Celebrating and reimagining their traditions
International stars of flamenco music and dance kick off four-night festival on Saturday
Quick steps form a syncopated beat, and hands are drumming like rain. A dancer spins in a crest of fringe or long hair flying. A guitarist flicks a rapid rasgueado strum, recalling Camarón de la isla, one of the greatest flamenco vocalists, singing the words of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, from “La leyenda del tiempo.”
‘Sleep moves over time/ floating like a ship/ gliding like a wing …/ no one can open a seed/ in the heart of a dream…'
Some of the most acclaimed performers in contemporary flamenco are coming to Boston to celebrate their traditions, and reimagine and transform them, as Global Arts Live brings the 2024 Flamenco Festival to the Berklee Performance Center for three nights, with a final night at the Somerville Theatre.
Over the festival’s four nights, dancers, vocalists, choreographers, directors, and musicians will dive into a world they describe as both centuries deep and contemporary — Calé or Romani folk music and dance from Andalusia in Southern Spain.
On opening night, March 2, sixtime Grammy winning guitarist José Fernández Torres, called Tomatito, will remember his mentors and idols from his younger years in Malaga.
He will play, he said, in memory of Camarón de la isla (the performing name of flamenco singer José Monje Cruz, who died in 1992), and virtuoso guitarist Paco de Lucía, who was known for inflecting flamenco with complex jazz tones.
(Torres and all the performers quoted here answered the Globe’s questions by email, in Spanish, given the challenges of time and international travel.)
Torres said he learned guitar from his own father; Torres’s son, José del Tomate, will perform with him on guitar in Boston.
“He follows our passion, the passion of our family,” Torres said.
They’ll join globally renowned flamenco dancer Karime Amaya, grandniece of Carmen Amaya, “one of the best flamenco dancers and vocalists that history has given us,” Torres said.
The festival gathers a constellation of innovative artists; Alfonso Losa, renowned dancer, choreographer, and director from Madrid, will perform his own Espacio Creativo alongside performer and choreographer Concha Jareño (March 9).
Vocalist María José Llergo (March 13), draws on the influence of Federico García Lorca in an evening of cante, the soul and free verse of flamenco song. Her tradition has roots in Romani, Jewish, and Arabic music — weaving together tones of love and sadness, revolution and strength.
And in Gala Flamenca (March 10), Losa joins Manuel Liñán, celebrated dancer, choreographer, and director, in a night that challenges flamenco to expand into new dimensions.
Gala Flamenca aims to show the contemporary soul of flamenco in Spain, Liñán said — “a moment where the lines between masculine and feminine blur, where genders do not separate but embrace and coexist naturally and harmoniously.”
Flamenco has roots in folk dance forms that traditionally designate certain roles, movements, and expressions to men and others to women — Liñán is known internationally for honoring the form’s precision and grace but letting the restrictions go … to create movement and choreography that become, in Losa’s words, deeply innovative.
Gala Flamenca began as an allmale cast of dancers, including rising flamenco star Miguel Fernández Ribas, known as El Yiyo.
As the work has evolved, acclaimed dancer Paula Comitre has joined them.
“The show highlights the evolution of this dance in various male bodies,” Liñán said, “and underscores the importance of the female presence of [guest vocalist] Sandra Carrasco and Paula Comitre. Sandra can be considered the earth mother, the female presence that sustains the Gala alongside Paula.”
Gala Flamenca’s structure highlights each performer, creating small encounters between the soloists, with Carrasco’s voice guiding them.
“The choreography with Manuel has been an enriching process,” Losa said. “We have connected with the origins of Malagueña songs and dances, aiming to preserve their folkloric essence while bringing them into a contemporary language.”
The two artists share a respect for songs of love and loss from Malaga, the beauty of the Mediterranean coast, and a city founded by Phoenician sailors from Lebanon 2,800 years ago
“The solo I perform is a minimalist piece,” he said, “in which flamenco and dance blend in favor of the essence of traditional farruca (a Galician form traditionally sung and danced by men), creating an intimate atmosphere.”
In his own new work, Losa said, he broadens the definition of flamenco in his own way. Creative Space has grown out of two years of challenging himself — spare and decisive, he navigates through his language of movement and story line with a new freedom.
In the program notes, he explains “Espacio Creativo is simply my love for dance at its broadest and most respectful. … Flamenco’s heritage is immense, but each creation holds something new that needs to be born.”