<P>Writes SF Examiner's Allan Ulrich of Noche Flamenca perfomance at the Theater Artaud in SF, "IT IS entirely possible that Theater Artaud is constructed of some material capable of resisting heat of an unimaginable temperature. The walls, remarkably, did not burst into flame Friday evening during the performance by Noche Flamenca, a sensational 11-member dance company from Madrid capable of incinerating all objects in its path." Read on:<P> <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/07/03/STYLE6573.dtl" TARGET=_blank>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/07/03/STYLE6573.dtl</A> <P><BR>You can still catch this company at the Artaud:<P> <A HREF="http://www.theaterartaud.org/nochepress.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.theaterartaud.org/nochepress.htm</A>

***************************************<P>In case you get a feeling of deja-vu, I have combined my posting with an earlier one from Azlan on the same topic.<P>****************************************<P> <P>El Guito. Photo by Jacinta Delgado from the site <A HREF="http://flamenco-world.com/magazine/fotos/jacinta/jacinta2.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://flamenco-world.com/magazine/fotos/jacinta/jacinta2.htm</A> <P>(Not directly linked to the story, but a good image)<P>Valerie Gladstone interviews Martin Santangelo, a born and bred New Yorker, who established his Flamenco company Noche Flamenca, in 1993. They are coming to NY as they continue their tour of the US after SF. <P>"They're brilliant," says George C. Wolfe, the artistic director of the Joseph Papp Public Theater, who presented the company at his theater twice last year. "Soledad [Santangelo's wife] is a once-in-a-lifetime performer who combines overwhelming physicality and spirituality."<P><BR>Note: If you haven't done so already, you will have to register with the NY Times. If you have cookies set then subsequently you will go straight into the site. The NY Times seems to have relaxed its procedures, so this link should last for a bit longer than previously.<BR> <BR> <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/09/news/arts/noche-flamenca-dance-adv09.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/09/news/arts/noche-flamenca-dance-adv09.html</A> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited July 09, 2000).]

And this is what Deborah Jowitt had to say about the NY performances:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In flamenco dance, solitude becomes incendiary. Singers hover over a dancer, inciting her with hoarse cries. Guitarists respond to her rhythmic cues. Colleagues and spectators breathe, "Olé!" Yet the flamenco soloist—male or female—remains locked in a duel with inner demons. Or intent on the cascade of intricate rhythms. The dancer's sudden aggressive stares seem to say, "So! Understand?"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P> <A HREF="http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0030/jowitt.shtml" TARGET=_blank>http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0030/jowitt.shtml</A>

From Deborah Jowitt in NY:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Drinking in Dancing<BR>Heat at Joe’s<P>Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice<P>Flamenco thrives in a café setting; close quarters inflame the dancers, singers, and guitarists, and glasses clink beneath the music's wail and flutter. (In the U.S., cigarette smoke is no longer likely to curl up into the lights.) I saw the vivid nine-person Noche Flamenca at Jacob's Pillow just before its New York season, with a different program, opened at Joe's Pub on Astor Place.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0133/jowitt.php target=_blank>More</a>

A review:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Heat of Flamenco in a Smoke-Free Room<P>JENNIFER DUNNING, NY Times<P>Noche Flamenca can be counted on to put on a nicely sizzling, teasing show. This New York-based troupe did just that on Thursday night at Joe's Pub.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/20/arts/dance/20NOCH.html target=_blank>More</a>

From Boston:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Flamenco exudes emotion<P>Vicki Powers, Boston Herald<P>For sheer rawness of emotion, there is perhaps no dance to equal flamenco. And Noche Flamenca is proving the point this weekend at the Emerson Majestic Theatre.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/noch10192001.htm target=_blank>More</a>

From the Boston Globe:<P><B>Santangelo troupe steps up with classic moves</B><P>By Christine Temin, Globe Staff, 10/20/2001<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Like other dance forms with a history, flamenco has in recent years been ''modernized'' with high-tech theatrical extravagance: wild lighting, improbable plots, near-caricatures of the emotions for which the form is famous, over-the-top costumes alive with ruffles and trains, phony flowers in lacquered hair. <P> <P>Just as it's good to get back to a ''Swan Lake'' that isn't set in a barnyard or danced by an all-male cast, it's good to get back to flamenco's basics, to refresh the eye and ear with the real thing without the trimmings. Not that Martin Santangelo's Noche Flamenca company feels in any way lacking. Instead, it's boiled down to an almost fearful intensity. If you've seen other flamenco before, head for the Emerson Majestic for a reality check while Santangelo's troupe is there. If you haven't experienced flamenco, lucky you: You'll start with an exceptionally pure version of an art that too often bows to the cliches of furrowed brow and jackhammer heels.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/293/living/Santangelo_troupe_steps_up_with_classic_moves+.shtml" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><P>

KATHRYN GREENAWAY - Montreal Gazette, 11.10.01:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>Passion dances onward</B><P>Take a deep breath and loosen your tie - La Compagnie Noche Flamenca is coming back to Montreal. The Madrid troupe of dancers, singers and musicians performs the first of four shows at Kola Note next Saturday. Plan ahead: the last two times the company came to town, it performed to sold-out crowds.<P>In March 2000, Gazette dance columnist Linde Howe-Beck encouraged readers to see the show at any cost: "Noche Flamenca incarnates pure flamenco. ... Leave your lover. Mortgage the house. It's worth it." The group returned in November of last year.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>[url=http://www.canada.com/montreal/aroundtown/story.asp?id={87B91C33-4084-496B-867F-3B0B448A635C}]<B>more...</B>[/url]<P>

Philip Szporer - Hour Magazine, 11.15.01:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>DANCE: The clatter of feet, the clap of hands <BR>Noche Flamenca delve into the heart of Spain </B><P>Flamenco gets tacky if it gets big. It's also easy to make it commercial. Consider all the elements - it's hot, sensual, percussive, colourful, insistent and, overall, exhilarating. But Noche Flamenca is also working on something more intimate.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><B>more...</B><BR>

The company in New Zealand.<BR>---------------------------<P><B>Dance at its best</B> <BR>John Daly-Peoples, The New Zealand Business Review, 22/02/2002. <BR>* Noche Flamenco at the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre <P>The show opens with three male figures on the darkened stage. A woman enters in silence, stands in the middle and claps her hands. <P>The men reply with their own hand clapping. <P>Two male voices intone a quavering lament. This eerie sound is joined by a rhythmic clapping, building to a crescendo with the third male rising to dance. <P>He flexes arms and body and begins the staccato beat of shoes. <P>The scene evokes desire, sexual drama and power. These are the core of flamenco dancing and Noche Flamenco gives them visible form. <P>Flamenco dance and music is imbued with the spirit of Spain. It is an amalgam of gypsy, Spanish and Jewish but overlaying these are Greek, Arabic and African influences. <P>It is a dance of both the primitive and the refined. <P><A HREF="http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=1741&cid=6&cname=Arts" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><P>*****************************************<P><B>Noche Flamenca at the Aotea Centre</B><BR>15.02.2002 By BERNADETTE RAE <BR>The New Zealand Herald<P>A dark stage reflects the dark background of the people who first performed flamenco. <P>Who those people were has become confused with the passage of time, but far-wandering gypsies from India and Pakistan were certainly included alongside the Arabs and Jews who also left their mark on the early culture of southern Spain. <P>The gypsies' profound suffering, a pent-up hatred of the persecution to which they were subjected and a constant conversation with death fuels this flamenco - song, dance and guitar. And Noche Flamenca, a leading exponent of the art, visiting from Madrid, presents it in all its raw passion. <P><A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=939320&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=arts&thesecondsubsection=reviews" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Malcolm Tay (edited February 22, 2002).]

<B>Music and movement, beautiful and dark</B><BR>By Jessica Nicholas<BR>February 22, 2002<BR>The Age<P><B>NOCHE FLAMENCA, Athenaeum Theatre, until March 2</B><P>Milling in the Athenaeum foyer after the opening night performance of Noche Flamenca, I did a double take when I noticed some of the dancers standing nearby. They looked so small. Ordinary, even. Could these really be the magnificent, imposing creatures I had just seen strutting across the stage?<P> <P>But the best flamenco has a way of magnifying the senses, so that everything appears larger than life. Rhythms, gestures and facial expressions have a heightened impact, because great flamenco artists act as a mirror and a pathway to some of our deepest emotions.<P><A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/22/1014333272127.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR>

<B>Drawn to the power and the passion of flamenco</B><BR>Carol Nader<BR>The Age<BR>February 27, 2002<P> <BR><small>Soledad Barrio, centre, principal dancer with Spain's Noche Flamenca, leads a masterclass at the Flamenco Performing Arts Studio in Fitzroy.</small><BR> <BR>Elena Maya came under the spell of flamenco when she was a little girl. Memories of wrapping her tiny nine-year-old frame in long skirts, donning big earrings and envisaging herself as a Gypsy are fused with images of the first flamenco performance she saw, by Spanish dance company Luisollo.<P>"It's powerful, it's rhythmic," she said. "It can be witty, it can be dramatic, and it can tear your heart out when you're listening to it, because the words are important and the tradition that it comes from originates from a lot of suffering and persecution."<P><A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/26/1014704950765.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Malcolm Tay (edited February 26, 2002).]

From the New York Times:<P><B>Defying Pain With Dance</B><BR>By LAUREL GRAEBER<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Most children's idea of Spanish dancing is probably closer to what Ricky Martin or Jennifer Lopez does on MTV than to a centuries-old art form. But they now have a chance to see authentic Andalusian dance at the New Victory Theater, which is closing its season with a dramatic flourish: Noche Flamenca.<P>A Madrid company, Noche Flamenca demonstrates that flamenco is much more than stomping heels and clicking castanets. As the program notes explain, the dance combines cultural influences from Gypsies, Muslims and Jews, who were all persecuted under the Inquisition. Flamenco represents these peoples' sorrow and defiance as well as their passionate embrace of life.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/07/arts/07FAMI.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><P><BR>

A review of their recent show in the village Voice.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The nine members of Noche Flamenca (New Victory Theater, through June 16) and artistic director Martin Santangelo strip flamenco to its essence, bringing a bare stage to life with the strumming of a guitar, the rasp of a shoe, the sudden burst of an Olé! When Soledad Barrio dances a solea, her mere presence rouses the audience. The concentrated pain and loneliness evident in her face reveals a vulnerable soul.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0224/footnotes.php" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

<B>Noche Flamenca at Lisner</B><BR>By Lisa Traiger for the Washington Post<P><BR>Noche Flamenca, the Madrid-based company of dancers, singers and guitarists, unfurled a 100-minute program at Lisner Auditorium Wednesday with the fully felt emotional expression of the soul that pure flamenco demands of its practitioners. <P>"A Nuestro Son" introduced the company: a trio of compact fiery women, a pair of lanky men, singer Manuel Gago, and guitarists Jesus Torres and Miguel Perez Garcia (the company's other singer, Antonio Vizarraga, was ill). Noche Flamenca's staging, expertly realized by company founder and director Martin Santangelo, smoothly set off solos against dramatic groupings, duets against processionals. <P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20808-2002Jun20.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>