A novel but apt choice to close out a memorable season for Westminster Performing Arts’ Concert Series, the Austin-based A’lante Flamenco Ensemble gave the audience an enthralling tour of the world of flamenco music and dance. With the broad theme of love as its anchor, the concert made the case for how the seven ensemble members who performed unify movement, rhythm and song into a chamber orchestral effect with all of the essential colors, timbres, textures, micro dynamics, and rises, falls and punches in emotional tension.
Founded 14 years ago in Texas by Olivia Chacón, artistic director, and Isaí Chacón, music director, A’lante Flamenco made its first appearance in Utah (with the exception of guest dance artist Bianca Rodriguez who has previously performed in the state).
With both traditional and contemporary songs, the journey of Amor Flamenco took audiences through the idea of love for ourselves, for others and for the love of cultural and geographical roots. The emotional palette for this elaborate flamenco postcard was variously bittersweet, impassioned, nostalgic, grieving, yearning, flirtatious and light-hearted.
Highlighting the performers’ formative roots respectively from Cuba, Mexico and Spain, the opening Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla (Neither from here nor there) — an original piece of music and choreography — quickly ascertained the very high level of musicianship and elaborate as well as delicate qualities of footwork coming from this award-winning ensemble: dancers Olivia Chacón, Sofia Hurtado, Bianca Rodriguez; vocalist Celia Corrales Sellers; guitarists José Manuel Tejeda and Isaí Chacón, and percussionist Anthony Nocelotl Hampton. Special mention is merited for Tejeda, an alumnus of the great Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba. He is one of the best classical guitarists this critic has seen in recent years at a Salt Lake City concert.
Likewise, Sellers commanded the stage in Limosna de Amores, one of the most famous torch songs in the copla style. This is not merely a song, made famous by Spanish singer Lola Flores, but also a historical artifact of enormous sociocultural and sociopolitical significance in postwar Spain and the shadows of the Franco regime. Sellers nailed the song’s context perfectly. “Given her social and cultural protagonism, [Flores] became an effective interlocutor of this 20th-century timeline,” Romero Ferrer wrote in a definitive essay about the legendary singer, “in a sequence always capable of adapting to change ― like most of the Spaniards of her generation ― without for that reason abandoning her exceptionality and truth in the world of art and entertainment.”
Just as imposing in its emotional impact was Hurdato’s performance in Cuando Yo Me Muera, representing the Seguiriya tradition, which historians believe originated from the role of plañideras, who were professional female mourners for hire. The grieving tone is shaped by quejíos (moaning lyrics). With an ornate mantón (shawl) as her prop, Hurtado was striking in movement and theatrical gestures. It evoked the image of the indomitable phoenix being regenerated from its ashes.
Switching up to sunnier moments, the musicians offered their splendid arrangement of Chick Corea’s Spain, the original of which was inspired by the artistry of Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. With fan in hand, Rodriguez evoked tropical languor and flirtation in the group’s arrangement of Paseando por La Havana, a guajiras with its curious form where the music originated in Cuba has been incorporated into Spain’s flamenco language.
Sellers paid her own tribute to Cádiz, with Caí, a song penned by Alejandro Sanz, who has won more Latin Grammys than any other Spanish musician in history. Bringing the program to an exuberant festive close, the ensemble brought the audience to a metaphorical port to embark homeward on a sea journey: Hacia la Mar la Vela, a hallmark of cantiñas and their important rhythmic complement in alegrías. Here, Chacón danced in the dress of ruffles and a long train, showing off the complex footwork that parallels the unique varied melodic structure and the twelve-beat rhythmic sentences, each comprising three or four short couplets reminiscent of the traditional Cádiz aesthetics. With the dancers showing off their flair with castanets and the musicians, the holistic effect stirred like an orchestral finale.