Dance company celebrates the art of flamenco
Esmeralda Enrique troupe weave their interpretations into the history of the dance
Sound travels in the long corridors of 401Richmond St. W. As you enter the former Victorian red-brick factory building turned arts hub, a steady rhythmic tattoo of stomping feet wafts up from a basement studio.
That’s where the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company is in final rehearsals for Épocas, a show that opens at Harbourfront Centre on Friday evening and pays tribute to some of the 20th century’s most influential flamenco artists.
Inside the mirrored studio, guest dancer and choreographer Rafael del Pino, familiarly known within the close-knit flamenco world as Keko, takes five of the resident company’s women through a complex finale set to a rousing version of a song made famous by José Monge Cruz, celebrated internationally under his stage name, Camaron de la Isla. Del Pino’s mop of curly dark hair splays out as he demonstrates some whiplash turns.
Live music is a constant feature of the Enrique company’s presentations and while the dancers help each other master the challenging choreography, del Pino steps aside to consult on details of rhythm with a band that includes guitarist Caroline Planté from Montreal and, in his fifth collaboration with the company, singer Manuel Soto from Jerez, Spain.
Del Pino, 39, grew up surrounded by the sights and sounds of flamenco. His father performed in a flamenco club in Cordoba. By age 5, son Rafael had already begun his flamenco studies. For the past 14 years, he has taught at the Andalusian city’s professional dance academy, balancing his teaching with outside performances including several across Europe and in the United States. This is his first visit to Toronto.
Apart from working with Enrique on Épocas, he’s also given master classes in the company’s associated Spanish dance academy.
“I’m very pleasantly surprised by the overall standard,” says del Pino.
In the absence of suitable local male flamenco dancers, Enrique routinely imports them for her shows from Spain. In the case of del Pino, it was essentially sight unseen, but on the strong recommendation of cast member Virginia Castro, who studied with him in Cordoba.
“I trusted her word,” says Enrique, “and I’m very glad we took him.”
In preparation for Épocas, Enrique and del Pino exchanged countless emails and calls as they shaped the overall format of the show and decided how to share the choreographic responsibilities. Apart from the finale, del Pino has his own solo and has made a duet for himself and Enrique.
Épocas, as its Spanish title suggests, looks to various epochs to highlight the special contributions of various artists, dancers and musicians who helped revitalize and spread the art of flamenco worldwide. Interestingly, several were not Spanish, such as the celebrated early-20th-century Buenos Aires-born dancer La Argentina. In her relatively short life — she died at age 46 — La Argentina triggered a revival of Spanish dancing, restoring its integrity and introducing what came to be identified as a neoclassical style.
José Greco, another of the great artists whose legacy has inspired Épocas, was born in Italy but lived in New York City from age 10, adopting a Spanish name for his illustrious stage and screen career as one of flamenco’s great popularizers. Enrique knows his work intimately having been a member of Greco’s company early in her dance career in the 1960s.
Flamenco dance and music are inextricable. Apart from legendary singer Camaron de la Isla, flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia is among the musicians whose work Enrique and del Pino pay tribute to in Épocas.
“He turned the world upside down with his playing,” says Enrique, referring to de Lucia’s crossover work in such genres as jazz and classical music.
The singer and guitarist had independent careers but frequently toured as a team and made10 albums together, many of which are core holdings in the recorded music collections of flamenco lovers worldwide.
While all these artists honoured the traditions of Spanish dance and music, they did so in their own inimitable ways; in paying tribute to them, Enrique and del Pino are taking the same approach.
“There will be historic references, suggestions of the past,” Enrique explains, “but this is more about our interpretations, about how they have influenced us.” Épocas (Eras) is at the Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W., April 22 to 24, 416-973-4000 or harbourfrontcentre.com/nextsteps.