Va Arts Festival Features Emotional Spanish Dance Performance

The two-hour performance by Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca on May 17 flew by nearly as fast as the dancers' feet tapped the stage. The company of seven, composed of dancers, guitarists and singers, pulled the spellbound audience into the passionate world of flamenco.

The show was beautiful in its authentic simplicity. Formed in Madrid in 1993, Noche Flamenca is considered to be the most authentic touring group performing flamenco. "We perform pure flamenco," said Company Manager Carlos Pérez Vega, "no gimmicks; no tricks with the lighting."

Though the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News lacks the coziness of the cavernous cafes in southern Spain, the internationally experienced artists amplified their performance to fill the theater and retain an element of intimacy.

Soledad Barrio said she didn't like to compare her dance with other companies. She did remark that flamenco has been commercialized, even in its native Spain.

"Flamenco is all about the dancer's relationship with the toque (guitarist) and cante (singer)," she said. "Dance without a relationship to these elements could be good dance, but it is not true flamenco."

The program opened with "La Mujer del Mar," based on Henrik Ibsen's play "The Lady of the Sea." One might wonder how a Norwegian play could possibly be adapted for a flamenco performance, but choreographer Martín Santangelo found a connection: "The intense 'cry' or 'scream' that lies dormant and develops inside of many of Ibsen's characters, reminds me again and again of the intense and savage expression of flamenco song, dance and music," he has written. The resulting piece lent a dreamlike quality to the show's opening.

Juan Ogalla left the audience marveling at his endurance and athletic ability, completing the show's first act with the lengthy solo "Alegrias." A soulful cante performance by the singers brought the audience back to the roots of flamenco: the blending, and later repression, of Arabic and Sephardic Jewish cultures in Southern Spain.

Barrio's solo simply mesmerized the crowd. She expressed agony in a slow walk and a studied wrist movement backed by the tragic vocals of the singers, then suddenly exploded into firework footwork keeping rhythm with the guitarist.

When asked to describe the general theme of the performance, Pérez Vega could not do so. "Every night is different," the manager said, "even though the Company may be performing the same numbers, the performers express what they are feeling at that moment." Spanish gypsies in Andalusia developed and then preserved the raw creativity that is intrinsic to flamenco.

Barrio has been a professional dancer since she was 18. "Flamenco is a lot more complicated than people think," she said. The 20 or so people, including many seasoned salseros, who attended the free master class she gave at the Mambo Room Latin Dance Studio in Norfolk attested to the difficulty of the dance's time count and rhythm. Barrio said dancers must begin by learning flamenco's rhythm and listening to flamenco music. Working with guitarists and singers comes later.

Noche Flamenca traveled to the United States specifically for the Virginia Arts Festival. The Company also performed in Portsmouth at the Renaissance Hotel before returning to Spain.

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