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Story by Barbara Penny Angelakis
Spanish Dance Heels clicking, hands clapping, fingers snapping, dresses swirling and passions ignited. THAT is dance! THAT is Flamenco! February as usual welcomed the return of the annual Flamenco Festival to the New York City Center Theater on West 55th Street. This renowned art deco theater has long been the venue for affordable music and dance presentations for the culturally hungry masses that flood the city. This year the Flamenco dance season consisted of programs from two of the companies that are amongst the most highly respected and famous names in flamenco; Los Farruco and Antonio Gades.
Flamenco, originally a folkloric expression that was birthed from the heart of the Spanish soul eons ago in the gypsy caves of the southern province of Andalusia, has grown and developed into a beloved worldwide performance spectacle. It is one of my favorite dance forms and I was fortunate to be able to attend this year’s dance-drama of “Carmen”, Antonio Gades adaptation from Bizet’s popular opera based on the 1845 novella by French author and man of letters, Prosper Mérimée. This is not the first time I have seen this fiery work performed, and hopefully, it will not be the last. I first encountered Gades work in a 1983 movie of “Bodas de Sangre” (Blood Wedding) an iconic story of star-crossed lovers and provincial codes of honor and revenge. Carlos Saura, the award winning Spanish filmmaker, produced and directed the film as the first of a flamenco trilogy in collaboration with Gades; the second was “Carmen” and the third “El Amor Brujo” (Love, the Magician). Antonio Gades choreographed and masterfully danced the lead in all three films with Cristina Hoyos as the heroine. The movies were spellbinding, impassioned; partially due to the sizzling dancing of Gades and Hoyos, and partially due to the direction and staging of Saura. Saura brilliantly used the artifact of a rehearsal set in a dance studio to focus attention on the dancers, without distraction of set or design. This is a perfect device for flamenco which needs only the music and movement to excite the senses. The staged version of Carmen is more theatrical than the movie version since there are no close-ups to force your concentration to where the action is, otherwise the production is true to the vision and choreography of Gades. Since Gades passed away in 2004, his company has been under the artistic direction of Stella Arauzo who danced with Gades for years, and is in fact the Carmen in the current production. What Ms. Arauzo lacks in youthful continence she more than makes up for in exuberance. Her Carmen is far more earthy and sexual than Ms. Hoyos’ was, although both are exquisite in the role and thrilling to watch. Ms. Arauzo’s overtly sexual stances and erotic body language along with her superb technique ignited the audience and brought the tale of the independent free-wheeling Gypsy woman to life as she moved to the intermittent melodic notes of Bizet’s music sporadically blaring from a pre-recording off stage. Not quite as successful was the role of Don José danced by Adrian Galia. Mr. Galia is a talented dancer but perhaps inhibited by the shoes he was required to fill in this role. His presence was hesitant and did not seem integral to the story, and when he was absent from the stage there was not the electric anticipation that Ms. Arauzo’s return elicited. Nevertheless it was an exciting evening of dance with the supporting company of young talented performers doing a more than creditable job. For information on Andalucia visit http://www.andalucia.org and for general information on Spain http://www.spain.info
© April 2009 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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