January 29, 2005

Earth, Air, Fire and Water, Distilled Into Flamenco

he popular New York Flamenco Festival opened Thursday night at City Center with a gala program that differed in only one respect from the nongala program offered last night. It offered some terrific dancing but a debatable concept that once again called into question what constitutes the essence of this ancient art, or folk art, form.

The dancers were Carmen Cortés, Alejandro Granados, Carlos Rodríguez and Rocío Molino. The concept was to link them with the four elements (Ms. Cortés as fire, etc.), and to bridge their self-choreographed segments with artsy little interactions "directed" by Jacqulyn Buglisi, the American modern-dance choreographer. Everything, dance and music, was presented in a tight, organized format, preplanned and contained, two hours over and out for the whole show.

All folk forms evolve, sometimes into commercial entertainment, sometimes into art. Yesterday in The New York Times, Jennifer Dunning quoted Brook Zern, a flamenco scholar, as saying that flamenco "strips away everything artificial and inessential," that its essence is "struggle itself, and not any polished final product," and that "all serious flamenco is an immediate, unmediated interchange of emotion."

Familiar ideas for those who attend concerts by the World Music Institute, which presents the Flamenco Festival. Art itself is a form of meditation. Mr. Zern sounds like the folkies who protested Bob Dylan's "going electric," that is, rocking and rolling. Or those who object to Peter Gabriel's or Bill Laswell's fancifying raw folk music. Or Igor Moiseyev's turning Soviet folk dance into a dazzling show.

Thursday night's format confined the performers but did not squelch their passion. Miguel Adrover's costumes looked lush and evocative; Clifton Taylor's projected blobs on the backdrop were a little too 60's-psychedelic. But whether the four-element idea focused what the dancers do normally into something higher and better seems doubtful.

The four dancers were two veterans and two relative youngsters. (Actually, one was simply young.) Of the veterans, Mr. Granados, who offered contained bursts of fancy footwork but made his deepest impression through his gravely erect torso and brooding attitude, was more impressive than Ms. Cortés. She did break out into some exciting horsy lunges and had an appealing diva grandezza, but maybe she never had the time or freedom to warm up and let loose.

Mr. Rodríguez has a particularly varied dance background and seemed a little too softly balletic. But he certainly danced well within his chosen style, and the crowd loved him. Perhaps his fluidity was deliberate, since in this concept he portrayed air.

Ms. Molina, only 20, was a hit at last year's Flamenco Festival, and a hit again this year. Full of energy and spirit, her roly-poly body a dynamo of activity, expertly balancing virtuosity with flamenco swagger, she was the most successful at breaking free of the program's conceptual confines.

The musical ensemble - three guitarists, two hand-clapping singers and a percussionist - projected earthily and excitingly. When they were joined by a saxophonist, things got a little slicker. And when Gerardo Nuņez, the music director, offered a guitar solo after the intermission, the tidy perfection of his playing seemed almost out of place.

The only difference between the Thursday gala and last night's program was the presence of the Brooklyn-based oud player Simon Shaheen, who had his own solo after Mr. Nuņez's and then joined him in a duet.

The blend of Spanish guitar and Arabian lute made a nice symbol. Sounding like a sitar-sarod duet, it recalled the Indian-Persian roots of flamenco, and its evocation of the Caliphate seemed especially appropriate at City Center, which is housed in the old Mecca Temple, constructed as a home for fez-wearing American Shriners.

The festival continues at City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan,through tomorrow night.