Flamenco dance sells out

Flamenco began as a outlet for cultural expression for repressed ethnic and religious groups during the Spanish Inquisition.

Martin Santangelo, the artistic director for touring group Noche Flamenca, said that emotional experience is still central to the music and dance style now performed around the world.

“It was a way to go on, to wake up the next morning and keep going,” Santangelo said. “If you’re really watching carefully, in each piece there will always be a cathartic moment.”

Noche Flamenca will perform a sold-out show tonight at Memorial Hall as part of the Carolina Performing Arts series.

The group — which Santangelo formed about 15 years ago with his wife, New York Dance and Performance award winning dancer Soledad Barrio — includes dancers, singers and guitarists. The group works with several different artists but some have been with Noche Flamenca for years.

The company’s members are based in Spain, but they have performed around the world, including a tour in Australia last summer. They also regularly perform in New York.

Santangelo said flamenco was created by dozens of marginalized groups living in Spain, including gypsies, people of Arab descent and Jews.

“Like any cultural movement when there’s a gigantic repression, people screamed out. The scream became flamenco,” Santangelo said.

“The thing that’s so explosive about flamenco is that ... it really touches upon almost any human being anywhere in the world.”

Marian Hopkins, a dance instructor in UNC’s department of exercise and sport science, said audiences should look for intricate rhythms and the interaction between the dance and music.

But Santangelo said while flamenco requires technical skill — most of the dancers are ballet trained — it also focuses on conveying both male and female performers’ strength and intensity.

He calls this quality “emotional storytelling.”

Kara Larson, director of marketing and public relations for CPA, saw Noche Flamenca perform in New York earlier this year and said that their emotional intensity engages audiences, even those who are new to flamenco.

“Flamenco is one of those art forms that doesn’t bother with small emotions,” Larson said. “It’s all about life and love and loss and passion and danger.”

Noche Flamenca has not performed at UNC before, she said, so it came as a surprise that tickets went so quickly. The show sold out several weeks ago.



Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.