Last year, the Ballet Teatro Espanol de Rafael Aguilar excited local audiences with its world-class flamenco production Carmen, a classical story of passion and betrayal. Now, the troupe is back with works including Bolero Flamenco, El Rango and Suite Flamenca.
As one of the most original dance companies to come out of Spain, the Ballet Teatro Espanol was founded by Rafael Aguilar and his wife Manuela Aguilar, in 1960. Originally a troupe of seven artists, the company now consists of 35 musicians, singers and dancers who have been trained in ballet, classical Spanish dance, as well as flamenco. Many of them have come from the prestigious Ballet Nacional de Espana.
Some say the company owes its prestige to the legendary founder Aguilar, who has long been considered one of Spain's most important choreographers and a key figure in transforming flamenco from a folkloric, gypsy performance into "high art." Aguilar was the leader of the company for 35 years, until his death in 1995.
Educated in classical dance at London's Sadler's Wells Ballet [now the Royal Ballet], Aguilar was the first to reinvent classical flamenco by incorporating classical ballet styles and theatrical narratives.
Aguilar's artistic torch was carried by Manuela, until her death in 1998. Her lifelong friend and partner Carmen Salinas has now taken up the role of artistic director and continuously reworks Aguilar's dances.
Under her guidance the company has enjoyed overwhelming success and earned recognition from the prestigious Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Staatscoper in Hamburg and the Ronacher Theater in Vienna, to name just a few.
As Salinas once pointed out, Aguilar's originality and sensibility has kept his work avant-garde in the contemporary dance world.
This weekend, the company will first let Taipei audiences sample the sensual flamenco world with its internationally acclaimed production El Rango, an adaptation of the Spanish poet and dramatist Frederico Garcia Lorca's tragic play The House of Bernada Alba (1936).
Famed for his tragic trilogy of Blood Weeding (1932), Yerma (1934) and The House of Bernada Alba, Lorca was a homosexual writer who had keen insights about social discrimination and inequality -- especially the oppression suffered by women who were shackled by the suffocating moralities of a strict class-ridden society at the time.
This is the narrative backbone of El Rango, which revolves around a single mother who vows to protect her five daughters from falling from virtue. Her despotism inevitably leads to a family tragedy when the youngest daughter rises in rebellion for the freedom of love.
Unlike the usual colorful and sultry images of flamenco, the dance is restrained, slow but fierce and set to Gregorian chants, accompanied by flamenco guitar, with the disturbing rhythm of the dancers' stamping feet to express the theme of pain and yearning.
El Rango, which premiered in 1963, was Aguilar's first important work to combine flamenco music and dance with theatrical narrative and made the company, then a toddler of the dance world, a star-in-the-making.
Bolero Flamenco, the company's signature work, was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of composer Maurice Ravel's death in 1987 for the Festival della Versiliana in Italy. In Aguilar's version, the dance begins with a man as the object of desire at a bar. The soloist dances intensely to Ravel's mesmerizing music, as the female dancers twirl, spin, clap and stamp, and the music quickens until the final climax.
The final Suite Flamenca consists of six traditional flamenco pieces originating from Andalusia, Aragon, Cadiz and Galicia. It tells of a way of living and sensing the world, portraying the joy and bitterness of life, the sweetness of love and sorrow of loss.
Through the distinctive dances, songs, percussion and rhythmic hand clapping (called toque de palmas), this work best illustrates the rich cultural heritage of flamenco.
To Salinas, flamenco represents a different way of appreciating dance. The direct and intense emotions of flamenco do not require an analytical mind. Rather, there is a sense of immediacy that urges the audience to appreciate the work on a physical level.
Performance notes:
What: Bolero Flamenco by Ballet Teatro Espanol de Rafael Aguilar
Where: Taipei International Convention Center (台北國際會議中心), 1, Xinyi Rd, Sec 5, Taipei (台北市信義路五段1號)
When: Tomorrow at 2:30pm and 7:30pm
Tickets: For the Taipei performances, tickets cost between NT$500 and NT$3,000, available through ERA ticket outlets nationwide.
Additional performances:
◆ Sunday, March 5 at Kaohsiung Chideh Hall (高雄至德堂);
◆ Tuesday, March 7 at Tainan Municipal Cultural Center (台南市立文化中心);
◆ Wednesday, March 8 at Cultural Affairs Bureau of Chiayi City (嘉義市文化局);
◆ Friday, March 10 at Hsinchu City Performance Hall (新竹市立演藝廳);
◆ Saturday, March 11 at Taichung Chunghsing University (台中中興大學);
◆ Sunday, March 12 at Chungli Arts Center (中壢藝術館).
All shows begin at 7:30. Ticket prices range from NT$400 to NT$2,500.
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