'Silence!'
Mime show, tribute to Marcel Marceau, performed by Cie. Bodecker & Neander, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater, 2207-2025, www.mundoticket.com.

Jacó Art Festival
Featuring local artists, through Sunday, Jacó, Puntarenas, 8867-9704.

Environment Fair
Stands, talks, conferences, exhibits, product sales, Fri.-Sun., 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Antigua Aduana (old Customs building), Barrio La California, Calle 23, 100 m north of Cine Magaly. Info: 8392-7381.

Santa Ana handicrafts market
Fri.-Sun., 9 a.m.-8 p.m., through Nov. 30, south side of Heladería de Apredeprosa, Santa Ana.

Robert Aguilar and The Neotics in concert
Neo soul, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Dance show
Performed by Signos Teatro Danza, through Sat., 7:30 p.m., Centro para las Artes, National University (UNA), Heredia, 2281-2465.

World Ocean Day
Movie “Sharkwater,.” Sun., beach cleanup and activities for children, 9 a.m., activities by Pretoma until 3 p.m.; a VIP tent will include live music, wine and cheese, art auction to raise money for the children's organization. Info: 2670-0321 ext 174.

Job fair
9 a.m.-6 p.m., at ITS Info Comunicación, 2nd floor Centro Colón, Paseo Colón. Info: 2211-0500, reclutamiento@corporacionits.com

National Youth Ballet
“La Bayadera,” based on verses of Hindu poet Kalidasa, Sat. 7 p.m.; Sun at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater.

Free film: 'Smoking Room'
6 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center

Annual pet bazaar
Organized by Fondo de Ñato association, articles for pets, handmade items for sale, free vet consultations, face-painting, 9 a.m.-noon, Sabana Park, north side of the lake, organized by Asociación Ñato. Info: 2267-6011, 8382-5163.

National Symphony Orchestra
With conductor Chosei Komatsu, guest violinist Ilya Kaler, playing Wagner's Faust Overture, Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra and Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, Fri. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 10:30 a.m., National Theater.

The planned launch this weekend of seven new bus routes to circumvent downtown San José traffic was curbed yesterday, following a court ruling that transport officials acted “irrationally” in awarding contracts for the plan, the daily La Nación reported.

The Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) is set to appeal the decision by the Transport Administrative Tribunal. Bus consortium MPT S.A., comprising 34 bus companies, was ready to dispatch 100 buses for an inauguration planned for tomorrow, according to La Nación.

The seven new peripheral bus routes are meant to directly link several of San José's suburbs and nearby towns, lessening congestion downtown and reducing commuters' travel time, according to MOPT.

The seven new routes are: the southern suburb of Desamparados to the northeastern suburb of Moravia; the southern suburb of Hatillo to the northeastern suburb of Guadalupe; the northwestern district of La Uruca to the western suburb of Escazú; Guadalupe to La Uruca; Moravia to La Valencia (the road through La Uruca connecting San José to the city of Heredia, north of San José); Moravia to La Valencia; La Valencia to Santa Ana, southwest of San José; and Escazú to Alajuelita, south of San José.

The new routes were selected based on the results of a survey of 14,500 homes and a series of studies contracted by MOPT.

When Marcel Marceau died in September, some might have suspected the master mime took with him an art form he resurrected and transformed into the spectacle it is today – his final act of silence.

Alexander Neander and Wolfram von Bodecker, disciples of the artist credited for influencing Michael Jackson's “moonwalk,” are determined to help the hushed performance to endure. Compagnie Bodecker & Neander comes to San José to perform tonight at 8 p.m. at the Melico Salazar Theater “in homage to our maître,” they said in an e-mail interview with The Tico Times.

TT: What, for you, is the most valuable part of the great Marcel Marceau's lasting legacy?  

B&D: Beyond the technical aspect and poetry of his art, Marceau handed down to us his abnegation. Imagine the kind of strength of character it took to be able to create theater without text. In his era, it was impossible to imagine a performance in silence. Throughout his career, against all odds, Marceau always defended his dogma, so that the art of miming would endure.

Where's Marceau's art most visible today?

It would be impossible to make a list of all the artists Marceau influenced. This includes painters, musicians, dancers… figures like Jean Cocteau, Michael Jackson and Rudolf Nureyev, to name a few.

What's “Silence!” about?

Marceau always said that emptiness is full and silence is music. Silence is not mute; it can tell more than a thousands words. Our show supports this principle through two protagonists who create poetic fables. Our creation is a succession of pantomimes in different universes.

“Music in the Rain” is a pantomime based on a day in the rain in Paris – musicians in the street, water running and carrying with it memories of an old era.

“The Martian” transports us to conquer outer space, to meet faraway worlds without forgetting the magic of dreams.

“The Café” is a piece that shows how a couple of grains of salt can turn a day at the café into a nightmare. Our hands speak of the good and bad of all human beings. A man facing a crossroads must choose which pair of hands he will carry through life.

“Antonio's Four Seasons”: a dreamer, Antonio awaits his lover who never arrives. But no matter, tomorrow Antonio will wait again…

In “Homage to Our Maître Marcel Marceau,” we've created a pantomime based on some of the moments of his work that most influenced us, artistically and emotionally. It's something very symbolic and poetic… For people who had the occasion to see Marceau, we think they will identify with the personalities and different landscapes. Also, those who didn't see him can get to know the poetry of his work and the evolution of this art.

What should an aspiring mime do to become great?

Our profession is like that of a priest; you have to commit. Then comes passion and labor in order to bear fruit. Specifically, our art requires enormous bodily discipline, mastery of rhythm and a lot of fantasy.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Former guerrilla leader Dora María Téllez today starts her third day of an indefinite hunger strike in protest of the government's attempts to exclude minority political parties from participating in the upcoming municipal elections, as well as its inability to respond to basic problems such as hunger.

Téllez, 52, is a leader of the opposition Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) and is best known for helping to lead a daring 1978 rebel raid on the National Palace. A year later, she commanded the Sandinista Front's northern guerrilla units that captured the cities of León and Chinandega in June 1979, a month before the Sandinista revolution triumphed.

Téllez then served as the first Sandinista government's minister of health in the 1980s, before splitting from the party in 1995 to form the MRS along with former Vice President Sergio Ramírez and other leading leftist intellectuals.

Today, Téllez is a history professor but remains a leading critic of President Daniel Ortega and the power-sharing pact he formed a decade ago with former President Arnoldo Alemán.

“They have been killing democracy for years in Nicaragua due to the pact; (meanwhile) the people are hungry because of the economic situation, and the government doesn't do anything about it,” Téllez told The Nica Times yesterday morning from the roadside hammock in which she is camping out during her hunger strike, in front of the Metrocentro traffic rotary. “We have to call attention to this and we have to change the direction of the country.”

Under the banner “We Want Democracy and Gallo Pinto,” Téllez said she will maintain her hunger strike until the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) agrees to include the minority parties on the ballot for the upcoming November municipal elections. The CSE recently ruled that the MRS, the Conservative Party and two other minority parties had not complied with all the requirements to be included on the ballot – something the MRS and Conservatives both deny.

The MRS has since presented all its requirements to the CSE on two more occasions, but party leaders say the Alemán-Ortega pact is determined to keep third parties from competing.

Téllez says the elimination of the minority parties would be another step toward a dictatorship by the Ortega government, which she loathes calling “Sandinista.”

“The government can call itself by whatever name it wants, but they are not Sandinistas – Sandinismo is something else,” said the lifelong revolutionary. “This government is Danielista, not Sandinista. The Sandinista is in the street fighting for life and democracy; the Danielista not. The Danielista just wants to stay in power.”

Read Next Friday's Nica Times for more on this story