NEW YORK TIMES 2008
Women of Flamenco Expand the Edges of Passionate TraditionJack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Gala Flamenca: Mujeres Rocío Molina, left, and Belén Maya in the paso a dos “Romance de Zaide” at City Center as part of the New York Flamenco Festival 2008.
By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: February 18, 2008
Flamenco is an art of fiery passion, as everyone knows. Its dancing feet are soul-shattering, its singing voices gut-wrenching. To renew or refashion flamenco, a little Latin influence is added here or an involved narrative there. But the four women who starred in “Mujeres” (“Women”), a gala program presented by World Music Institute’s New York Flamenco Festival 2008 on Friday at City Center, offered stunning proof that the old art lives on most vitally in committed new interpreters.
Dance Review | Flamenco Festival New York 2008: The Lights and Darks of Life, Punctuated by Stillness and Guitars (February 18, 2008) Hard-driving, beautifully articulated footwork was represented in “Mujeres,” though the subtlety of the sounds was too often lost in the show’s heavy-handed electronic amplification. But what the featured artists demonstrated, in a dance event that promises to be one of the most exciting and thought-provoking of the year, was that flamenco is also an art of inflection.
The seguiriya “Apasionado,” performed by Rocío Molina, and the paso a dos "Romance de Zaide, ” danced by Ms. Molina and Belén Maya, did not look like traditional flamenco. “Deja de Volverme Loca,” sung by Diana Navarro with delicate piano accompaniment by Chico Valdivia, had the haunting tenderness of a broken-hearted lullaby, its power very different from the raw scorched-earth sound of singing on most flamenco programs.
Yet the body lines, the reach of the voice, and the pushing, seething impulse to action immediately identified the three pieces as flamenco. And each required training in flamenco substantial enough to enable imaginative, gifted performers to depart from more stereotypical fare.
Ms. Molina, a 23-year-old veteran of festivals and Spanish dance competitions, is already an impressively authoritative star. Early on she stood out for the odd, small-handed cupping gestures that often finished a large and rippling dance for her arms. Hands and suitably fiery feet were at work in her seguiriya. But the core of her solo was a sustained buildup that was spellbinding, a term I’ve resolutely stayed away from for three decades. At one point Ms. Molina stopped suddenly and briefly, seeming to draw the movement into her small, compact body rather than dancing it out. The centered body appeared soon after to tilt momentarily into some implacable wind.
The paso a dos could have been performed on a modern-dance program. Ms. Maya and Ms. Molina, dressed in body-hugging gray stretch fabric, could have been Elie Nadelman maquettes come to life, in an unspooling thread of jutting, twining, darting encounters for two stretched flamenco bodies. Sensuous, even a little playful, the duet was filled with small continuing surprises. (The evening’s choreography was credited to the three dancers and Manuel Liñán.)
Merche Esmeralda was the evening’s quiet, towering central dancer, a performer of great dignity who was also willing to throw herself into arm-snaking despair. Mario Maya directed the gala.
The New York Flamenco Festival continues through Sunday at the Skirball Center, 566 La Guardia Place, Washington Square South, Greenwich Village; (212) 279-4200 or worldmusicinstitute.org
