Flamenco is magnificent, mysterious, subversive. Festival Flamenco de Cordoba performed at NYC’s Town Hall recently for three nights (presented by Centerline Talent). Their performances were mesmerizing, riveting. The troupe is from Spain, 66 years old, and this is its first American appearance. It's comprised of six dancers, including one man, and five singers/instrumentalists, including one woman. The instruments are guitars, with one box drum called a cajon, on which the drummer sits.
Its maestro is Merengue de Cordoba (two of the dancers are his daughters), who opened with splendid guitar. His genre is flamenco puro – the second word meaning both “pure” and “antique”.
The first baritone flamenco wail strident and insistent, like an adhan, the Islamic call to prayer.
The women danced in gorgeous dresses – white, black, red, or print. Sometimes they held up their trains and dance as if with partners; sometimes they kicked the trains behind them in a step that was the recurring accent of the piece. Sometimes they wore shawls with tassles half again the width of the main cloth. They danced with their arms and hands, sometimes tossing their heads abruptly, insolently. In fact, this work had an emotional intensity nearly violent.
In the first dance, I was surprised to see the women begin and end the dance sitting. In another, the three women tossed their fans to the floor with a snap.
The single male dancer, Antonio Alcazar, was no less powerful. He crossed the stage virtually running, and spun with the alacrity of a skater, and with more grace. In one piece, he danced a cappella (do dancers dance a cappella?), accompanying himself with the incomparable tap of flamenco shoes.
Like many jazz groups, they ended with a solo from each dancer, and eight company members clapped out the flamenco’s complex rhythm. This is the sound of 16 hands clapping.
This work is powerful in a way rare in dance. We’re eager for the company’s next visit to NYC!
- Steve Capra
