For the week of November 4 thru November 10, 1998  

Flamenco seasons Sun Valley slack


By MARILYN BAUER
Express Staff Writer

Estampa Flamenca!

The clatter of castanets, explosive heels stomping out rhythms on a wooden floor, a high-pitched trill, shouts from the handclappers called palmeros, staccato stanzas of chords reverberating from a guitar, the static-filled swish of layer upon layer of satin and lace– Flamenco!

Perhaps the most impassioned of all dance forms, it is an improvised art that has become a theatrical production. Mounted on a small stage with performers seated in a semi-circle while they sing songs and with pounding feet and hands bunched in fists dance dances which originated in ancient India.

International flamenco star Monica Bermudez comes to Ketchum tomorrow for a series of lecture demonstrations and a performance Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Community School.

Stalking across the stage in traditional polka-dot dress with live music by Ricardo Diaz, Bermudez will bring the glamour of the caves of Granada to the Wood River Valley.

A lecture demonstration at Wood River High school is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday and another at 8:30 a.m. at the Community School on Friday. Classes for ages 10 through adult will be held Thursday through Saturday for dancers and non-dancers at the Footlight Dance Centre at the Sun Valley Athletic Center in Ketchum.

Bermudez may never have traveled from her home in San Francisco to the Community School stage if it hadn’t been for local teen and dancer Briana Rego, who met Bermudez when she attended the Festival Flamenco International 1998 in Albuquerque, N.M., last summer.

Rego had been interested in Spanish dance since, at the age of nine, she received a traditional flamenco costume as a gift from her parents upon their return from a trip to Spain. The young girl was mesmerized by the beautiful layers of lace and satin, the bright colors and red and white dots.

She had already begun to study dance, but now began to experiment with the flamenco style. She improvised dances and later attended a summer seminar in Spanish dance at Boise State University studying with flamenco artist Nisa Torreon, who will assist Bermudez in the schools and dance in the Sunday performance.

Torreon was able to instruct Rego in the proper steps and as she became more proficient she moved on to the festival in Albuquerque where she signed on to study with the charismatic Bermudez.

Rego was so taken with the star and teacher, she approached Footlight director Hilarie Neely about the possibility of Bermudez visiting Ketchum and Sun Valley. After extensive correspondence, Neely was able to convince the dancer to make the trip, perform and conduct classes.

Flameno is an interesting addition to local school curriculum and seems to come at a time of renewed interest in Latin movement (Tango teachers from Argentina being our most recent import.).

Wildly popular at the turn of the century, flamenco for years has been considered an exotic dance taught to ballet dancers interested in perfecting character roles in full-length ballets like "The Nutcracker." Film star Rita Hayworth’s father, Eduardo Cansino, and his sister, Elisa, had top billing as Spanish dancers on the vaudeville circuit. Modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham incorporated Spanish dance in its various forms– flamenco, regional, folk, classical, neo-classical– into some of their work, however, for the most part it remained a novelty until recently.

According to Dance Teacher Now, Spanish dance has flowered within the past 15 years with well-rounded professionals heading year-round schools, a degree program in flamenco at the University of New Mexico and workshops led by guest artists from Spain.

The neo-classical dances choreographed today draw from the rituals of flamenco, classical footwork from escuela bolero and from ballet, modern and jazz dance. Easily interpreted by modern audiences they are gaining visibility as a new genre.

As times have changed the role of women, the flamenco dances have also evolved. Women are now as percussive and independent as their male counterparts. The dresses, once long and trained allowing for dancing only about the waist, have given way to lighter frothier models allowing for much more aggressive movement.

Bermudez has performed in fiestas throughout southern Spain, is the artistic director of the flamenco group Arte y Compas, which performs in he San Francisco area, and is an instructor at the San Francisco Dance Center.

Tickets for the performance, at $5 for adults, $3 for children under 12 years, are available only at the door. For more information, contact Neely at 788-2117, ex. 16.

 

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