FLEX - An "Experimental Dance Party" With Female Bodybuilders

Late for Work's Ammy Juliet Garcia (left)

Miami New Times: Sometimes you reach a point where you're pretty convinced you've seen it all. But in Miami, we're always looking for new ways to reinvent the party wheel. Rather than become jaded by the same old nightlife offerings week after week, creative collective Late for Work came together this past October with one mission: to create unique experiences.

Rita Bello

Composed of Ramhofer and Ammy Juliet Garcia, Late for Work has launched a series of "experimental dance parties" across the city. "I've always had a thing for contortionists," Garcia says. The idea for Flex, a new dance party every third Thursday at Las Rosas, was born out of her love for the sort of hyperflexible, spandex-clad performance artists typically associated with the circus. It's extreme, physical, dramatic spectacle. These performers can sometimes be found twisting around giant metal hoops at SoBe clubs. At Flex, Garcia and Ramhofer offer a variation on the theme: female bodybuilders.

"There’s this one lady at the YouFit [gym] on 79th [Street]," Garcia says of Rita Bello, Flex's inaugural performer. "She's superbuilt, so she's kinda the inspiration behind it." At the first Flex party last month, Bello accompanied a lineup of DJs and live performers by posing live — showing off her physique in competition wear. She also judged a flexing competition in which party guests attempted to mimic some of Bello's classic and most challenging poses.

The second iteration of the monthly event, Late for Work will present two new female bodybuilders. But the idea for Flex isn't limited to bodybuilding. The party plans to expand to contortionists in the future — "anything out of the ordinary within the theme of flexing," Garcia says.