KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

One of the greatest problems of Flamenco performance in large theatres is that the directors rarely know how to deal with such spaces in an effective manner. This is why I feel it important to first mention the efforts of Noche Flamenca artistic director Martin Santangelo and lighting designers, S. Benjamin Farrar and Ryan Bauer. It is their work that first impressed me and made Soledad Barrio and Flamenca Noche at the Lied Center of KU this past weekend one of my most satisfying Flamenco theatre experiences to date.

The Flamenco art form evolved in small spaces for small ensembles called cuadros or "picture". It is this two dimensional aesthetic that usually fails so miserably in larger theatres.  The company directors often resort to large simultaneous choreographies that move around the stage like a synchronized drill team or even worse, the ensemble stays tightly grouped resembling caged birds that don't seem to realize that the cage is no longer there. I was constantly aware of the brilliant solutions of Santangelo and Farrar to the common problems that consistently plague other Flamenco companies. It was as if they were equal members of the company interacting with every note and movement of the performers. And to put it simply, the good taste and artfulness of this presentation was so completely uniform in its quality and lack of artifice that I thought I'd died and gone to Flamenco heaven.

Before the concert, the stage curtain remained open to reveal several metallic chairs positioned at random angles upstage and downstage - giving an immediate sense of the depth and scale of the space. The performance opened with a melancholic solo guitar composition from Sevilla born guitarist Eugenio Iglesias positioned under an angled white spotlight. Special kudos to the sound engineers at the Lied center because Iglesias' guitar sounded absolutely fantastic. His tone was satisfyingly profound with a snappy dryness in the highs. This composition, in the style of tarantas soon transformed itself into a tangos Flamenco involving all of the performers interacting with the eschewed chairs. While singers Manuel Gago and Miguel Rosendo exchanged verses, the audience was treated to a few short solos from the company's principal, Soledad Barrio along with dancers Antonio Rodriguez and Rebeca Tomás. It was a perfect introduction to each dancer's style and strengths utilizing highly innovative stage blocking.

One of the company's principal strengths was that they never attempted to reinvent the Flamenco wheel. All of the numbers were fairly conservative in their execution and style. I was familiar with most all of the letras (verses) and each palo (form) played out exactly as one would expect.  It also seemed that every member of Noche Flamenca possessed an over-the- top ability to deliver jaw-dropping artistry. This quality was abundantly evident in the first solo of the evening by Rebeca Tomás who performed a Guajira that did exactly what a Guajira is supposed to do - coquettishly charm the heart out of your chest to rest it atop her big red fan. During her colossal buleria finale, she incorporated some very convincing torero (bullfighter) moves with her long red ruffled bata (train) adding a bit of male bravado to a postcard image of the feminine Flamenco dancer.

The next solo was the riveting Solea por Buleria danced by Antonio Rodriguez of Osuna. Guitarist Iglesias opened the work with his low "E" guitar string dropped down to a "C" producing a brooding tonal darkness that was a perfect place to start a dance that ended in such a light-hearted fashion. Rodriguez's personable style was a healthy mix of refined stage Flamenco, new modernist trends and village street dancing.  He possessed the relaxed upper body of tap dancer while executing his machine like zapateado (footwork), but also was capable of the precise lines of some of the greatest masters of dance. He would often intentionally force upon himself an unstable center of gravity that seemed to pull him over like a top heavy stack of children's blocks, and then at the last millisecond right himself into a steel spring of stability and confidence. He improvised a captivating buleria finale that was a perfect example of the entomology of the word buleria (bular = tomfoolery).

After the intermission, Soledad Barrio took the stage in a beautiful modern white dress for the most joyful of Flamenco forms, alegrias. She was later joined in duo by Rodriguez in what appeared to be a Flamenco pas de deux of boy loses girl, boy wins girl, etc. Because they're both such strong dancers, this old cliché never wore thin as they moved in unison about the stage. Singers Gago and Rosendo sang two separate letras on top of one another for a highly emotional final. I have never seen this done before and I really appreciated the effect it had on the choreography.

Then to my amazement, Gago and Rosendo sang a traditional unaccompanied Ronda de Tonás. It is the unofficial belief that American audiences run fleeing from the deep songs of Flamenco's earliest times. These songs are often harsh in tone, and melismatic in a most Arabic fashion. They evoke painful histrionics that are often difficult to receive, but are regarded by the Flamenco world as the deepest and most important songs. A singer really has to know what they are doing. I've personally never experienced cante jondo (deep song) outside of very intimate settings or at cante jondo festivals in Spain.  Gago was downstage left and Rosendo was upstage right with white spotlights on both of them in the otherwise perfect darkness. At the end of the performance they moved toward one another at a diagonal while simultaneously wailing their laments and passed each other like two self -absorbed strangers on a narrow street. I wondered to myself if the audience was bewildered and repulsed, or quietly awed as I was.

Soledad Barrio took the stage again for the mother of all Flamenco forms the Soleá, a gypsy version of the word 'Soledad' meaning Solitude. A form that like her name, she truly owns. Eugenio Iglesias' guitar introduction was a lush sound of light and dark tonalities mirrored by Farrar/Bauer's chiaroscuro lighting. Soledad emerged dressed in black to deliver a very moving performance much in the style of a Spanish tablao (Flamenco bar). I found Iglesias' sparse guitar accompaniment to this solidly traditional Soleá refreshing and tasteful. Lately many artists have tried to reinterpret this massive tree trunk of Flamenco song and dance and I welcomed the direct approach. It is very clear why this great artist has so many accolades from the dance world and the press. Soledad Barrio possesses heavenly arms and a compact frame reminiscent of the great Flamenco dancer, Carmen Amaya.  But beyond her amazing technique and physical beauty, Barrio has the ability to really communicate something special.  She is the embodiment of technique serving art. My memory of this dance was more of overall emotions rather than specific movements, and it's a memory that I'll keep with me for a long time.

REVIEW:
Lied Center of Kansas
Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Lied Center, University of Kansas
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu

By Beau Bledsoe

New Classical and Flamenco Contributor

Beau Bledsoe, musician and composer, is a founding member of the well-known Argentine Tango quintet Tango Lorca and the independent record label Tzigane. He has toured throughout the United States, across Europe and in Russia, Mexico and Argentina. His recordings are regularly featured on Radio1 BBC, "Segovia a Yupanki" Radio Nacional Argentina, and "All Songs Considered" on National Public Radio. He is also co-founder of the flamenco music and dance school Manos Rojas and the flamenco dance company Esencias Flamencas.

Bledsoe did undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock and completed the graduate guitar program at the UMKC Conservatory of Music. He has studied independently in southern Spain and in the tango scene of Buenos Aires with masters such as Antonio Andrade, Miguel Rodriguez, Santiago Aguilar, Pedro Cortez and Luis Heredia of La Repompa de Málaga.