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Costa Contemporánea 2014: V Contemporary Dance & Performing Arts Festival

September 3 – 7 2014, Cabo de Gata, Almería, Andalusia, Spain

Workshops: from 3 to 7

• Contemporary Dance Workshop “Points of view” with Daniel Abreu (Cía. Daniel Abreu)
• Dance Composition/Choreography Workshop “Leche del sueño” (Milk before Bed) with Michelle Man and James Hewison ( Edge Hill University) 

Masterclass: Saturday, Sept 6 

• Contemporary Dance: “Technical training in contemporary dance” with Chevi Muraday
• Flamenco: “From dance to flamenco” with Anabel Veloso
• Videodance: “Dancing for the camera” with Ana Cembrero 

Performances / Program:

Sept. 4:  Noche de Varieté – Varieté Night
venue Rodalquilar

• Sandra Antón: “The Big Solution Clown” (Las Hortichuelas/Barcelona)
• Alberto Cortés, Rebeca Carrera: “EXIT” (Málaga)
• Cromática Pistona: Swing Party (Madrid)

Sept. 5: Noche Espectacular – Spectacular Night
venue Centro de Artes Escénicas (CAE), Níjar

• Daniel Abreu: “Gigantes” (Madrid)
• Performance of the Winner at the Choreography Competition Mujer Contemporánea
• Javier Barandiarán: “No estoy para nadie” (País Vasco)

Sept. 6: Fiebre del Sábado – Saturday Fever
venue Centro de Artes Escénicas (CAE), Níjar

• Chevi Muraday y Alberto Velasco: “Cenizas” (Madrid)
• Anabel Veloso: “La generación del 80” (Almería)
• Michelle Man y James Hewison: “Imaginarium” (England)

Costa para Todos -  Costa for everyone (free entrance)

• Irene Cantero: “El vuelo” (Sept. 3, venue Camping Los Escullos) (Madrid)
• Ana Cembrero: “Europa Endless” (Sept. 3, venue Camping Los Escullos) (Valencia)
• Cromática Pistona: Swing Concert (Sept. 5, venue Plaza San José) (Madrid)
• Andrea Quintana: “Ángel cojo sin pierna” (Sept. 5, venue outdoors CAE) (Galicia)
• Smantik: Audiovisual Projections (Sept. 6, venue CAE)
• Open performance dance experimentations (Sept. 4, 5 & 7, outdoors: El Playazo, Isleta del Moro, etc.)

See promotional video: Costa Contemporánea - Encuentros de Danza Contemporánea y Artes Escénicas from low visuals on Vimeo.

See Youtube Canal: https://www.youtube.com/user/CostaContemporanea/videos

Soledad Barrios dares to touch us, to appeal to our empathy, and evoke an image of courage despite impossible circumstances. This ‪Madrileña‬, acclaimed by Alastair Macauley to be one of the greatest dancers of any genre, seems now to transcend dance all together. She commands our attention, emotionally and spiritually. She could be singing an aria or standing for a painter wrestling with a portrait of dignity in the face of death. 

When I first saw Soledad perform, Noche Flamenca was still an idea yet to be conceived. She had come to perform in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the invitation of Martin Santangelo, her current husband, father of her two children, and artistic director of Noche Flamenca. Martin was performing then for Maria Benitez Company, along with Alejandro Granados, a dancer from a family of flamencos, known for his relaxed, eccentric wit who is performing this week in Noche Flamenca. Almost twenty years ago now, Soledad was fast and feisty. Her fury was infectious. It was all I could do to keep from challenging her to a fight back-stage. In-your-face, raw, and scrappy, she had an erotic edge. 

Perhaps Soledad was just picking up the trend in flamenco at that time, which was to go as fast and punk as possible. But over time, she has sanded off those rough edges, matured her intense dance with elegance and and restraint. For a time, she moved with an archness that was playful. Slowly her presence became her masterpiece, more than her steps or style, her look, as precise as those are. Now a shade of raw is re-emerging. Miraculously, her performance of the flamenco "palo" Solea seems to bypass a personal statement to speak for anyone who endures pain, alone.

Never having witnessed Sarah Bernhardt, I can't compare Soledad to that legend but I can bow to a choreography and presence that dares to tackle tragedy. The overlapping of the singers at the beginning of her solo continues to haunt me with its poignancy. I wonder what Pina Bausch would have thought of her performance, what notes she would give her or further challenges.

Noche Flamenca continues at the Joyce Theater through Sunday, September 30th.

I am so upset that the great flamenco artist Enrique Morente Cotelo just died, Monday, December 13, only 12 days shy of his birthday.

What a gift he had. He could make your guts burn with only a few notes. And he experimented with so many forms, always excelling.

Why do so many of the great & talented always seem to die young? Is it because someone upstairs says - "OK. You've done all you possibly can to remind the rest of them that the mysterious forces of nature are always there, available to be tapped."

Born on Christmas Day 1942 in Granada, Spain, Enrique Morente began his career in Spain in the mid-1960s, and performed at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York and again in NY in recent years at BAM and Lincoln Center. Mr. Morente’s survivors include his wife, Aurora Carbonell, a dancer; and three children, one of whom, Estrella Morente, who is my favorite performer in Carlos Saura's latest film FLAMENCO FLAMENCO that Dance on Camera Festival will show on January 29, 2011.

“I like doing what comes from inside,” Enrique Morente told The Boston Globe in 2003. “If that means I’m innovating, it’s pure coincidence.”