Photo: Thais Coy/American Flamenco Repertory Company.
Yjastros, the American Flamenco Repertory Company, performing in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Nowadays people don’t seem to talk much about catharsis in theater: the idea that in suffering along with the actors, the audience can feel a kind of cleansing or relief.
That is what you also get experiencing the controlled rage and sorrow of music like Edith Piaf’s, Portuguese fado, or Spanish flamenco.
Today, as I’m reading about flamenco flourishing in part of the US, I’m thinking what a gift it is to be able to convert rage and sorrow into something like peace.
John Burnett reports at National Public Radio (NPR) that the state of New Mexico is “a global center of flamenco — the passionate dance, song and music of the Roma people of southern Spain.
“The epicenter is Albuquerque. New Mexico’s largest city boasts a world-famous flamenco festival. … The University of New Mexico is the only American university that offers graduate and undergraduate Dance degrees with an emphasis in flamenco. The National Institute of Flamenco is home to a world-class repertory company, and a conservatory that teaches students as young as three, to young adults who want to be professional dancers.
“The popularity of flamenco has exploded in the last four decades. You can find its distinctive percussive footwork from Tokyo to Israel to Toronto. … But what’s different about flamenco in Nuevo Mexico is that it’s homegrown. New Mexico traces its deeply Hispanic identity to the arrival of Spanish settlers 400-plus years ago.
” ‘Here in New Mexico it’s got to sound like us,’ says Vicente Griego, a celebrated singer from northern New Mexico who specializes in cante jondo, the deep song of flamenco. ‘There’s other people who want to do flamenco exactly the way it’s been done in Spain. But what makes us really special here and what keeps us honest, is that we have our own history. We’ve had our own resistance, our own celebration, our own liberation.’
“Says Marisol Encinias, executive director of the National Institute of Flamenco: ‘I like to think that there’s something in our DNA that ties us to the antecedents of flamenco from way back.’ …
“Eva Encinias, Marisol’s mother, learned dance from her mother, Clarita, and is considered the grande dame of flamenco in Albuquerque.
” ‘Even though we present all of this very, very high-end flamenco, the rationale behind that is to inspire and cultivate young people,’ says Eva, sitting in the costume room of the National Institute of Flamenco that she founded 43 years ago. She’s surrounded by racks of extravagantly ruffled dresses. ‘We all started as children and we know the impact that flamenco had on us as young people.’
“Outreach is a huge part of their mission. Between Eva and her children, Marisol and Joaquin, they’ve taught thousands of flamenco students at the Institute and at UNM. …
” ‘We’re gonna clap along to the music, in 4/4 time, which means that we count 1-2-3-4,’ intones Sarah Ward, a Canadian who became enthralled with flamenco and now teaches. She’s leading a class of fourth-graders at the Taos Integrated School of the Arts. Fifteen kids happily stomp their sneakers to the count. …
“One of her bright-eyed students is 10-year-old Cypress Musialowski. ‘I feel an opportunity to let out anger,’ she says. ‘I really like stomping my feet. But I also feel like I can just flow and be me.’ …
Flamenco has been called performed aggression—the pounding wooden heels, the feral singing, the baroque guitarwork.
“The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca defined duende, the spirit of flamenco, as ‘tragedy-inspired ecstasy.’ …
“And it’s really hard to learn, says Marisol Encinias, who is also an assistant professor of flamenco dance at UNM. ‘It’s a really, really challenging artform,’ she says. ‘I had a guitarist friend who said you spend your whole life trying to be mediocre.’
“Evelyn Mendoza, the 27-year-old education manager at the Institute, says, ‘I mean, you sweat your heart, soul, tears, blood and everything into any dance form that you do. … But flamenco is so different because it’s fierce.’ “
Read more at NPR, here. (Consider supporting this great public resource, here.)
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