On Could 30 and 31, the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Firm presents a night showcasing the artwork of flamenco on movie and in dwell efficiency. Spanish singer Manuel Soto, and choreographers Ana Morales, Antonio Granjero, and José Maldonado be part of firm dancers in a program that features dwell musical accompaniment by guitarists Benjamin Barille, Manuel Vázquez, and percussionist Miguel Media.
The movies that may display screen have been created by the Firm: Reflejos del Tiempo (Reflections of Time), directed by William Yong with choreography by Daniel Ramos; La Textura del Aire (The Texture of Air), additionally directed by William Yong with choreography by Javier Latorre; and the world premiere of Luz, directed by Ella Cooper with choreography by José Maldonado.
Esmeralda Enrique
Esmeralda Enrique has earned a popularity as one of the revered and celebrated Flamenco dance artists in Canada. She based her Academy of Spanish Dance in 1981, adopted by the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Firm in 1982.
Flamenco is a practice that she grew up in, in her native Spain, the place she started finding out dance as a toddler, and was working professionally from the age of 14.
Her work in Canada has been acknowledged by a number of awards and honours, together with the inaugural Younger Centre for the Performing Arts Dance Award as Senior Artist in 2012, a yr that marked the college’s thirtieth anniversary. She has been nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award on a number of events.
Esmeralda Enrique: The Interview
When Enrique based her first firm in Canada in 1981 and 1982, did she actually consider she’d be nonetheless going sturdy after 42 years?
“Probably not,” Enrique says. “No, I didn’t think about, even myself, that I might be so concerned on this artwork. These two entities have been sustaining me ever since I got here to Canada.”
When she first got here to Canada, she recollects that the environment for dance was extra restricted, and Flamenco hadn’t made a lot of a mark in Canada’s dance panorama.
“There was not that a lot information,” she says. Nonetheless, folks have been curious. “They didn’t know what they have been taking a look at.” However, the enchantment of the dance gained out. “We bought excellent receptions and feedback.”
One of many sides of Flamenco that makes it distinctive is how straightforward and easy the actions can look — in distinction to how tough they’re to execute correctly.
“It takes years of examine.” With a trickle of curiosity, it took Toronto audiences some time earlier than they grew to become enthusiastic supporters. “It was a battle.”
Together with lack of primary understanding of the artwork, the Toronto space was stuffed with gifted folks, however none with the mandatory expertise, together with competent Flamenco guitarists and singers. “Oh my gosh, [it’s like] there was a leg lacking type a chair,” she says.
It meant ranging from scratch, and a dance college helped to unfold the phrase. “I’ve at all times loved educating newbie college students,” Esmeralda says. “It’s a gorgeous expertise to see how they’re launched to the artwork of Flamenco.” As she factors out, it’s not solely the dance itself, but additionally about coaching singers and guitarists. “All these three components mixed are what makes up a real fulfilling expertise.”
Instructing means serving to professionals, and potential skilled dancers, together with the newbies and dabblers. “The tutorial factor is simply as necessary,” she notes.
Fashionable Flamenco
To some, Flamenco could look like an artwork type that’s steeped in custom. That’s definitely true, nevertheless it doesn’t exclude a up to date expression of the artwork.
“It’s a dwelling artwork,” Enrique says.
Over time, she’s developed an inventive method that takes the dance past the codified components which were established for hundreds of years. She’s typically impressed and influenced by different kinds and types of dance in her choreography. “Some mixtures are lovely,” she says, “some usually are not a lot.” Experimenting is the one technique to know for certain.
“We attempt various things.”
That features incorporating components as numerous as faucet dance and conventional Kazakh dance strikes.
“What can we use that may nonetheless be acknowledged as Flamenco?”
Dance on Movie
Together with dwell efficiency, the three movies current Flamenco another way to audiences.
“It turns into extra intimate, relying on the digicam angle,” Enrique explains. “Or, it turns into one thing you see in another way.”
Nearer up, the dancer’s feelings are on full show, and individuality is heightened.
“That is one thing that has at all times intrigued me,” she says.
Dance on movie is one thing the corporate has explored solely in the previous couple of years, with COVID being the igniting spark. “We by no means did it earlier than as an organization.” Throughout the lockdowns, it provided a technique to hold going. “We wished to proceed doing issues.”
Two of the movies that may display screen have been accomplished throughout the COVID lockdowns. “One is a gorgeous tackle what the feel of air can be like,” she says. La Textura del Aire was filmed on a skyscraper with flooring to ceiling home windows that stored the altering face of the sky and evolving climate patterns mirrored within the glass. Altering lighting additionally meant working rapidly. “We have been filming fairly quickly,” she says. “It appeared just like the wind wished to bounce with us.”
Reflejos del Tiempo takes a extra established method. “We selected a really conventional dance,” she explains, one that comes with a set choreography. “We requested choreographer Daniel Ramos to set it for us in a extra modern fashion.”
The outcome was very intricate choreography that expresses the theme of time, and reflection, and the way it runs by way of a dancer’s life — and by extension, anybody’s life. It’s a multigenerational efficiency, with dancers of all totally different age teams on stage.
“We see the time journey, so to talk, of a lifetime in dance.”
The third movie, Luz, is a brand new work.
“Our third movie is a debut, it is going to be a premiere,” Esmeralda says. “It’s extra of a glance into the studio, the making of a dance piece.”
A lot of the movie depicts in-studio rehearsals, and the way choreographer José Maldonado works with the dancers. “His concepts are infinite,” she says. “He goes to totally different ranges of tenderness and dexterity.”
The movie reveals a facet of dance that outsiders seldom see. “Choreographers not often have an opportunity to talk publicly. The viewers sees the ultimate product.”
An Night With Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Firm
Enrique’s firm was one in every of many who needed to rethink their season plans after the announcement of the closure of Fleck Dance Theatre.
“Out of necessity, we needed to change our venue,” Enrique explains. Fleck Theatre served as the corporate’s efficiency dwelling since 1999. “We needed to rapidly and hurriedly discover a totally different venue. We nearly made the choice to not current this yr.”
That call fell by the wayside. “We got here to the Meridian Arts Centre.” Because it occurred, the smaller Studio Theatre was the one stage out there. “That created some challenges for us.” That included accommodating seven dancers and 6 musicians on a smaller stage. Creativity gained the day.
“I believe we have now settled on a technique to make the dwell efficiency nonetheless complementary to all seven dancers.” The dwell dance items embody a trio, one with 4 dancers, and one will all seven.
Together with the visitor singer from Spain, audiences can count on to see a brand new face on stage.
“We have now a brand new dancer that’s debuting with the corporate this yr.”
- Discover extra particulars in regards to the performances on Could 30 and 31 on the Meridian Arts Centre Studio Theatre, and tickets, [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.