New ‘Carmen’ Sizzles on Stage
Johnson County Community College |
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The renowned Spanish dance company, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, opens a new ballet in spring 2008 based on the famous story of the notorious gypsy Carmen. With a company of 10 dancers and four on-stage musicians, Carmen: El Baile will give a contemporary twist to the classic story of passion, power and pride at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 1, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center for the Performing Arts, Johnson County Community College. Artists Insights will be provided by a company member at 7 p.m.
Carlsen Center patrons will be among the first in the country to see this new half-evening ballet as Flamenco Vivo begins its tour of the new work. The story of the fiery Carmen is already famous through opera and film. The tale of insatiable desire, mysterious beauty and scorned love lends itself perfectly to retelling through flamenco. “El Baile” is a reference to “dance,” one of the three essentials of flamenco along with song and guitar music. The first half of the program will feature repertoire from the company’s Fiesta Flamenca, a blend of entertainment and explanation of flamenco intricacies from its origins exhibited by artists in colorful traditional flamenco costumes.
Santana founded the company in 1983, with a mission to use flamenco as an art form as well as a device for breaking down cultural barriers. In Santana’s hands, women in swirling dresses and men in heeled boots perform a no-holds-barred flamenco incorporating a global Latin influence along with a strong American jazz accent. Dancers strike the stage with their heel (a tacon), their flat foot (golpe) or the ball of their foot (planta) with an overall staccato effect of fireworks.
Flamenco was born in Southern Spain in the towns of Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Experiencing a Flamenco Vivo performance, the audience feels the imprints of cultures that inhabited this region of Spain for centuries – Andalusian, Arabic, Judaic, North African and Gypsy. Each culture left its mark, making it one of the most culturally rich expressions of folklore in the world. Unlike other art forms, traditional dances do not tell stories but instead portray feelings.
Santana has been designated the “keeper of flamenco” by Dance Magazine in recognition of her commitment to creating new works and developing young artists and choreographers. Passion is the soul of flamenco, but it takes well-trained artists like the Santana troupe to embody its movement on stage. Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana returns to the Carlsen Center after what the Kansas City Star called a “sizzling program” in January 2004.
This presentation is supported by Mid-America Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, Kansas Arts Commission, and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana tickets are $20 and $30, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter.
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana will have a residency March 2-5, sponsored by the Carlsen Center ArtsEducation program. Flamenco Vivo company members will teach flamenco dance movements to students in a lecture demonstration/workshop and master dance class. For more information, contact Angel Mercier, ArtsEducation program director, 913-469-8500, ext. 4221.
