Fuerza Fiesta

Fuerza Bruta opens at the Arsht Center June 11th for an 8 week run.

 

By Jordan Levin

The Miami production of Fuerza Bruta will stretch the Arsht Center's production skills and the show's concept of enveloping audiences in a mind-bending environment. Instead of starting and ending the fun with Fuerza, the center hopes to further entice audiences with an art-filled entry and in-house nightclub.

Just mounting Fuerza Bruta in Miami is a significant challenge for the center's production staff. To trim costs, most of the show's machinery and set pieces are being built in
Miami, so that only two cargo containers, instead of the usual seven, will be needed to ship the production from Argentina.

The elaborate production isn't only on stage. It also will surround audiences from the entrance to the Barton G-designed Fuerza Lounge around the performance area. The idea is to extend the show's atmosphere into a full night out. When Scott Shiller, the center's executive vice president, saw De La Guarda, the predecessor to Fuerza Bruta, in New York, he was so excited he didn't want to leave.

“When I thought about how to translate the show to Miami, I thought about capturing that spark,  . . . of extending the experience beyond the show,” Shiller says.

The loading-dock entry will feature art and installations created by students from Miami's Design and Architecture Senior High School and artists from Wynwood's Chelsea Galeria, and will incorporate urban and industrial elements such as cardboard boxes and graffiti. Video by Adam Reign and Osiris S. will mix images of water and performance.

For the Fuerza Lounge, Barton G. Weiss, whose Design District company produces elaborate parties for clients ranging from the Super Bowl to Ocean Drive magazine, has tried to reflect the show's intensity and urban grit. “How do you pair the theatrics and technology of what they have to offer with what I have to offer?” Weiss asks.  “The show has this everlasting energy, and we want to continue the party.”

Show-goers will be able to eat, drink and dance to a DJ afterward. Seating is made from steel I-beams and cinderblocks, with a bar made from hurricane shutters. The menu is a kind of sci-fi take on carnival snacks. Drinks have names like Megavolt and Nitro Cosmo, and there are frozen “pop shots” - tequila-infused gel garnished with lemon and salt or vanilla vodka with strawberry puree on a stick.

Fuerza Bruta, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday through July 5; Ziff Ballet Opera House (enter at loading dock on Northeast 14th St. between Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast Second Avenue.), Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.

Tickets: $73.75. For more info call 305-949-6722 or visit www.arshtcenter.org.