Our top picks for the week

BIOGRAPHY/Famous but Forgotten
January 25, 6pm
The Medici Archive Project, via de' Benci 10, Florence

Eighteenth century painter Violante Siries Cerroti was well-known in her heyday, but is now hardly remembered, despite her technical mastery, prominent family and self-portrait hanging in the Uffizi. Advancing Women Artists Foundation researcher Poiret Masse and art restorer Elizabeth Wicks will give a lecture on this unfairly forgotten woman, and particularly on her masterwork, The Virgin Mary Presents the Christ Child to Santa Maria Maddalena (1767), recently restored by AWA. The talk will be based on Masse's and Wicks' book The Lady Who Paints: Violante Siries Cerroti and the evening will also include a screening of the related documentary short by Bunker Film. Reservations are required: write to [email protected] to book your spot.

TOPICAL/We Love Arabs
January 19-21, 9pm
Teatro Rifredi, via Vittorio Emanuele II 303, Florence

This provocative, satirical and laugh-packing dance performance has earned high praise from the likes of Le Monde and The Jerusalem Post. Created by choreographer Hillel Kogan of the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, We Love Arabs takes a delicate topic—the Arab-Israeli conflict—and turns it into urgently timely (and relentlessly funny) stage fodder. The piece begins with a choreographer and a dancer awkwardly discussing the meaning of their collaborative relationship, before later launching into a frenzied liberation dance around, as fate would have it, a plate of hummus. Performed in English with Italian supertitles. For more information, visit Teatro Rifredi's website.

WHEELS/International Skate Awards
January 21-22
Nelson Mandela Forum, piazza Enrico Berlinguer, Florence

World-class champions of the skating rink will return to the Mandela Forum this year for the seventh edition of the International Skate Awards: the acrobatic stars land in Florence, their only Italian destination, after stops in Bogotà, Shanghai and Buenos Aires. Saturday’s show (beginning at 9pm) will be a fast-paced spectacle bringing together established athletes, emerging young stars and new recruits. The following day will feature a multidisciplinary musical, Latinoamericana (4pm), with more than 40 top skaters taking to the rink and showing off aerial dance and rhythmic gymnastics moves, in addition to their traditional skating savvy. For more information call 335/8244308 or visit the Mandela Forum website.

DRINK/Birraio dell’Anno
January 20-22
Obihall, lungarno Aldo Moro 3, Florence

Beer aficionados will want to mark their calendars for three days of fermented fun at the Obihall. Organized by the network Fermento Birra, which recognizes Italy’s top craft brewer each year, this festival will bring together 25 Italian breweries serving up 100 craft beers on tap—all competing for the coveted title of Birraio dell’Anno, to be awarded on Sunday, January 22 at 5.30pm. Guided tastings and free talks are open to the public, and Cucine di Strada trucks and booths will keep the street food supply in check (look for Sicilian arancine and other specialties from local eatery Arà, as well as Tuscan treats from Il Magazzino). Passes are available for one day or all three. For more details, see the official Facebook event.  

TRICKS/Cirkopolis
January 21-22
Teatro Verdi, via Ghibellina 99, Florence

Presented by the Canadian company Cirque Éloize in collaboration with Show Bees, Cirkopolis blends the borders between reality and imagination with its elaborate sets, eye-catching costumes and prodigious performers, who hail from all over the world. Imagined as ‘an intersection between individuality and community, between limits and possibilities,’ it’s all set to an otherworldly score by sound artist Stéfan Boucher, known for ‘juggling’ an inventive range of objects (think typewriters) in his musical productions. For ticket information and show times, see Teatro Verdi's website.