Displaying items by tag: Flamenco Passion

I was thoroughly captivated by the remarkable dancers and musicians brought together by Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater’s Artistic Director, Irma Suarez Ruiz, and Executive Director, Jorge Perez in their latest production Flamenco Passion at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. 

The entire company of dancers were of the highest quality and training and the three 2024 guest stars, Raquel Gomez, La Lupi and Antonio Najarro proved that mature dance professionals in their prime (not just in their 20’s) can deliver dance delights that wow an audience and leave them breathless. 

Raquel Gomez was a towering vision of strength and drama in her solo piece, the world premiere of “Resilience.” Antonio Najarro turns up the steam heat with the most spectacular solo display of dance and wildly complicated castanets playing I have ever seen in the world premiere of “Flamenco Tango”.  The entire company came to life in the sexy, smokey and modern “Aries/Flamenco Tango” and company dancers Sammi Micklewright and Jonathan Pacheco shone as the sexiest, most fluid pair of lovers.

Raquel Gomez performing her work Resiliencia. 

But the night was brought to glorious fulfillment by the life changing talents of guest star La Lupi (Susana Lupiañez Pinto). La Lupi, a mature virtuoso of the art form, takes the stage with the fury of a tornado, and at times bends that fury into the grace of a bouquet of modest pink flowers bending in the wind. 

The interchange of these talented musicians on stage with the dancers was electric. Their wonderful soaring, and sometimes moaning voices, their rhythmically clapping hands and incredible guitar work was the impetus and background of La Lupi movements in particular. We were shown how live music literally creates and motivates the great flamenco dancer La Lupi the way stars in the sky affect the tides of the ocean. 

I was completely inspired by La Lupi’s amazing strength as a dancer. La Lupi’s dancing is acting, and dance combined, and the audience was able to see all of the pain and joy of life itself in her movements.  All of a woman’s life, her sex, birth, death, marriages and betrayals are clearly visible in her face and body - something that one normally only sees in a Broadway stage actor.  In La Lupi, these emotions extend to every move of her agile fingertips, every slap of her hands against her own body and every stomp of her heels - precise and exacting as knives. 

The lighting and costumes were fantastic as well throughout the show. In “Hidden Passion” for example, the female dancers appear in a smokey blue light, their beautiful faces hidden, wrapped in sheer blue material hoods, as they drape themselves around the bodies of their lovers who are dressed all in black. 

In another piece, the shawls or wraps that the female dancers traditionally wear are taken over by the male dancers and used as expressions of male sensuality and seduction in a joyous turnabout. 

I don’t often label a production as “must see” but this collection of dancers and musicians is without a doubt THE “must see” Chicago dance production of the entire 2024 season! With just a short three-day run at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts as part of the American Spanish Dance and Music Festival (June 7^th-15^th), we can only hope this production will be mounted again in the near future, perhaps at the company’s resident home at Northeastern Illinois University – so keep an eye open!

I highly recommend Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater’s Flamenco Passion for audiences of all ages who want to experience the true ballet of Spanish dance in its most exquisite and breathtakingly difficult expression.  

I’m going to admit, this was not exactly what I expected. I heard flamenco and, me being a guitarist and passionate for the instrument, I thought…hmmm…Flamenco guitar music. That fact that the show would feature the degree of dancing it did never even occurred to me. So, I got the best of both worlds. There were guitars playing in the very impressive musical outfit, accompanying by dancing that was nothing short of spectacular. Two singers and percussion were also included in the act. Like I said, this show had everything.

Eduardo Guerrero was the lead dancer and was exciting to watch, each move as graceful as the last with just the right amount of aggression when needed. Six dancers performed different variations of Flamenco dancing throughout the presentation so we as the audience were treated to a true cultural experience to remember. Everything about the show was amazing.

One of the things that draws me to Latin Music is the rhythm. You can’t escape it. I looked up the word flamenco and found it comes from the word Flemish. The people who originated this type of dancing were gypsies from that area. Interesting.

Another thing I have noticed about Spanish music is how much I hear an Arabic flavor to the melodies and harmonies. You couldn’t miss it in the vocal melodies. I had a chance to watch a Turkish band play a while back and the music was so very similar. It’s fun to see how we are musically influenced from all parts of the world.

But back to the dancing. Microphones were strategically placed on the stage to pick up the sound of the dancers’ feet, literally making their bodies part of the music. Guerrero did some solo work out there that was so rhythmically driven I could see why they needed an intermission with so much energy being spent. This type of dancing must be exhausting. Some of the dance numbers were quite lengthy and would surely wear out even the strongest of dancers.

The costumes alone were worth the price of admission. I also sense a bit of an Arabic influence in that department. Bright colors dominated the stage to make each number as colorful as it was precise and energetic. The many people involved in making this production seem effortless are extremely gifted.

Guerrero and company did a fantastic job and left us with something wonderful and uplifting to take home. I heard the audience respond positively throughout the entire performance and rightfully so. This was yet another great show at the MacIninch Art Center (The MAC) at College of DuPage, proving again that you don’t need to go downtown to be entertained.

I love flamenco for its sensual power and the amazing way both female and male dancers, whether solo or couples, locked in passionate embrace are able to make the human body dance with such precision and emotional fury. Is there any other dance form where the men are so manly and sexily dressed in their boots and waist coats and the women in their flowing dresses so, well, womanly?

Currently performed at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, "Flamenco Passion" as a rich production covers the whole range of human experience; dancing for your life, dancing for your love and dancing for the death of those you've loved deeply. The group numbers are stunningly modern like the world premiere of “Iroko”, while remaining true to the art form and "Alegrias y Jaleos", which make you feel you are in the countryside of Spain witnessing a turn of the century town dancing their way through life in a wonderful celebration of spring.  

“Bolero”, the acclaimed masterwork by Dame Libby Komaiko was a true stunner! I didn't realize it myself until this performance that you haven't even heard the full potential of the music in Ravel's “Bolero" until you've seen a stage full of the greatest forty flamenco dancers in the world bring it to a smoldering and exploding catharsis. 

In the second act an onstage singer, Cajon player and two guitarists accompanied all five dances, which really showcases that flamenco is a uniquely human and difficult dance to master. More passionate than tap yet just as exacting, more sensual than ballet yet just as demanding,  

We as Chicagoans should be so proud that Dame Libby Komaiko founded Ensemble Espanol at Northeastern Illinois University in 1975, and that her worldwide acclaimed dances and company are still going strong. 

Longtime Ensemble dancer Irma Suarez Ruiz, who'll begin taking over the role of artistic director from Dame Libby in the coming year and Carmela Greco with her long mane of silver hair both blew the entire sold out audience away. The two proved that dance is the way to stay young with 2010 solo "Duende Gitana" which intermingled "Palmas" (hand-clapping), percussion, stamping and song. It really was a masterwork of everlasting love expressed with furious passion (there's that word again) between her and the live musicians. The live music accompaniment dance numbers were heartfelt, raw with almost ragged singing and mind-bogglingly complex percussion from the guitarists and Cajon player that expressed the ageless beauty of both the performers themselves and this wonderful dance form. The subject of no less than two documentaries Dame Komaiko has almost single-handedly kept the art form of Flamenco not only alive but growing and flourishing. She is modest when speaking of her success and acknowledges that in some troupes the art form has become too mechanical. 

I could see this show again and again and each time notice brilliant new details from this large and gifted cast each time. 

Highly recommended.