I wasn’t sure what to expect from our visit to Teatre (Valencian for Teatro) Talia en the Carmen district of Valencia. I showed up ready for some mighty fine Flamenco dancing. That wasn’t quite what I got. What I got was better: a dance and musical Flamenco fusion. The troupe has about 20, more women than men by a wide margin, plus 5 or 6 musicians: guitars, violin, accordion, a kind of drum. At first the dance was very modern. Long poses, seemingly random motions and postures, very jazzy music with a Flamenco flair. As the evening progressed towards its conclusion, the dance became more traditional. But the innovations happened up front, from the modern with flamenco flair to the flamenco with modern flair. The latter means among other things a troupe performing precision dance maneuvers to increasingly flamencoish tonalities and rhythms sans the quivering male voice that dominate Flamenco singing. When I say precision, I mean it with emphasis. I could not detect an eyelash that didn’t blink when it was supposed to. As the Flamenco asserted itself, not even castanets were a hair’s breadth out of sync.
Finally the Spanish clapping made an appearance, but it was mostly after the final number and during the repeated curtain calls. Only the Spanish can do it like this. And can anyone in the world figure out the rhythms?
Their website:
Dance video:
Garybob says check it out!