Thursday, November 7, 1996
DANCE:
‘El Amor Brujo,’ other pieces will be performed at WadsworthBy
Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Powerful foot stomping, rapid guitar playing, and swirling
skirts are on their way to UCLA.
Choreographer Maria Benitez and dance company Teatro Flamenco
will commemorate Spanish composer Manuel De Falla on the 50th
anniversary of his death with a performance of his "El Amor Brujo"
along with other flamenco pieces. The group performs Friday at the
Veterans Wadsworth Theater.
Teatro Flamenco is composed of two guitarists, a gypsy, two male
dancers, and four female dancers, including Benitez. Every year
Benitez and her husband travel to Spain to find dancers for her
company.
"One of the first things I look for, of course, is the artistry,
but right up close to that is the kind of person he or she is. I do
research on it. I check it out, because there are a lot of
wonderful dancers out there, but they are very difficult people to
get along with. When you are on a very long tour, if you have one
person like that it could spoil everything for everyone," Benitez
says.
Traveling and touring have benefits for the group  namely
dancing for different audiences and bringing something special to
them. "The big pluses are that you go into towns and cities and you
bring Spanish dance to people who sometimes have not had any
contact with Spanish dance," Benitez says. "(In some places) we
fill the theater and they loved it and they didn’t even have any
idea what Spanish dance is. For me, the wonderful thing is
spreading the word and getting Spanish dance out there as much as
possible."
Currently, touring is the group’s main agenda. They have already
visited Denver and Salt Lake City, and after Los Angeles they will
be performing in five more cities. This busy schedule is not new to
Benitez. She has been touring for about 20 years across the country
However, it can still be very unpredictable.
Benitez recalls one incident when they were on their way to Salt
Lake City, about three hours from Denver, and the group’s van broke
down. Luckily, they were just a couple miles away from a Best
Western. The group waited there for five hours as another van came
out from Denver to pick them up. They arrived in Salt Lake City at
two in the morning instead of five in the afternoon as
scheduled.
"There are all these things that you can never foresee. And
thank God I had a cell phone and we could call, because emergencies
like that can always happen. When we crossed the (Mojave) Desert
today I thought we could break down. So we bought a lot of water,"
Benitez adds.
Another difficulty for the dancers is remaining physically fit
while on the road. Benitez says, "When you have to travel, you have
to sit in a car or on an airplane. You start to get out of shape.
When we hit a place with a hotel usually they have exercise rooms.
It’s a matter of going and lifting weights or swimming in a pool,
usually there is one, or laying down on the floor in your room and
doing whatever you can. It’s a constant battle."
But the dancers are doing their best to keep their skills up to
par so that they can perform the flamenco that has made them so
successful. During this tour, Teatro Flamenco will showcase De
Falla’s work "El Amor Brujo," a story of a gypsy girl who casts a
spell on her unfaithful lover. "El Amor Brujo" is actually a
zarzuela, a Spanish opera, that Benitez decided to do as a dance
production. However, like many of Teatro Flamenco’s performances,
it is not only dance. "Teatro" in Spanish means "theater" and much
of this is incorporated into the group’s pieces.
"I don’t want to simply present a program of getting together a
group of people and just having the do their own thing, one solo
after another. That’s very easy. You can hire really wonderful
artists and they just do their own thing and that’s all," Benitez
says. "A company has to present at least something together. We do
‘El Amor Brujo’ as a company. It’s a stretch for us, because there
are speaking parts and most of us dancers aren’t used to speaking
on-stage. It’s a work in progress, but I truly believe that a
company has to do things as a company and not just a bunch of
soloists."
Although there is a strong emphasis of group togetherness in the
collaboration of the work, there are also elements of
individuality. "In flamenco, somebody’s arm is straight up and the
other one has it a little more out. It’s O.K. That is not the
point. The point is individual expression."
DANCE: Maria Benitez’ Teatro Flamenco will perform at the
Veterans Wadsworth Theater Nov. 8-9 at 8 p.m. TIX: $30, $27, $11
for students. For more info, call (310) 825-2101.
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts
Teatro Flamenco commemorates one of Spain’s greatest composers,
Manuel De Falla, on the 50th anniversary of his death.