Come out this weekend and support VelocityDC headliner Edwin Aparicio and the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company for Flamenco Deconstructed at GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Fuego Flamenco Festival V!

Washington DC-based flamenco performer, teacher, and choreographer Edwin Aparicio has been described by critics as “the most amazing dancer seen in years,” “a technical powerhouse dancing with blistering conviction,” having “hellfire footwork” and choreographies with “beautiful, evocative imagery.”

Featured in Dance Magazine’s annual “25 to Watch” list, Aparicio has garnered critical acclaim for his highly polished technique which combines innovative choreography with contemporary themes.

In Flamenco Deconstructed, he will be joined by the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company as well as guest artists Omayra Amaya (grandniece of the legendary Carmen Amaya), dancer Defne Enç from Spain, singers Isabel Soto from Spain and Jesús Montoya from Long Beach, California, and guitarists Roberto Castellano from New York and Richard Marlow from Washington, DC.

If Aparicio’s standing ovation performance during the inaugural 2009 VelocityDC Dance Festival was any indication, Flamenco Deconstructed should not be missed. Although Saturday’s show is sold out, limited tickets are available for Sunday’s performance.

Time: Saturday, December 5th at 8pm & Sunday, December 6th at 3pm

Location: GALA Theatre – 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

Cost: $30.00 general; $18.00 students; $50.00 festival package.  Tickets available by phone at 202.234. 7174/800.494.8497 and online at galatheatre.org

Want to see Edwin and the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company LIVE? Don’t miss out – Get your tickets NOW!

For over three decades, GALA (Grupo de Artistas Latinoamericanos) Hispanic Theatre has showcased a wide array of performance art across disciplines in an effort to raise awareness of the diversity and richness of Hispanic culture. As result, the organization has gained international acclaim as the country’s leading Spanish-language theater.

Led by founders Hugo and Rebecca Medrano, GALA has received numerous artistic excellence and service awards for both for its work in promoting and creating art that engages and resonates with diverse audiences as well as for its efforts to preserve and promote Hispanic culture and heritage. In 2008, the Medranos were awarded the Order of Queen Isabella II by the King of Spain, in recognition of their promotion of Spanish culture in the United States.

VelocityDC recently caught up with Hugo Medrano, GALA’s co-founder and Artistic Director, to discuss the organization’s mission and the 5th Annual Fuego Flamenco Festival.

vDC: GALA Hispanic Theatre is known for showcasing traditional and contemporary Latino performance art from a diverse range disciplines, including dance and theater. What can you tell us about the company’s underlying artistic philosophy?

We believe in the delivery of high quality, culturally authentic work that speaks to the diversity of Hispanic traditions and explores new visions and expressions of Latino performing arts in Spanish and English. In addition, we are also deeply committed to producing and presenting works that create a relationship with the audience that is intimate, immediate and relevant.

vDC: How does this philosophy come into play during the Fuego Flamenco Festival?

The annual Fuego Flamenco Festival explores the diversity and profound amalgam of other cultures that have influenced the passionate and time-honored Spanish art form of flamenco. From its Moorish and gypsy influences to the contemporary rhythms derived from art forms of the Americas like jazz and tango, flamenco contains and transmits the powerful voices of many races.

I love Spain’s flamenco tablaos, the real ones, those of Seville and some of Madrid. It is the intimacy, I believe, that mesmerizes me. The atmosphere is almost ritual and celebratory of the place and the symbiosis that occurs between the artist and the audience. That’s what we are creating at GALA with Fuego Flamenco; it is an encounter of lovers of flamenco with its artists. GALA’s space, which is smaller and more intimate than the usual setting for this type of event, permits that vibration, that communication between the performers on the stage and the members of the audience.

vDC: Speaking of Spanish tablaos, give us some insight into your presenting partnership with the Fundación Conservatorio Flamenco Casa Patas from Madrid.

Our partnership with the Casa Patas Foundation fits perfectly with our belief in building collaborations and associations to broaden and deepen our engagement with new artists, different cultures and the community. Casa Patas is a world-renowned Madrid tablao, hosting some of the best and most authentic flamenco in Spain. The Fundación Conservatorio Flamenco Casa Patas grew out of this club and today sponsors workshops, seminars, and exhibitions promoting the art of flamenco.

As a result, famous groups and new talent sometimes share the same stage of Casa Patas to create memorable productions. For example, Isabel López, bailaora and choreographer of November 20th’s Flamenco desde Abajo, is a regular attraction at the famous tablao Los Gallos de Sevilla and whenever she decides to dance in Madrid, she does it only in Casa Patas.

vDC: So what can we expect to see at this year’s Fuego Flamenco Festival?

For the next three weeks, we will present artists from Spain and the DC-Baltimore region whose works reflect the latest trends of classical and contemporary flamenco. The first weekend runs from November 20th until November 22nd and showcases Casa Patas’ Isabel López and a fabulous company that includes her dance partner, Felipe Mato, and a group of exquisite musicians and singers. I am sure people will be happy to know that beloved cantaor Francisco Luis Trinidad Angel (“El Trini de la isla”) is returning and this will be his third visit to DC.

By popular demand, we are also bringing back Diego Villegas, a talented young Andalucian saxophonist and flutist from Cádiz. Diego and guitarist and musical director José Luis Silva (“El Morito”) will provide the musical accompaniment. This year we are also proud to introduce cantaora Sara Salado, one of the best Spanish saeteras. The saeta is a flamenco song sung on religious occasions to exalt devotion and penance; it is a beautiful lament and requires a very particular quality of voice to be sung. It is rarely performed for this reason.

Beginning the weekend of November 28th, we have Flamenco en familia, a program that is really dear to me since it is aimed at children and their families. It introduces the kids to the world of flamenco through interactive workshops on basic flamenco footsteps, castanets, and palm technique. Baltimore-based Natalia Monteleón and her company, ArteFlamenco, will lead these lively sessions.

The festival wraps up on December 5th and 6th when we present the world premiere of Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company’s Flamenco Deconstructed. The work was choreographed and directed by our own Edwin Aparicio, a brilliant bailaor of international lineage that has cultivated a horde of fans in the area. The show features Omayra Amaya, a powerful bailaora of gypsy blood and grandniece of Carmen Amaya, arguably the greatest flamenco dancer ever.

vDC: Given that the festival has been running for the past five years, has each iteration evolved over time? If so, how?

Given the characteristics of our festival, which are those of exploration of traditional forms and innovation in contemporary flamenco, its artistic evolution is intrinsic, since each year we present new artists with a different approach. What is notable, however, is the evolution of our audience. We started with a loyal pack of flamenco fans, but every year more people come out of curiosity including a surprising number of young people interested in this Spanish art form. Today, we have a multicultural audience with an impressive percentage of young adults interested in both the musical and the dance components of flamenco.

vDC: Any last thoughts for those who might be interested in attending?

I think that the most important thing is to come with an open mind. If you don’t know much about flamenco, these presentations will make you understand where its passion comes from – how sorrow and happiness flow from the agile body of the bailaora or vibrate in the hoarse voice of the cantaores. For the experts, it will be a pleasure to see how the most pure cantejondo (deep song) or the high-spirited bulerías can be expressed and performed with a new breath. With Fuego Flamenco, we hope to catch the attention and the heart of a new generation of artists and audience.

Photo Credit: Isabel López

The 5th Annual Fuego Flamenco Festival will be held from November 20th, 2009 until December 6th, 2009.

Don’t miss your chance to see the best in world-class flamenco with Casa Patas’ Isabel López and DC’s Edwin Aparicio live at the historic Tivoli Theatre. Information and tickets are available NOW at galatheatre.org!

Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company is an emerging company that performs and presents Indian dance forms, such as Bharata Natyam, and Modern dance, mirroring the multiple identities of second generation South Asians. The company combines the arts with social justice issues, both by incorporating the themes into their work and via partnerships with local community centers and schools.

Led by Artistic Director Daniel Phoenix Singh, the organization has received numerous accolades for their work. Most recently, the company was awarded the Founder’s Award for Innovation in Dance in 2007 and was the 2008 recipient of the Metro DC Dance Awards for Emerging Group and Excellence in Costume Design.

VelocityDC recently caught up with Singh to chat about Dakshina’s unique approach to presenting diverse dance forms and the 6th Annual Fall Festival of Indian Arts taking place at this weekend at the historic Lincoln Theatre.

vDC: Dakshina is known for performing from a range of diverse styles, from Indian to modern, often borrowing from and making connections from seemingly disparate forms within one piece which is quite unique. What can you tell us about the company’s underlying artistic philosophy?

The underlying artistic philosophy is one of curiosity–I’m always interested in learning new forms and putting seemingly disparate forms side by side to see what we learn about culture and ourselves when dance forms intersect. We learn a lot just as dancers when we keep challenging ourselves, and hopefully the audience members learn something interesting about themselves and about what they are observing on stage.

vDC: Also, it’s well known that you have an interest in social justice. How does that factor into your artistic vision?

My interest in social justice developed over time, but was strongly influenced by my graduate school work in Women’s Studies. I was finally able to articulate that it was important for me as an artist to try to present works that were integrated with the messiness and beauty of life. I wasn’t interested only in art for art’s sake, that was only one end of the spectrum for me. I also wanted to create and perform in dances that were about life and being human. Hence, the interest in social justice issues.

vDC: How do you feel that juxtaposing the traditional with the modern affects audiences? Does this type of presentation style make dance more accessible?

I think it is crucial to present dance as the evolving form that it is. This allows audience members to find a comfortable entry point, be it classical or contemporary. From this entry point, they can then move to the other areas which they may have found interesting originally. So, presenting a range is the key to allow accessibility to dance which is a very abstract art form.

Also, tradition didn’t happen over night; it happened because someone kept experimenting and figuring out what would work and used that to build a vocabulary that is now labeled as “tradition”. So rather than just presenting dance as traditional or modern, I like to think of dance as a cycle – what is today’s experimentation will be tomorrow’s tradition, and even today’s experimentation is probably looking at something previous generations explored in different ways themselves.

vDC: With that in mind, give us a sense of how this plays out in the Fall Festival of Indian Arts given its mission to present traditional Indian arts forms within a modern context. What can we expect to see this year?

Within Dakshina, we’re exploring re-visioning the familiar story of Karna. Each character in the epic Mahabharata finds his or her calling in life, and Karna recognizes his as that of giving. He gives endlessly to everyone, even his enemies; he gives his life when his mother asks for it in the stead of his half-brother, and ultimately he gives even the fruits of his life’s good deeds as he is dying. Something about this story simplifies our duty to fellow beings. Dakshina means “offering” in Sanskrit and this theme of giving resonated with me personally. My collaborator, Aniruddh Vasudevan, also liked the theme when I suggested it to him and together we’ve created a new piece retelling Karna’s story. Aniruddh is a frequent collaborator with Dakshina. We think alike a lot, yet we also challenge and push each other from our comfort zones. We have a great chemistry working together and I hope that we’ll be able to do many more projects together.

As for our guest artists, Alarmel Valli, Madhavi Mudgal and Leela Samson, I wanted to highlight the strength of the solo which is central in Indian dances. There is depth that the solo artist has to plumb to be able to create and hold the magic by herself on stage and Alarmel Valli, Madhavi Mudgal and Leela Samson are some of the greatest soloists in India today. It was an easy choice to invite them to DC. Initially, these soloists and choreographers were considered pioneers for forging new ground by exploring and incorporating secular texts into their dance forms. This was a huge shift from the traditionally spiritual nature of Indian dance, but again their approach made their work accessible to audiences.

Leela Samson, in particular, faced a lot of hardship when she was appointed as the director of Kalakshetra, the oldest dance institution in Chennai, India. Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu, my home state in India. Samson was the first non-Hindu leading the institution and there was much public commotion over the fact that someone with a Jewish background (or more accurately a non-Hindu background) was leading Kalakshetra. I wanted to show our support of her work as an artist and not get distracted by the mud slinging that was going on in Chennai.

vDC: Given that the festival has been running for six years, has each iteration evolved over time? If so, how?

The festival has evolved to include more of Dakshina’s own award-winning fusion work into the first half of the show. At first, we had Dakshina performing on separate nights from the guest artists, but over time we realized that seeing the traditional work, the modern dance and fusion work side by side was important. So, over time we’ve developed a richer, more integrated programming that we hope makes traditional dance more accessible.

vDC: Do you have any advice to newcomers who are interested in attending the festival this weekend? Where can they get more information on what they will be seeing?

I don’t want people to assume that Indian dance requires you to be a connoisseur of any sort. We’ll have detailed program notes to help you follow along with these intricate and beautiful dance forms. And feel free to email us at info@dakshina.org before or after the show with any questions or post your comments on our blog at http://www.dakshina.org/category/blog . Also, consider joining us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DakshinaDC. We’re happy to chat with anyone who wants more information on the shows.

Photo Credit: Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company – Stephen Barnovics

Daniel Phoenix Singh and Dakshina will be performing during the 6th Annual Fall Festival of Indian Arts on Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th, 2009.

Want to see them live at Lincoln Theatre? Don’t miss out – Get more information and tickets at dakshina.org!