An Evening of Dazzling Spanish Music and Dance

This stunning performance film combines dazzling dance pyrotechnics with the cinematic virtuosity of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.

After a brief introduction tracing the history of Flamenco , the film launches into an unbroken series of electrifying numbers, performed by over 300 of Spain’s leading artists, and climaxing with an exhilarating mass dance that testifies to flamenco’s ageless vitality.

---

Live Performance:

Joel Kabakov and Antonia Rojas

Prior to this evenings film, there will be a live performance featuring the flamenco guitar and percussion sounds of Joel Kabakov and Antonia Rojas.

Joel Kabakov holds degrees in music from UC Berkeley, California State University and Harvard. His Ph.D thesis at Harvard is titled El Jaleo and is a dance suite for orchestra with embedded flamenco guitars.

While living in Cambridge Massachusetts, Kabakov married principle dancer with the Jose Greco Company, Anotnia Rojas. Together they have collaborated as composer-guitarist and dancer-choreographer with the Boston Symphone, Young Audiences lecturs conserts, The Espana Institute at Boston Conservatory where they both served on the faculty, The Methow Music Festival, and more.

Joel has recently introduced the guitar, world music cultures and ditital media to Columbia Gorge Community College where he serves on the faculty.

Learn more and hear samples of his music by visiting the Joel Kabakov website.

 

More About Flamenco

Carlos Saura has dedicated a good part of his career to bringing the diverse world of Spanish dance to an international audience. FLAMENCO, presents the talents of a variety of artists in a straightforward setting. The beautiful cinematography is by Vittorio Storaro.

Using an old railroad station in Seville, fitted with mirrors, for the setting, Saura presents 300 singers, dancers and musicians. There are guitarists playing moving and mournful solos, women singing gypsy ballads and, of course, floor pounding, straight shouldered dancers who look right into the camera with those dark, smouldering, Spanish eyes.

The clear star of the dance segments is the mesmerizing Joaquin Cortes. Doing what is deemed the New Flamenco style, Cortes combines elements of 18th century classical dance with more recent innovations. His bare-chested Farruca push the erotic elements to the limit of the style and is certainly the high point of the film.

Saura wants to demonstrate not just the flamboyance of flamenco, but the breadth and depth of its integration into Spanish culture, and so he includes a rich variety of styles and performers.