Studio Flamenco. La Boheme. 24 Feb 2016

 

Peña Flamenca is small club in Andalusia where one sits with a drink and enjoys flamenco dance up close. Studio Flamenco’s choice of French style club La Boheme perfectly highlighted the distinctive spirit and character of Flamenco dance chosen for an evening to relax at a table with a beverage.

 

Five dance forms and a song filled the hour. Dance styles from Extremeños, Galicia, Jerez and Cádiz are featured, some being solo pieces.

 

Be it the exciting ensemble opening piece Tangos Extremeños, or solos such as Susi Masi’s Siguiriyas, filled with the darkness of unrequited love or Emma Fernee’s Farruca, a rich, fantastically intense ‘chair dance’ normally performed by a male, there isn’t really a sense the production’s tempo breaks as such, or has an ‘off’ switch to it anywhere.

 

While obviously lost in their work, giving their all to faithfully serve a culture’s passion condensed so tightly in such rigorous, demanding forms of physical expression, the ensemble do not forget to have fun. There is great colour and joy in the production, first explosively expressed in the opening dance and reaffirmed in the closing piece, Fin de Fiesta (Bulerias), from burlar, meaning to mock or make fun of.

 

Each dancer whips off a solo moment as form of physical jest about a pose or turn of the flamenco form. You could rightly call it ‘showing off’.

 

David O’Brien

 

When: 24 to 26 Feb

Where: La Boheme

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au