Untranslatable inspiration

03/01/11 08:52
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

Untranslatable inspiration

by Petar PLAMENOV

15 March (Tuesday), 2011
Big Hall, 19:00
Sfumato Theatre Laboratory
Address:
Sofia, 2 Dimitar Grekov Str. (behind Sofia Theatre)
Phone: 02 943 38 90

Dance solo performance of Ana Salazar
Music: Miguel Manuilidis
Artists: Helen Kalpakchiev, Erna Angelova

Inspired by the flamenco music, the show was created three years ago and is played on different stages in Spain and in Bulgaria. Choreography and music are often changed, but the title remains as a mandatory requirement for the case of each show.

One typical facet of Spanish culture is, without a doubt, flamenco. The long, flowing polka-dot dresses, the twirl of the hands, the stomp of the feet: it’s art in motion like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Why you should go? Because it’s a beautiful part of Spanish culture that is sure to make the hairs on your arms stand up.There are three basic parts to this dance: Singing, classical guitar, and of course, dancing (“el cante, el toque, el baile).

Flamenco is more of an art, or even a “language”, if you will. The emotions and “words” are conveyed through everything from the hand motions to the different tones from the strumming of the guitar. If you’ve ever seen a flamenco show, it is a lot of stomping and clapping—but it’s extremely difficult to execute with perfection! All performers, although they each have separate parts, find a way to harmonize. A lot of what they do, they make up with as they go along, because the dancers will perform what they are feeling through the music. In other words, improvisation and spontaneity are key!

Duende like art itself has faces that are both appealing and dangerous. It can be dark and hard to pin down. "Duende" is untranslatable word about a mysterious passion for beauty and inspiration, magic, fire, charm and magnetism.

We take our cue from the great Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. He gave a definition in the famous lecture The Theory and Function of Duende:
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"All through Andalusia ... People speak constantly of duende, and recognize it with unfailing instinct when it appears. The wonderful flamenco singer El Lebrijano said: 'When I sing with duende, no one can equal me .'... Manuel Torres , a man with more culture in his veins than anybody I have known, when listening to Falla play his own 'Nocturno del Genaralife,' made his splendid pronouncement: 'All that has dark sounds has duende.' And there is no greater truth.

"These dark sounds are the mystery, the roots thrusting into the fertile loam known to all of us, ignored by all of us, but from which we get what is real in art . Thus duende is a power and not a behavior, it is a struggle and not a concept. I have heard an old master guitarist say: 'Duende is not in the throat; duende surges up from the soles of the feet.' Which means it is not a matter of ability, but of real live form; of blood; of ancient culture; of creative action. "