SPANISH DANCE IN CONCERT
Bolero, which premiered this summer at the American Spanish Dance Festival, was danced by the full company, including the All City “Jr.” Ensemble Espanol. Set against a backdrop of Picasso slides, it begins almost as a three-dimensional abstract visualization of some of the shapes in Picasso’s artwork. But in the dim opening scene what at first appears to be a line of red blobs turns out to be a row of women hunched over, their backs to us, their red dresses spread out in wide circles around them. As a pool of light brightens on the first, she begins to raise her back slowly, bringing her arms up slowly too, her wrists turning constantly. Eventually she brings the twisting palms to her side, then behind her at almost floor level. The pattern is picked up by the second and third dancer. But before it can become predictable, the rest of the women–still on the floor with their torsos perpendicular–vary the patterns and their timing, so that their movements are not all identical. As the mood and the movement intensify, the first dancer uncurls into standing position and is joined by the others.
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The solo dance that followed, Tangos de Malaga (choreographed by Rafael Negro), is all wild emotion. Delma Pozzo gives it the exotic passion of the Gypsy, her long hair as wild and loose as her dancing. Irma Suarez Ruiz brings a more mature, controlled fire to her Gypsy solo, Soleares. Ruiz has what the Spaniards call ire, a word that has many implications but whose basic meaning is a sort of fire or soulfulness. And like what is called “stage presence,” you either have it or you don’t.
The singing that accompanies much of the dancing, apart from its immediacy–the singer often salutes the dancer by name–has a more traditional side. In the final number, Bulerias, La Cordobesa sings one set of lyrics to the men and a different set to the women. To the women she sings as if she were a man, perhaps something that translates: “Beauty, beauty, what do you wash your face with? It smells like rose petals of the morning. Give me some.” Somehow you know it’s not just rose petals the man’s asking for. In flamenco dance this sexual innuendo is transmitted by the dancers’ bodies, and it’s that wistful sexual lament that makes the dance so attractive.
