Noche Flamenca, a fiery, internationally renowned dance company from Madrid, Spain, will make its St. Louis debut at Edison Theatre.
Shows — sponsored by Dance St. Louis and the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series — will begin at 8 p.m. Nov. 18-19 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 20.
Noche Flamenca was founded in Madrid in 1993 by artistic director Martin Santangelo and his wife, Soledad Barrio. Over the past decade, the troupe has developed into one of Spain’s most successful flamenco companies, eschewing glitz and gimmicks while returning the ancient art to its raw, earthy, furious and ecstatic roots.
“It’s not that I’m trying to be more artsy,” Santangelo said in an interview in 2003 with Time Out New York. “For me, flamenco is an overdose of strength and subtlety that doesn’t need to be pushed to be more attractive. What’s beautiful about flamenco is that it is raw. And what matters is the communal effort of what’s going on.”
Musicians and dancers are equal partners, tossing energy back and forth with feverish intensity.
“There is a profound union in flamenco that is not just about the dance but also the music and the songs,” Santangelo said. “Anything else is just incomprehensible. You can’t dance by yourself.”
The origins of flamenco are obscure, but many scholars trace it back to 15th-century Andalucía, the southernmost region of Spain, where local folk customs intermingled with Moorish, Jewish and Gypsy cultures. By the mid-19th century, there were two types of ethnic singing in Andalucía — the cante gitano of the Gypsies and the cante andaluz — and the integration of these styles came to be known as cante flamenco.
In 1842, the first flamenco café opened in Seville, and by the 1860s these cafés had spread throughout Spain.
The flamenco guitar is traditionally made of Spanish cypress, lighter in weight and smaller than a classical guitar for a sharper, more percussive sound. The flamenco dancer wears shoes with dozens of nails driven into the soles and heels in order to create complex rhythmic patterns.
Music and dance range from the tragic cante jondo (“profound”) to the festive cante chico (“light”).
Noche Flamenca regularly performs in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Montreal, Toronto and Washington, as well as at major festivals such as Ravinia, Wolf Trap and Jacob’s Pillow. In 2002, the company toured Australia and New Zealand for six weeks, returning to Australia in 2004 and also making its South American debut in Buenos Aires.
Santangelo, a native New Yorker, has performed throughout Spain and the United States, appearing with Maria Benitez’s Teatro Flamenco and Paco Romero’s Ballet Espanol, among others.
Barrio — a Madrid native, whom Santangelo met at a dance class in Spain — has appeared as a soloist with numerous companies throughout Europe, Japan, and North and South America. She received a “Bessie” award for Outstanding Creative Achievement 2000-2001.
Tickets are $28; $24 for seniors and WUSTL faculty and staff; and $18 for students and children under 12. Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office, 935-6543; the Dance St. Louis box office, 634 N. Grand Ave., 534-6622; the Dance St. Louis Web site, dancestlouis.org; and through MetroTix, 534-1111.
For more information, call 935-6543.