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Arte Flamenco Winter Recital In addition to the Antonio Canales concert last Wednesday at Lisner, we also had the "DC Flamenco: In Search of Duende" concert last Saturday (see article below). And just yesterday Natalia Monteleon's students gave their Winter Recital at Slayton House in Columbia, MD. I didn't have to be onstage until after intermission, so I was free
to take pictures from the wings of the stage. To the left is dancer
Dina Ioffe forming part of a perfectly synchronized corps
de ballet in Escobilla por Alegrías. Yeah, yeah. I know this is not ballet, but it demonstrates their teacher's detailed attention to proper form. The second half of the program featured members of the dance company as well as guest artist dancers Edwin Aparicio, Anna Menendez, Sara jerez, guitarists Torcuato Zamora, Richard Marlow and yours truly, singers Gerard Moreno and Javier Bustamante. I didn't realize how many students Natalia actually has---please forgive
me for being unable to publish photos of everyone. Pictured from the
left: Erika Olander, Carolina Reyes, Alicia Arroyo,
Fausti Caro, Jen Nachmann, and Indra Caudle.  Program:
Duende is here in DC For the most part, it was pretty much the same musical and choreographic material you can see many of these same people performing in the DC area Spanish restaurants week after week. Perhaps we were more "pumped up" because of the state-of-the-art facilities, lights, sound, exceptional tech crew, large enthusiastic audience etc.
He said that often after his restaurant shows, people come up to him and say something like: "Thank you so much. I had a wonderful experience in Spain 20 years ago; your performance transported me back." Gerard continued saying that tonight he does not want you to be transported to Spain, especially since no one on stage is Spanish! (humble apologies to singer Javier Bustamante) There's no need to close your eyes and be transported. The duende is here in DC, said Gerard. Rhetoric? Perhaps. Still, we had definitely had something last night. I'll leave it to you to label this something as duende.
Program:
Coming this Saturday, the first DC Flamenco concert! (Thursday January 31, 2002) I'll take full credit for coming up with the name DC Flamenco, 
but the concert "DC Flamenco: In Search of Duende" this Saturday at 8:00pm
is being hosted by Gerard Moreno, local guitarist singer and ethnomusicologist (pictured right).
Several generations of Washington DC flamencos will be presented in one evening, a historic first! This concert will take place in area's newest major venue, the elegant Kay Theatre at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, MD. And guess what? The admission is FREE! Do not miss this special evening. Get the directions. Yours truly will be taking attendance! :)
Meeting the "neighbors" Thanks to the Flamenco Festival at Lisner, our neighbors from down south had a great reason to come up to DC for a visit this past weekend. Last night after the concert by Eva la Yerbabuena and company, most of my friends headed to La Taberna del Alabardero (202-429-2200), a very classy Spanish restaurant, to top off the evening. It was the usual DC flamenco crowd at this popular Spanish hangout. Also present were a few representatives of the Virginia Beach flamenco community such as dancer Gloria de Jerez (pictured above). This lady is unbelievably full of energy--she is a literally a human juerga, the life of the party, setting the mood with her very expressive dancing, singing and jaleo. This is not her first time in DC--she has given workshops and performed here before.
He was bitten by the "flamenco bug" while working near Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. It seems very fitting that he has studied with Gloria, who was born in, you guessed it, Jerez! There were a few other flamencos from the Virginia Beach area whom I unfortunately did not get to meet--they were so busy dancing!
 As usual, we partied with the VB flamencos until early morning. When the music stopped, we kept the energy up with palmas and a few letras por bulerías to end yet another very satisfying flamenco evening. Hopefully a group of us DC flamencos can return the favor by visiting
the flamencos in Virginia Beach sometime soon. When the weather gets
warmer, how about a weekend of sun, beach and flamenco? Sounds like
a plan. |
To the right we have Minerva Chandler, Michael Ioffe, Dina Ioffe, Jeanette Dixon and Jamahl Rahmaan in Fandangos de Huelva.
As Gerard Moreno was making his opening remarks, us performers were listening as we sat quietly onstage eagerly anticipating the opening number.
He made some interesting points.
This is José de Guadalupe, a dancer based in South Carolina who
frequently performs with Gloria.