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Dancing with Duende

The temperature rose again on Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles’ celebrated outdoor venue, when Spanish-American conductor François López-Ferrer brought the heat to the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program dubbed “Symphonic Tango & Flamenco.” Abetting the thirty-something maestro was Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, who brought its own brand of steam in a pair of beloved works, Manuel de Falla’s “Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2” and Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro.”

Performance

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, choreography by Emilio Ochando

Place

The Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California, August 8, 2024

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing “Boléro.” Photograph by Elizabeth Asher, courtesy of the LA Philharmonic

Talk about a musical earworm! “Boléro,” a 15-minute opus with almost no thematic development or key changes (with one exception), and that consists of a melody repeated 17 times over a Spanish bolero rhythm played 168 times—but who’s counting?—is perhaps the composer’s most famous work. That it actually began its life as a ballet is not as well-known.

Indeed! It was during the Ballets Russes era that Bronislava Nijinska (Nijinksy’s sister), created the dance for Ida Rubenstein to the famously sensual music, with the crescendo-ing score later gaining traction as a supernova in the concert realm. But since its first performance at the Paris Opéra on November 20, 1928, the music, which Ravel considered his least important and has also been heard in, among other areas, ads, as backdrops to Olympic skating, and in films and TV, choreographers continue to mine its rhythmic and corporeal properties.   

To wit: South Africa’s Gregory Maqoma made his “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro,” for his troupe, Vuyani Dance Theatre, in 2017 (it comes to Los Angeles’s Royce Hall on September 21), with the work set in a graveyard, the mood a lament. Thierry Malandain made a “Boléro” in 2001 for his Ballet Biaritz as part of a Ballets Russes series in what he described as a “meditation on liberty.”

Then there was Maurice Béjart’s sensational 1960 piece. Created for his troupe, Le Ballet du XXe Siècle, and ballerina Duška Sifnios, who danced hypnotically on a tabletop, the work was made even more popular by several étoiles of the Paris Opera Ballet, among them Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche, the latter having performed it with an all-male ensemble at his farewell performance in 2014.

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing “Boléro.” Photograph by Elizabeth Asher, courtesy of the LA Philharmonic

So, how did Flamenco Vivo, the 41-year old troupe based in both New York and North Carolina and whose artistic director is Carlota Santana, fare? This writer was into it from the snare drum’s first pianissimo brushstrokes, and with the 11 dancers soon entering from both sides, the piece was, like the music, a slow build; and an even slower burn.

But burn they did!  

With associate artistic director/dancer Emilio Ochando having created the choreography (the New Yorker described him as “gifted”), there were plenty of swiveled hips and unison foot stomping to go around. Especially appealing were the men—Yoel Vargas, Alberto Sellés, Ricardo Moro, Fernando Jiménez, Adrian Dominguez and Ochando—who brandished fringed shawls, twirling them about like matadors’ capes, with the women on near equal, pardon the pun, footing.

However, since the Bowl is not the venue for up-close-and-personal viewing, it was hard to feel the “duende”—soul—emanating from the troupe’s members. But with the aid of huge video screens, the preening and posing hallmarks of flamenco were evident. Also pleasing: The fleet and sonic footwork (the Bowl’s sound system is stellar, the makeshift dance floor amplified), in tandem with Ravel’s incessant beat pushing inexorably forward, all helped contribute to a fine performance.

In addition, there were luscious backbends and Sufi-esque spinning, with the females’ flowy costumes—deep purples and whites—and the men’s tight black pants (always welcome), creating a fine tableau vivant. López-Ferrer, meanwhile, proved the perfect partner, pulling delicious sounds from the LA Phil, especially from the winds, reeds and brass, while the percussion, of course, continued unabated, continuing to cast its pulsating spell.

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing Manuel de Falla’s “Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2.” Photograph by Elizabeth Asher, courtesy of the LA Philharmonic

And when the terpsichorean cavalry that is Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, tapping à la Ann Miller (the dancer once said she’d been clocked at a staggering 500 taps per minute), came together with the score’s roiling wave of resonance in that final fortissimo, it was, as they say in French, fini!

Opening the program and also part of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, was Falla’s hugely popular 1919 ballet score, “The Three-Cornered Hat.” It’s interesting to note that when the number premiered, it was choreographed by Léonide Massine, who also danced the role of the Miller, with sets by Picasso.

A romp through sunny Iberia, it was the second act’s Three Dances that were performed at the Bowl. Beginning with “The Neighbors,” the dance troupe, including Fanny Ara, Lorena Franco, Madison Olguin, Laura Peralta and Rebeca Tomás—clad in flowy orange and magenta gowns—was in fine unison mode, arms raised, fingers filigreed. A kind of dance-off, here were high kicks and backward dips breathing life into Falla’s familiar score, with a dramatic farruca part of the mix.

Ramrod straight and tossing off a jump here, a whipping turn there, the dancers were also adept in their use of castanets. The final jota, or courtship dance, was a study in raucousness, with the troupe proffering an astonishing array of beats, as the sounds—both musical and dance-wise—filled the Cahuenga Pass with heaps of joy.

The Falla was followed by “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” Astor Piazzolla’s sublime evocation of the times of year in a more abstract fashion than Vivaldi’s popular chestnut. Written around 1965, it was commissioned by violinist Gidon Kremer from composer Leonid Desyatnikov, who arranged it for solo violin and string orchestra. A showstopper featuring Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot, who was dressed to kill in a blue and black sequined, er, suit, the piece saw the soloist soar through the different seasons, with López-Ferrer and the band true collaborators.

Debussy’s lovely “Ibéria,” completed the program. With its fastidious detail and, under the Spanish conductor’s sure baton, the band did not so much color the notes and intervals as reside in them. In this high-tech era, it’s comforting to know that music and dance can still transport an audience to an emotional wonderland at the always magnificent Hollywood Bowl.

In a word: Olé!

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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