school with 7,000 students) and at Paço Imperial (Rio de Janeiro’s finest center for the exhibition of contemporary art).
FLA/BRA is an eclectic and fun festival, bringing together artists, critics and cultural leaders from Brazil and Florida, including prestigious artists who are recipients of NEA, State of Florida, Guggenheim, Fulbright, MacArthur and Vitae awards. All FLA/BRA Festivals have received critical acclaim in the electronic and print media, coverage in major newspapers in São Paulo, Rio and Miami with articles in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Since 1986, Tigertail has produced more than 70 international projects with Brazil, both in Brazil and in South Florida. The festival is an evolution of these years of exchange projects. In 1995 Tigertail launched FLA/BRA to promote and showcase new work and ideas in dance, music, film and the visual arts from Florida and Brazil and to provide a festival for tourists and residents to attend.
Says Fernando Gonzalez of The Miami Herald, "Now Miami, American town, Cuban capital in exile, Haitian borough, Bahamian suburb, and more, is also becoming a Brazilian city. In a cover story July of 1996 Veja, the largest weekly magazine in Brazil, called Miami the fastest growing Brazilian metropolis." Though a definite number cannot be settled upon, approximately 150,000 Brazilians now live in South Florida; more than 500,000 Brazilian tourists visited Miami in 1997. Their average U.S. stay is 15 days, (Miami 8 days) Individual expenses are about $150 per day. Only the Japanese spend more. In 1996 1.3 million Brazilian passengers came through South Florida. Sixty flights weekly connect Miami to Brazil. (as per Miami Herald, Consulate General of Brazil, Miami Today)
Through resourceful means, Tigertail has maximized resources to exponentially expand its impact locally, nationally and internationally through its many festival partners. Each partner provides additional support to the festival in getting the word out to tourist, residents and the international community.
Call Tigertail Productions, at 305 324 4337, for a brochure and ticket information