Cafe de Chinitas
October 28 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre
Mozaico Flamenco Company
+ Orchid Ensemble
Spanish flamenco dancing and Chinese musicians and dancers of Chinese, Filipino and Caucasian heritage? Throw in a Japanese born traditional flamenco singer, and this must be multicultural Vancouver on a good day.
In the mid-18th century, there actually existed a Flamenco singer's coffee shop in the city of Malaga in southern Spain. This region of Andalucia had good commerce with the Orient (primarily from the Phillipines) and many Asian women, known as "chinitas" would attend the cafe. Today in Madrid, you can go to a specific 2nd story restaurant in a 19th Century building, eat good spanish food and watch flamenco dancing as part of the city's vibrant night life.
But for one evening, the city of Vancouver did Madrid one step better.
318 people filled the Norman Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community Centre. The curtains parted to reveal five beautiful women in flamenco dresses sitting motionless on chairs, their heads held high as if posing for fashion magazines. Sensual tension was high, as sparse musical notes came from a flamenco guitar. A woman's voice cut the air in spanish tongue. A man dressed in black, moved haltingly slow and dramatic, his heels hitting the floor in stuttering bursts of sound. A chinese erhu played melodic lines. Unseen hands beat rhythmic bursts on a wooden box. Graceful arms arched skyward like a bird of prey. A flash of movement, a spin, then stillness and sparse percussive rhythm back to dynamic tension, as the women sit quietly, not having moved an inch.
Welcome to Cafe de Chinatas a la Vancouver, courtesy of Mozaico Flamenco and Vancouver's renowned Chinese and New Music performers, the Orchid Ensemble. It is a musical collaboration created by producer project director Kassandra and artistic director Oscar Nieto. Guest dancer Pablo Pizano, provided an exciting male lead to the five company dancers of Spanish, Mexican, English, Chinese and Filipino heritage. Flamenco guitarist Peter Mole, flamenco singer Keiko Ooka and flamenco cellist Cyrena Huang provided dimension to the traditional and innovative music of Orchid Ensemble's Lan Tung on erhu, Gelina Tang on zheng and Jonathan Bernard on percussion.
Each musical or dance number gave a different dimension to this unique take on the "East Meets West" theme. "Cafe de Chinatas" is an actual traditional song and poem written by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) that is often performed by flamenco dancers. Kasandra followed with a colourful solo dance. Her dazzling smile, subtlety and graceful flash contrasting with the seriousness and energetic tensionof guest dancer Pablo Pizano.
Chinese traditional style music, with the dancers dressed in red-golden chinese cheong-sam dresses with the thigh-high slits, opened the 2nd Act with music composed by Vancouver composer Jin Zhang. Artistic director Oscar Nietor took his solo turn dressed in a Chinese outfit. He looked like a graceful old Chinese Tai-Chi master, but he floated across the floor on his stuttering flamenco footwork, deceptively balancing the yin and yang of movement and stillness, hard and soft, quiet and loud.
Winged Horses of Heaven is a contemporary piece in the Orchid Ensemble repetoire by Vancouver new music composer Moshe Demburg. All three principal dancers, Nieto, Pizano and Kasandra took to the stage, blending and contrasting their unique dance styles of flamenco. It was wonderful to see, like an exotic ballet of style and movement. Bernard played the marimbas, while Lan Tung's erhu sang high melodic lines chasing the delicate plucking of Gelina Tang's zheng.
There was a good buzz in the city on the weekend about the latest offering from Mozaiko Flamenco. Both the Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail wrote preview features. I was warned by Orchid Ensemble leader and erhu player Lan Tung, that the show would be sold out. It was. I sat backstage in the wings and had an incredible "insider's view" of the show.
My familiarity with flamenco is limited to witnessing performances by flamenco guitarist legends Paco de Lucia and Paco Pena. They bring top notch dancers and singers who have grown up steeped in Spanish flamenco culture with them on tour. Cafe de Chinatas captured the flavor of traditional flamenco and added some special flavours to the mix. They transported the audience to Spain, but also infused it with Vancouver's intercultural fusion seasonings. This show was definitely special. Aspects of this show should definitely be included for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic offerings. Chinese flamenco dancers with Orchid Ensemble... better in my books and more representative of Vancouver than snow mobiler and hockey stick carrying skaters in the closing Olympic ceremonies of Torino.
