Flamenco, Essence and Feeling at Teatro Círculo Dance Series
In 1994 a consortium of Latino artists and academics founded Teatro Círculo, a theatrical organization that in 25 years has created a repertoire with the best of Spanish classical theatre and at the same time has brought opportunities to emergent Latino artists. Celebrating their first quarter of century, Teatro Círculo begins its 2019 season presenting the Al Margen Flamenco Company’s new work, esensoria.
Al Margen Flamenco was founded in New York City in 2016 by flamenco dancers María de los Ángeles and Ryan Rockmore. Al Margen Flamenco’s unique work researches this ancestral cultural manifestation to create performances where flamenco keeps its essence yet through contemporary perspectives.
Since its foundation, for its rigor, innovative spirit, and audacity, the troupe has been awarded acknowledgment by audiences and critics: Duende Adentro currently is nominated for the ACE Awards as Best Musical Production and María de los Ángeles as Best Female Actor in a Musical Production.
esensoria takes the audience on a journey to discover the essence of flamenco through the five senses: taste, touch, sight, scent, and sound. The performance is the result of research about the individual use of these five senses, as well as how they connect with each other. Through a multimedia approach, the audience will realize how each sense can be used to understand and sense/feel the art form of flamenco.
The resulting performance is a truly multisensorial spectacle. Beginning with the sense of taste, the artists explore foods that have been sung about in different flamenco verses, in an attempt to ultimately taste flamenco. Sound offers an opportunity to unearth new and traditional sounds in tanguillos to be made through various materials that give flamenco its quintessential timbre.
At the halfway point in the show, the artists harness the mysterious power of incense to navigate their way through the somber melodic rhythm of toná. Then dancers explore the sense of touch in an art form overly described as passionate and sensual. Yet, this romance will focus on the transference of energy and grasping of intangible space through movement.
The last number of esensoria is a guajira that touches on the sense of sight. Using black light, and opportunities for switching from dancer to dancer, the audience's perception of what is happening on stage is in constant motion.
Photography by Terrence Hamilton
esensoria
Concept, choreography direction and dancers: Ryan Rockmore and María de los Ángeles
Flamenco singer: Alfonso Cid
Percussionist: Jeremy Smith
Costume designer: Sally Lesser
Lighting design: Maria Cristina Fuste
Projection design: Milton Cordero
From Friday February 22nd to Sunday March 3rd 2019.
Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 7 PM. Sundays, 2 PM
Tickets: General Admission $35 / Students and Seniors $30.
Teatro Círculo, 64 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, Manhattan.
(Trains: 6 to Astor Place; R to 8th Street Station; F to Second Ave. Station)
Tickets & additional information: TeatroCirculo.org / (212) 505-1808
This program is possible in part, thanks to the generous support of: NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York City Council, Coalition of Theatres of Color and Hispanic Federation.
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