GALA continues its beloved tradition with the 21st annual international Fuego Flamenco Festival from November 6-22. Renowned for presenting stellar artists in an intimate tablao setting, the festival celebrates flamenco as a universal art form that champions tradition, fun, and innovation. This year’s festival brings to the nation’s capital a mix of traditional and contemporary flamenco through a variety of shows that celebrate both individual and group artistry.

The festival kicks off November 6 through November 10 with the Washington, DC premiere of Crónica de un suceso, created, choreographed and performed by the mesmerizing Rafael Ramírez from Spain. In this new show, Ramírez pays homage to the iconic Spanish Flamenco artist Antonio Gades who paved the way for what Flamenco is today.

The magic continues November 14 through November 16 with the re-staging of the masterpiece Enredo by Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company, a reflection of the dual nature of the human experience, individual and social, which premiered at GALA in 2023.

The festival closes with the world premiere of Las mujeres que habitan en mi, a piece created, choreographed, and performed by the incomparable Spanish artist Irene Lozano. Presented on November 21 and November 22, Las mujeres que habitan en mi promises a journey through Irene’s soul and her many versions.

The 21st Fuego Flamenco Festival also includes two interactive workshops to explore the fusion of dance, music, and songs of the diverse cultures that fused to create a distinct art form that continues to evolve and change as it has spread throughout the globe. Aula de Flamenco convenes artists, experts, scholars, educators, and the public on November 8 at 2 pm at GALA to examine the influence of the diverse cultures and people in Spain on the development, practice, and social-historical impact of flamenco on Spanish culture. The event is presented by Torcuart, an organization that promotes classical Flamenco and Spanish Guitar and associated disciplines in the United States, and led by Dr. José Miguel Hernández Jaramillo. Ph.D. in Advanced Flamenco Studies.

Flamenco en familia, the second interactive festival program for younger generations, featuring dancer Sara Jerez and guitarist Ricardo Marlow, will delight children and families on November 15 at 1:30 pm.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Rafael Ramírez (Director, Choreographer, Dancer) is a Flamenco artist from Malaga, Spain. who appeared in Fuego Flamenco XIX. He became a professional dancer at age 11. In addition to Crónica de un suceso and Lo preciso, presented at GALA in 2023, Ramírez’s innovative productions also include Entorno, Romances del pasado, Toques de mi conciencia, and Malagueando. He is the recipient of numerous pres. Among the most distinguished are “Breakout Artist Award” at the 2023 Jerez Festival and the El Desplante Prize at the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas (La Unión) in 2021. In 2018, he was named “Outstanding Dancer” at the Choreography Competition in Madrid where he performed Malagueando.

Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company is comprised of Artistic Directors Edwin Aparicio and Aleksey Kulikov; Principal Dancers Edwin Aparicio, Fanny Ara, Norberto Chamizo, Timo Núñez, and Cosima Amelang; Company Dancers Kyoko Terada and Sara Jerez; Guitarist Ricardo Marlow; Singer Amparo Heredia “La Repompilla”; and Singer and Percussionist Francisco Orozco “Yiyi.”

Edwin Aparicio (Choreographer, Co-director, Principal Dancer) is a Salvadoran choreographer, dancer, and director based in Washington, DC. One of the most sought-after flamenco performers, instructors and choreographers in the United States and Latin America, Aparicio is described by critics as “the most amazing dancer seen in years,” with “hellfire footwork” and choreographies with “beautiful, evocative imagery.” He trained with world renowned flamenco artist Tomás de Madrid and debuted at the legendary Casa Patas in Madrid in 2001. He is the founder of Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company and is the recipient of the Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, granted by King Felipe VI of Spain.

Aleksey Kulikov (Co-director) is a director from Kiev, Ukraine. He began studying ballroom dance at the age of nine, studied flamenco with Natalia Monteleon and then with Edwin Aparicio, “La Presy,” “LaTati,” Carmela Greco, Manuel Liñán, and Domingo Ortega. Kulikov has performed flamenco at various venues in the DC area, including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and GALA in Hugo Medrano’s production of Yerma and Edwin Aparicio’s Flamenco Deconstructed.

Irene Lozano (Director, Choreographer, Dancer) is a Spanish artist who began dancing at age four and formal training at age 11 at the Ateneo de Música y Danza of Málaga, where she discovered Flamenco, her greatest passion. She graduated with a degree in Spanish Dance from the Professional Conservatory of Málaga and has a degree in Choreography with a specialization in Flamenco from the Superior Conservatory. She has trained with La Lupi and renowned masters such as Rocío Molina, Antonio Canales, and Juana Amaya. In 2013, she founded her own company, received the prestigious Premio Desplante in 2022, and her show Presente was a highlight at the 2024 Festival de Jerez. She is the director of the Flamenco Dance Institute in Miami, Florida.

Fuego Flamenco Festival XXI runs November 6-22, 2025, at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington, DC. Single tickets are $50 Premium Center, $45 Orchestra Standard, $35 Orchestra Value, and $25 Balcony Value; $35 Seniors (65+), Military, Teachers, and Groups (10+); $25 25 and Under. Add $5 per person to all ticket prices for Noche de GALA performances on November 7 and 14.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. For the most enthusiastic festivalgoers, GALA offers the Flamenco Festival Pass for $120, which includes one ticket for each of the three main shows. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit galatheatre.org or call 202-234-7174.

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Uprooted: On my dance background

I gave up on hardcore classical ballet midway through elementary school because I didn’t want to leave my house on Saturday mornings anymore. When I got to middle school, I would get up at 6 a.m. on Saturdays to get to 7 a.m. synchronized skating practice. (It might have been even earlier.) Little mover Daniella…had her priorities in order. Something about the pressure, gliding, and fluid motions of skating made me feel freer. There was also the fact that I saw more Asians at the rink in the early 2000s and 2010s.

These days, I don’t really dance…or skate. I’ll move when a show calls for it and primarily dance for musical theater. I skate once every winter on outdoor DC ice rinks and show off at public sessions. I have better tools to express myself through movement after taking classes in college, especially in a dance improvisation class that expanded my sense for identifying and analyzing movement. So I can still flow. But I can’t jerk; the minutiae of isolations and fast-paced phrases can scare me. I’m an artist who works through words and music — and my body is still working to wake up, fully commit, and help me out as I try to perform again.

I wonder if I’ve forgotten where I came from. I wonder if the instincts in my body from my childhood still somehow serve me, somewhere deep down. I wonder if I think more about fight or flight than about allowing myself to feel free, and I wonder if the lack of strong movement in my life has hindered me.

Walking into Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company’s An Asian American Dance Journey concert at Woolly Mammoth Theatre — the first in a new partnership between the longtime DC-based companies — I was afraid that I would have no critical thought. I forgot just how much dance could make me feel…until I was engulfed in it. I instinctually remembered how just a slight change of movement or position could tell poignant, striking stories that ignite wonderings for where AAPI communities come from, where they are now, where they could go.

Controlled: On An Asian American Dance Journey

For choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess, his ancestors, family, experience, craft, and art are everything. As a fourth-generation Korean American and the first-ever choreographer-in-residence at the Smithsonian, he aims to explore human experiences with a personal yet universal perspective.

His modern dance style is precise, defined, methodical, and assured, with a sense of push and pull that emphasizes contrasts between angular and straight, then fluid and flowing, movements. There is flowing energy that suddenly stops. There’s a lot of folding and unfolding that encapsulates the undulating feeling of feeling in your body, or not feeling in your body. It’s a style that encapsulates all I loved about skating, and all I fear about dance, and somehow makes it both scary and comfortable to witness.

The three pieces in An Asian American Dance Journey evoke new homes amid stressful realities. In these stories about specific Asian American experiences, you’re whisked away into three different worlds with connecting threads: A sense of assurance and identity that’s being taken away because of new life circumstances and then controlled and reclaimed. And isn’t that the Asian American experience, to be brought into a world where you live with your own experience but then have to deal with everything that this country throws at you?

The concert opened with Leaving Pusan, which is based on Dana’s great-grandmother’s emotional and physical departure from Korea in 1903. In the piece, she travels to Oahu, Hawaii, on the Gaelic — the world’s first steamship that brought Koreans to sugar cane and pineapple plantations — and begins to work on the Del Monte plantation. It tracks her leaving, arrival, and coming to terms with her new home.

There’s a series of “unpacking”  —  literally and figuratively, as a woman representing Dana’s great-grandmother employs striking mask work with a somu mask, and dress-ography. She struggles to decide amid the pieces of identity symbolizing her homeland, taking pieces on and off. Dancing with her hanbok represents her finding new ground in Hawaii while holding onto her culture. When she dances with a white sheet, a traditional part of a Korean ceremony where one is cut by a dagger then walks through the veil of a spiritual world, she begins the spiritual journey toward trying to let go. There’s something so beautiful and freeing about this prominent solo and the collective movement around it, yet something so stressy.

After a brief pause, the concert continues with Becoming American, based on the real-life story of Katia Norri’s journey to understand her new home after being adopted from Korea by an American couple in New Jersey. Norri, a dancer with the company today, contributed what appeared to be her own image, as a little girl’s face is projected, with her adoption number revealed as it zoomed out.

The piece opens with a reveal of a woman “falling” from the sky, between two projections of clouds. At first, she’s scared of falling, then she’s clearly in control; a powerful image. Once she touches the ground, there’s uncertainty. Creepy, faceless people greet her as music gives way to plane noises, a shadowy hooded version of her appears to haunt her, and it’s like she’s a lost child again.

Then, two men greet her with welcoming touches, pirouettes, spins, and outstretched arms. They represent her new parents as they defend her against people trying to take her bags. Just as a welcome is presented, they transition to a moment in an ESL class. As a new family is formed, and her new parents hold her shoulder with such protection, the shadow girl leaves  —  a piece of her is gone. There’s resignation. There’s assurance and new familiarity but sadness at learning to live in a world that is still yet to be fully known.

The unknown is explored further in Hyphen, a piece featuring mixed media that includes photos of the company members and experimental films by Nam June Paik. In this piece, the hyphen refers to the hyphenated experience of being Asian American (which I, and the company, stylize without a hyphen; the late great Henry Fuhrmann advocated doing so because the hyphen “serves to divide rather than to connect”). Going further from siloed experiences of one person and representing a wide range of experiences, this piece feels the most abstract.

It begins with the company divided into pairs. Throughout, various small groups are highlighted as each dancer plays with jerky, fluid contractions and expansions of their bodies that present a collective “internal battle” feeling. There is visible trembling. There is reaching. There is kicking. There’s more high-flying action. It rises to the occasion of life-shattering identity-crisis questions like “Does the hyphen divide or separate?” Going from these small groups back to the collective, with one dancer stepping out to hold a camera with a passive gaze as the company’s photos are projected again, this piece — and the concert — ends by leaving the audience to feel that the hyphen brings us together, yet also tears us apart — inside, and from each other.

Free: On Dana Tai Soon Burgess’ philosophy

In a talkback following the concert, Dana revealed his own background with a sport that could be related to dance: martial arts. He “wanted something creative,” but when he discovered dance after martial arts, he was hooked and, for the rest of his life, “didn’t have a choice” as to what he’d be doing. He “sees life through movement.” Gestures, specific geometry, and hyper-detail pull him, as well as emotional conversation.

“Our universal language is movement. Every culture moves. We all speak the same language. We’ll all understand the message if individual choreographers find their voice,” Dana said.

He shared that as a choreographer, his focus transitioned from his own personal body to being on the whole space and all dancers as the medium: a more collective perspective. And yet, the way that he finds specifics is so fascinating. He spoke to his movement aesthetic in moments of “question or fear: your body has fight or flight, so all of a sudden you’re ready for flight, then there’s an internal dialogue of consideration of how to keep standing through it all,” he said.

To keep standing amid turmoil is something that was so sorely needed to hear and see. I want to dance more. I want to feel free. I want to be able to open myself up like these dancers can. I want to be expressive. I want to live life without fear. And seeing this work left me inspired and hopeful that maybe I can dance again.

An Asian American Dance Journey played February 27 to March 1, 2025, presented by Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company performing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St NW, Washington, DC.

The digital program is viewable here.

CREDITS

Hyphen (2008)
Choreography: Dana Tai Soon Burgess
Dancers: Natasha Ames, Joan Ayap, Tomas Fischer, Trevor Frantz, Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo, William Robinson, Justin Rustle, Aleny Serna, and Baylee Wong
Rehearsal Director: Anne Sidney
Videos: Nam June Paik, Button Happening (1965), Cinema Metaphysique (1967–1972), Hand and Face (1961)
Video Rights: The Nam June Paik Foundation and Electronic Arts Intermix (www.eai.org)
Visual Media Design and Editing: Laura McDonald
Scenic Design: Sara Brown
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto – Albion Corporation
Music Courtesy of Hefty Records
“Sound in a Dark Room Remix (Ryuichi Sakamoto Remix)” Written by Charles Wesley Cooper III & Joshua L Eustis Performed by Telefon Tel Aviv
Courtesy of Ghostly International
Music Montage: Laura McDonald
Light Design: Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo
Costume Design: Judy Hansen

Becoming American (2011)
Choreography: Dana Tai Soon Burgess
Dancers: Natasha Ames, Joan Ayap, Tomas Fischer, Trevor Frantz, Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo, William Robinson, Aleny Serna, and Baylee Wong
Rehearsal Direction: Anne Sidney
Video Montage: Ricardo Alvarez, Sara Brown
Sound Montage: Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Laura McDonald
어화너 (Eohwaneo) Kim Young Im
Kim Young Im Hwoaesimgog
“Star Spangled Banner” (Piano), Michael Simone USA Vs England – Soccer World Cup 2010
“Suite for Violin and American Gamelan: VII.” Violin Recital: Koh, Jennifer – Higdon, J. – Harrison, L. – Adams, J. – Ruggles, C. (String Poetic)
“Chaconne,” Southwest Chamber Music Composer Portrait Series John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Harry Partch
“String poetic: II. Nocturne” Jennifer Koh & Reiko Uchida
Mrs. Kelleheir ESL Language Teaching “Spectacular /s/” ESL Learning video
Temple Bells Buddhist Drums, Bells and Chants
Light Design: Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo
Costume Design: Judy Hansen
Set Pieces: Charles and Nina Southall
Props: Kelly Moss Southall

Leaving Pusan (2002)
Choreography: Dana Tai Soon Burgess
Dancers: Natasha Ames, Joan Ayap, Trevor Frantz, Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo, Aleny Serna, and Baylee Wong
Rehearsal Director: Anne Sidney
Music: Palmistry by Jason Kao Hwang
Light Design: Felipe Oyarzun Moltedo
Costume and Mask Design: Judy Hansen

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On Sunday evening, February 16, Step Afrika! brought the nation’s best step teams together for its highly anticipated Step Afrika! Step Show at the Warner Theatre in downtown Washington, DC. Founded by C. Brian Williams in 1994, Step Afrika! is one of the nation’s top ten African American dance companies and is the leading global authority on the art of stepping and its importance.

The event presented foot-stomping performances by steppers representing the Divine Nine (Black Greek-letter organizations) and step teams from different parts of the U.S. It was hosted by actress, comedian, and social media influencer Lala Milan, who gave the audience laughs, high energy, and good vibes overall. Alongside Milan was Jeeda The DJ, who kept attendees hyped with a playlist filled with crowd-pleasing songs for the night. The show kicked off with a Divine Nine dance battle, which gave a shout-out to fraternities and sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Phi Alpha, and Iota Phi Theta.

After each organization showed off their dance moves, the night continued with themed step performances by step classic step teams that included:

• The nationally recognized Mighty Light Team from Tallahassee, Florida, which is the official step team of Omega Lamplighters Inc. and consists of high school boys whose fundamental beliefs are Leadership, Academics, Maturity, and Perseverance.
• The recently founded Controlled Chaos Step Team from Baltimore, whose performances highlighting purpose, pride, and power continue to lead them to the top in the stepping world.
• The ETA Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. from Greensboro, North Carolina, who showcase their pride in their fraternity’s values and the art of stepping in Black Greek-letter organizations through their performances.
• The award-winning QuaDrew Step Team from Washington, DC, founded in 2013, a combination of Howard University’s Quad and Drew Hall Step Teams.
• Tha S.W.A.G.G. Boiz (Steppers Working to Achieve Greater Greatness) from Houston, Texas, which consists of middle and high school boys and was crowned Grand Champions at the Dallas Step Show.
• The Federal City Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., also from Washington, DC, made up of 20-to-50-year-old women whose performances honor Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s stepping tradition, celebrate Black History, and teach the audience about important figures and events.
• Taken By Surprise from Lakeland, Florida, an all-female step team with 11 national championships and the longest-running team of its kind in the area with a focus on building character through competition.
• The DMV’s premier all-male step team, Dem Raider Boyz Step Squad from Greenbelt, Maryland, which was founded in 2001 and has 10 undefeated seasons and 4 National Championship titles while maintaining a 3.9 team GPA.

The excitement wasn’t confined to the stage. Audience members were invited to bust out some dance moves in between performances, with Lala Milan and DJ Jeeda keeping the energy high. On top of that, prizes were given to two lucky audience members to see Step Afrika!’s final performances celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary in June. The night concluded with a final show-stopping performance by the artists of Step Afrika!

Running Time: Approximately two hours, with no intermission.

Step Afrika! Step Show, the grand finale of the three-day Step Afrika! Step Classic, played February 16, 2025, presented by Step Africa! performing at The Warner Theatre – 513 13th Street, in Washington, DC. Tickets to the conclusion of Step Afrika!’s 30th-anniversary celebration at Strathmore on June 27 and 28, 2025 — featuring special guests in music and dance — are available online.

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Long before the words diversity, equity, and inclusion were ever uttered in a single breath, beloved choreographer Alvin Ailey was building a dance company that would look like 21st-century America. Born poor to a single mother in Texas, Ailey discovered dance as a teenager and went on to choreograph some of the most emblematic works reflecting African American stories and history. But when he founded his company in 1962, he emphasized that he never wanted a company of only Black dancers like himself. Even at its creation, Ailey was intent on building a troupe that reflected the multicultural ethos of the U.S. in ways that he had yet to fully experience at that time.

This week, DEI became embattled as the Trump Administration went on a witch hunt to eradicate programs at Federal agencies across the board. That made the return of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to the Kennedy Center Opera House a balm for both spirit and soul. This powerhouse influential company has a long special connection to the Kennedy Center. In fact, it was Ailey’s choreography and dancers that opened the Kennedy Center in the fall of 1971, performing in Leonard Bernstein’s premiere of his ambitious Mass.

Since then, the company has made the Kennedy Center a nearly annual stop on its busy national tour schedule. For the past quarter century, a post-performance gala has raised millions of dollars for the company. On Wednesday, February 5, Sela Thompson Collins, a gala co-chair, announced that a record $1.2 million was raised for educational programming, scholarships, and new works.

This run introduced four season world premieres, and every performance concluded with Ailey’s signature piece, “Revelations,” which brought the audience into an ecstatic frenzy. The cheers at the first hums and strains of the gospel-sung score shook the Opera House with the same energy as fans at Nationals Park.

“Revelations,” which traces the African American journey from enslavement to a cleansing baptismal to a joyous church celebration, draws on what the choreographer — who was all of 29 when he crafted the work in 1960 — called his “blood memories” of growing up in rural Texas in the Black Baptist Church. It became the inspiration for the most-anticipated premiere, “Sacred Songs,” created by Matthew Rushing, a company member since 1992, most recently interim artistic director.

Rushing returned to the roots of “Revelations,” which originally was about an hour long. But for a U.S. State Department tour, Ailey shortened the piece, cutting nine songs from his original choreography. Rushing, working with composer and former Urban Bush Women dancer Du’Bois A’keen, returned to these songs, some well-known like “By the Waters (of Babylon)” and “Glory, Glory),” others more obscure. The new settings shy away from the traditional gospel sounds of Brother John Sellers and Ella Jenkins, leaning further into jazz and rock influences and sounding more like 21st-century pop-infused church music.

Rushing’s approach to movement favors a less chiseled physicality than Ailey, a breathiness in the attack that lends a sense of freedom to the dancers from core to flowing limbs. He also emphasizes arms, sometimes in semaphores that converse with the defined angularity of dancers’ arms in “Revelations.” There’s the preacher’s point, prayer hands, the archetypal reaching upward and outward — expressing in gesture that search for freedom of body and spirit — and a two-handed flutter held close to the body, a motif that appears throughout “Sacred Songs.” For those who have “Revelations” etched into their soul — I’ve seen it likely 75 or more times over the past 40 years — Rushing tucks in some subtle choreographic quotes, legible for those familiar with the work. Attractive cream and gray loose-fitting casual tunics designed by Dante Baylor change in intensity from the etched rays of light by Andre Vazquez. The work plays with the individual and group in dynamic ways, yet the meandering shifts from one song passage to the next left multiple empty spaces that felt like false endings. Ultimately, the final imagery of “Sacred Songs” leaves viewers with an apotheosis of sorts, as the dancers on their knees circle around a heavenly glow of light that brings a sense of closure to the changing groupings.

The spiritual trope continued with “Many Angels,” by 81-year-old choreographer Lar Lubovitch, who has been a mainstay in the modern dance world for generations. In the work, set to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, the choreographer said he reflected on St. Thomas Aquinas’ unanswerable question, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Performing before a gorgeous projection of heavenly clouds, the five dancers move with the ease and grace of 15th-century Italian master painter Botticelli’s angels. Lubovitch draws on the classical underpinnings of ballet with elegant arabesques, supported lifts, and sweeping turns. The five dancers even tumble gorgeously clad in diaphanous sheer jumpsuits over leotards. Lubovitch has given the company a Renaissance painting in motion. A skilled dancemaker, he excels at making beautiful work, but without shading, “Many Angels” lacks depth.

Hope Boykin performed with the Ailey company for two decades and has now stepped fully into choreography. Her “Finding Free” lives in shadows beneath overcast lighting. The ten dancers wear armor-like, stiff-collared jackets at first while struggling through push and pull, weighted stances, and sharp elbows. Deep thumping bass melds into rock-like riffs and drums from Matthew Whitaker’s score. This is a journey piece, but to where? A sense of dystopian disconnect sets everyone on their own exodus. When they come together, in a circle or a diagonal formation before peeling off again, a sense of common ground adheres. The work also pits the individual against the group as a sense of severity or precarity pervades. Soloist Jessica Amber Pinkett takes center stage, at times seated cross-legged like a high priestess or centered in a circle of fellow dancers. At one point, braided ropes pull against her from off-stage as she struggles until they slacken. When the mood lightens, with churchier music and brighter light, the dancers join in a unified rhythm, traveling upstage, disappearing into a black void. “Finding Free” aligns with the Aileyesque ethos in its individual-versus-society theme, its weighty movement motifs, and the abstracted portrait of humanity’s innate battle against adversity.

Another former Ailey dancer, Jamar Roberts, most recently served as the company’s resident choreographer from 2019–22. His premiere for the company, “Al-Andalus Blues,” features a flamenco-infused score performed by Roberta Flack and Miles Davis with a cantoara singing “Angelitos Negros” along with hints of flamenco dance, from sturdy, deep lunges to elegant curling hand flourishes. The curtain rises with a group of dancers, swathed in sleek black unitards with raised epaulets emphasizing shoulders. They stand poised on a grassy-colored slab. Leaving the promontory, they push away the sections until a lone dancer steps away, and the land-like mass is gone, suggesting a people who have lost their land. Moments of sparring, a few shouted yips, and some flat-footed stomps emphasize the nod to flamenco’s Andalucían roots. “Al-Andalus Blues” reflects many Ailey company works that draw inspiration from and pay homage to cultures across America, from jazz, blues, and hip-hop to African and the Mediterranean, especially Ailey’s own “Night Creature” and “Blues Suite.”

Across the decades, the annual Ailey run at the Kennedy Center brings tremendous joy to the always enthusiastic audiences who often clap and holler for an extended balance, a superb leap, or a whip-smart series of turns. But nothing garners more applause than the requisite company finale, “Revelations.” And at this moment, when our national values and democracy itself are threatened by POTUS and his administrative henchmen/women, the Ailey company is not merely a salve for the demoralized and depressed. In fact, it does not feel like an accident that POTUS chose the week Ailey company is back in Washington, DC, to depose, via a tweet, the president and key board members of the Kennedy Center and declare himself new president. Ailey, who passed away in 1989, built a company that has survived and thrived for nearly 65 years by dint of hard labor, dedication to the deeply embedded American values of diversity and equality, and the support of a vast constituency that returns year after year. The response and dedication are not just for the excellence the company exhibits on stage. The Ailey company is beloved because it shows us — viscerally, kinesthetically — who we are as Americans. We are strong, invincible, love beauty, truth, freedom and equality; and we acknowledge the “blood memories” that shaped our nation’s past are truly past as we place our hope in a better future.

Running Time: Approximately two hours and 15 minutes, with two intermissions. Varies by program.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs through February 9, 2025, in the Opera House at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($50–$202) online or by calling (202) 467-4600 or toll-free at (800) 444-1324. Box office hours are Monday-Saturday, 10 am-9 pm, and Sunday 12 pm-9 pm.

The program for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is online here.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional in all Kennedy Center spaces for visitors and staff. If you prefer to wear a mask, you are welcome to do so. See Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan here.

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GALA Hispanic Theatre’s annual Flamenco Festival is always at treat for the eyes and ears — but perhaps especially for the heart. This year was the 20th anniversary of the Festival, and its three programs, each produced a week apart, demonstrated a rich variety of expression and narratives.

SER.RANA (November 7–10, 2024)

This year’s program opened with Spanish dancer Sonia Franco from Spain, who also directed and choreographed herself, sharing the stage with only two singers (Rosa Linero and Cristina Soler), guitarist Alejandro Peralta, and percussionist Jonatan Pacheco (“El Pepi”) From her first entrance, she announced that we were in for something radical and boundary-breaking.

Franco blends wide-legged pliés and sharp low diagonals taken from modern dance and minimalist modern performance art with footwork and the fluid arm and wrist movements of traditional flamenco. Every gesture seemed to have been etched with a softer, less hiked-up line and intention than what is often served up in traditional intimate settings of tablaos. The program noted themes inspired by water, and indeed, this dancer’s lithe and curving body seemed to be redefining a new vocabulary and silhouette, like life-giving water itself.

The dancer knows her stuff. On the program, Franco displayed her command of the different subgenres of the traditional flamenco style, including braceo (arm port de bras), floreo (wrist and hand movements), zapateado (rapid staccato footwork), and, of course, bata de cola, the elegant manipulation involved in the very feminine form of dancing in a long ruffly dress with a long train.

Rosa Linero is an experienced and much sought-after singer from Spain who excels in the throaty earthiness of flamenco cante. Cristina Soler, with a slightly higher and lighter-placed voice, made for lovely duet singing between the two singers. Alejandro Peralta, longtime collaborator with Franco, added rich dimension with his Cadiz-influenced flamenco. Jonatan Pacheco is a most intuitive and exceptional crossover percussionist, comfortable in many genres of music and bringing the exploration of new aural textures to flamenco, much to the delight of the audience.

LO MEJOR DE EDWIN (November 15–17, 2024)

Last week we were welcomed into the DC “familia” of hometown favorite Edwin Aparicio in a program rightly entitled Lo Mejor de Edwin (The Best of Edwin). His huge local fan base was on hand to clap and shout out their appreciation.

His local company joined him, including a good chorus of women, some long-time students. The real strength of this company, to my mind, however, is the male dancing. Edwin clearly supports the individual development and style of male dancing, as evidenced by the three men featured in this year’s program.

Edwin’s inspiration for making dances almost always is tied to his autobiography and specifically his journey as a refugee who escaped the poverty and violence of his native El Salvador to journey north and land in Mount Pleasant in the 1980s, only to be faced with fears, loneliness, and violence of a different kind.

Jonathan Pacheco is a young and fearless dancer and, in one of the most memorable choreographed dances of the festival, plays Edwin as a young street kid newly arrived in what was then a rough neighborhood during a time of upheaval in DC’s Hispanic community. Instead of clichés about gangs and bad kids, Aparicio approaches the subject with great compassion. He humanizes the gang experience to show it is often about survival and bonding to find identity. Instead of elegant, tight flamenco costuming, company dancers wore dark, relaxed street gear and shrouded themselves in hoodies. It perfectly fit the signature style of Pacheco, whose head snaps with sharp changes of focus conveyed the ever-alert wariness of an outsider trying to find his way in a new world. The narrative in the choreography is bold and sharp, and, even having seen it before, I found the work courageous and both heartbreaking and triumphant when, at the end, the young Edwin removes his hoodie to signify he leaves that life behind.

Principal dancer Norberto Chamizo Garrido is a willowy, graceful performer blessed with a classical male flamenco physique. But what I found even more extraordinary is how he and Edwin didn’t go down the road of dueling males strutting like macho roosters. Instead, the choreographer was interested in exploring male friendship and celebrating the special bonding that comes when old friends meet up after pursuing separate paths and genuinely can pick up from wherever they left off. All this was done in the language of classical flamenco. When the two men exit in a long diagonal upstage, their arms un-self-consciously around each other, I found that I had tears streaming down my cheeks.

Edwin’s pedigree as a master practitioner and teacher of flamenco is undeniable. He exudes confidence with every gesture and step. Even as a mature “statesman” of this style of dance, his zapateado is clean and rapid — dazzlingly so. But his two superpowers are in being able to express something personal and intimate and at the same time universal about the human condition through dance and his blend of the masculine and feminine aspects of flamenco.

INTIMATE FRIENDS OF FLAMENCO (November 22–23, 2024)

The third program for this year’s special was sponsored and curated by the Embassy of Spain. Intimate Friends of Flamenco featured three performers: a dancer, a female singer, and primarily a guitarist who also sang. While each of these artists was certainly accomplished technically, instead of the economy of means creating the desired effect of greater intimacy to bring us audience members in, the evening seemed more like a recital in a cavernous hall.

Singer Ana Brenes and guitarist Marc López have been friends since their teen years in the Catalan region of Spain and as university classmates. However, the narrative of their friendship was never clear in the telling. The blending of classical flamenco with a hip vibe of electronic music and even pop influences, especially by López on guitar, was interesting , but their approaches were not evenly matched. His was more introverted, even tentative, at the start, while hers was more blast and bluster. López grew more confident as the evening went on; in the second act especially, he performed some astonishing guitar licks, blending guitar styles.

Joining them was Flamenco dancer Montserrat Martinez, who hails originally from Cuba and is a gorgeous statuesque performer with strong arms, sinuous back, and zapateo-clacking footwork. I especially reveled in a dance that started with her completely shrouded in a long dark mantilla looking like an old woman or perhaps even a wraith-like figure of death until she flipped the great long-fringed shawl and began twirling it.

All was fine until solo became duet and Martinez transferred the shawl onto Brenes’ shoulders, whereupon the singer stepped into a dancer’s role, but I kept thinking she was about to trip on the long fringe dragging on the ground. Instead of “Ole!” I wanted to shout, “Beware! Stay in your swim lane!”

That being said, the festival in its 20th year had much to recommend it, and if you have not experienced the art of flamenco, you must get GALA’s next year’s festival on your calendar. It’s an art form being transformed because of the wide diaspora that now represents the world of flamenco. GALA’s commitment to celebrate annually its different permutations and syntheses of the flamenco world is a great cultural contribution to our region. Aplauso!

As Edwin Aparicio is often quoted saying, “Flamenco saved me.” Maybe flamenco can save all of us. Indeed, we need its passion, courage, compassion, and its sense of holding each other in community. The world is a dangerous mess, y’all.

The 20th Annual International Fuego Flamenco Festival played November 7 to 23, 2024, at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC.

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Editor’s note: Back in 2018, when this review of The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence was first published, Step Afrika! Founder and Executive Director C. Brian Williams told the opening night audience that the show was being performed for the last time (“Do not miss this last chance to catch a locally grown genuine masterpiece,” wrote John Stoltenberg then). Fortunately for theatergoers today, six years later, this “powerful multisensory dance-theater work” will be back onstage in DC, at Arena Stage June 7 to July 14. (Scroll down for trailer and ticketing information.)

Review: ‘The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence’ at Step Afrika!

Originally published June 9, 2018

Step Afrika!, the acclaimed African American dance company, launched this powerful multisensory dance-theater work eight years ago. Since then the spectacular show has toured the world and had a sold-out three-week run Off-Broadway. It has now returned home to DC for a limited run, after which, said Founder and Executive Director C. Brian Williams on opening night, the show will not be performed again.

If you have never seen Step Afrika! before, know that the experience will astound.

The Migration depicts the Great Migration of 1910–1930, when, driven by shifts in labor-market demand, African Americans from the rural South moved by the thousands to the industrial North, for jobs and the hope of a better life. In 1939, a painter named Jacob Lawrence, then only 23, memorialized that epic history in a series of 60 paintings called The Migration Project (30 of which can be seen in DC at the Phillips Collection and 30 of which are in New York at MoMa). Taking inspiration from those paintings, Step Afrika! set them to movement and music, hence the program’s subtitle, Reflections on Jacob Lawrence.

The backstory is the through line from capitalist economic forces to early twentieth-century disruption in the Black family to a youthful painter’s tempera storyboard to a vivid reimagining and animation onstage. And as with all its work, Step Afrika! brings to the narrative its polish, precision, passion, and irrepressible rhythm.

At the beginning, the stage is set with a dozen drums. On either side are kente-cloth-like curtain legs, and on the back wall are five projection screens, mounted as if on oversize easels. Some show a black-and-white photograph of the painter; others, his self-portrait.

With “Drum Call,” the program starts in Africa as the ensemble in African-inspired costumes delivers a fusillade of drumming, in stunning unison and dextrous syncopation. An anthemic melody rumbles below. A solo djembe and flute join in. Step Afrika! dances typically feature stepping, loud staccato stomping with boots or other footwear, but the ensemble now are barefoot, their full-bodied choreography expressive of a shared origin story.

The narrative continues in America with “Go West” and the introduction of another signature Step Afrika! dance move, synchronized slapping and pounding one’s own body as if it’s a percussion instrument, all the while leaping, skipping, and strutting. The visual and aural effect is hypnotic. And we in the audience get to join in rhythmic clapping that becomes rousingly antiphonal.

Among the pivotal points in African American history recounted in “Drumfolk” is the retaliatory Negro Act of 1740, which forbade Africans to, among other things, use drums. “They took the drums away. But they could not stop the beat,” goes a refrain. Thereafter, communal memory and community invention create a culture combining African gumboot dancing, tap, stepping, and spirituals. And as rendered in The Migration, it is as if we are witnessing a history of musical and choreographic resistance that could be told no more spellbindingly than by this masterful troupe.

We get glimpses in projected paintings by Lawrence of everyday life. People packed together in waiting rooms. The bell on a steam locomotive signifying the trains that transported them. A saxophone wails. Suddenly a stark simple image appears: A lone figure grieving, a knot of rope hanging from a branch—and a heavy stillness falls.

Step Afrika! programs do not typically include singing but The Migration showcases some  magnificent soloists and choristers, as on a gorgeous “Wade in the Water.”

The caliber of the dancers is uniformly thrilling. As the story moves to cities in the North, the men wear spiffy vests and the women fluffy floor-length frocks. The men’s sturdy footwear would seem to be more made for stomping than are the women’s low-heeled shoes, and those long skirts might seem an encumbrance, but this is an ensemble with physical strength, vigor, agility, and grace in equal and ungendered measure—a solidarity I have observed in every Step Afrika! show I’ve seen.

This parity enriches the storytelling, as in a passage that features two trios, one of men and one of women. The three men, headed north, do an amazing tap number with luggage. The three women, temporarily left behind of economic necessity, do an equally amazing tap number. The “anything you can do I can do better” motif appears delightfully in other work by the company. But here—as a recording of “My Man’s Gone Now” is heard—we see the two trios in a tableau and they are not dueling; they are separated, apart, in unspoken sadness.

Despite the sorrow and hardship in the historical record and the colorful but sometimes bleak imagery in Lawrence’s paintings, Step Afrika! approaches the narrative with optimism and hope. At the end, when stage lights blaze brighter than they’ve ever been, the entire ensemble appears on stage as if suffused by joy. Apparently in the same spirit, the audience on opening night leaped to its feet in sustained applause.

Do not miss this last chance to catch a locally grown genuine masterpiece.

Running Time: Approximately one hour 30 minutes, including one intermission.

The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence plays June 7 to July 14, 2024, presented by Step Afrika! performing in the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage, 1101 6th Street SW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($45–$115) may be obtained online, by phone at 202-488-3300, or in person at the Sales Office (Tuesday-Sunday, 12-8 p.m.). Arena Stage offers savings programs including “pay your age” tickets for those aged 30 and under, student discounts, and “Southwest Nights” for those living and working in the District’s Southwest neighborhood. To learn more, visit arenastage.org/savings-programs.

COVID Safety: Arena Stage recommends but does not require that patrons wear facial masks in theaters except in designated mask-required performances.. For up-to-date information, visit arenastage.org/safety.

Program

DRUM CALL
Choreographed/Composed by Jakari Sherman and W.E. Smith
Original Recording of “African Villages” by W.E. Smith

The drum has always been essential to African culture everywhere and is critical to the rhythm of migration. Drum Call depicts an African village, the arrival of foreign ships, and the ensuing turmoil. 

GO WEST: circa 1730
Choreographed by Makeda Abraham with contributions from Mfoniso Akpan. Aseelah Shareef, and Delaunce Jackson
Djembe by Kofi Agyei
Flute by Lionel B Lyles II

When Africans arrived in America, their music and dance traditions were ingrained in the culture. Go West explores how West African dance and drum traditions spread and maintained their vitality in the New World. 

DRUMFOLK
Choreographed by David Pleasant

Drumfolk references the practice of early African American traditions of patting juba, hambone, and ring shout that would give birth to art forms like tap dance and stepping. The work also reflects on the harsh conditions in the South that motivated both escape and migration as well as the Negro Act of 1740 where Africans lost the right to assemble; read or write, and use their drums.

WADE SUITE

Wade shows the continuity in African and African-American percussive dance traditions by blending the South African Gumboot Dance, tap and stepping with the African American spiritual. 

Movement One: THE DEACON’S DANCE
Performed by Ronnique Murray
Lead Vocals by Brittny Smith

The African American spiritual played a significant role in lifting the spirit in troubled times. In The Deacon’s Dance, a deacon prepares for Sunday services.

Movement Two: WADE
Choreographed by Kirsten Ledford, LeeAnet Noble, and Paul Woodmff

After the abolition of slavery, the church remained a center of refuge and community building amidst the harsh conditions and served as a primary means of communication for industries recruiting labor during World War I. Wade highlights the importance of the church in helping African Americans survive the South, and its critical role in helping vulnerable migrants resettle in the North.

—INTERMISSION—

TRANE SUITE

Throughout the Great Migration, the train was an important means of transporting people to the North. The entire railroad industry recruited heavily in the South and thus, economically, became a primary means of African American’s “one-way ticket to a new life. 

Movement One: TRANE
Original Recording of “Trane” by W. E. Smith
Saxophone by Lionel B. Lyles II
Choreographed by Jakari Sherman
Creation of Trane made possible by the DC Jazz Festival.

The opening movement, Trane, establishes the connection between past and present: the rhythm of the train north; and the Alpha “train,” a time-honored element of stepping practiced by brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Movement Two: OFF THE TRAIN
Choreographed by Jakari Sherman

Three men arrive in the North, luggage in hand…thrilled about the possibilities.

Movement Three: MY MAN’S GONE NOW
Choreographed by Mfoniso Akpan, Aseelah Alien, Dionne Eleby, Kevin Marr and Jakari Sherman
Recording of “My Man’s Gone Now” by Nina Simone

During the migration, it was common for men to journey north without their wives or children because of the high cost of travel. This left many women at home in the South caring for children and struggling to find work. My Man’s Gone Now is the story of three women, each in a different phase of their transition to the North and ready to be reunited with their loved one. 

CHICAGO
Choreographed by Jakari Sherman

Between the 1910s and 1920. more than 400.000 African American migrants left the South for many Northern and Western cities, including Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago. By the end of the 1920s, that number exceeded 1.2 million.

Chicago finds the migrant’s new rhythm in everyday situations. It is a percussive symphony using body percussion and vocals to highlight the collective self-transformation of these brave men and women once they arrived “Up North.”

Credits

Directed by Jakari Sherman
Featuring: Mfoniso Akpan, Dionne Eleby, Matthew Evans, Kara Jenelle, Jabari Jones, Conrad Kelly, Vincent Montgomery, Joe Murchison, Ronnique Murray, Olabode “Buddie” Oladeinde, Anesia Sandifer, Jakari Sherman, Brittny Smith, Jordan Spry, Jerel L. Williams, Ta’quez Whitted
Vocalists: Ryan Collins, Roy Patton
With Special Guests Kofi Agyei, Lionel B. Lyles II
Scenic Design: Harlan Penn
Costume Design: Kenaan Quander
Lighting/Projection Design: John D. Alexander
Sound Design: Patrick Calhoun
Sound Engineer: Kevin Alexander
Production/Company Manager: John D. Alexander
Founder and Executive Director: C. Brian Williams

The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence played June 8–17, 2018, presented by Step Afrika! performing at The Catholic University’s Hartke Theatre – 3801 Harewood Road NE, in Washington, DC.

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Les Fêtes de Thalie was a challenging and provocative work when it premiered in Paris in 1714: so controversial were its central themes that composer Jean Joseph Mouret and librettist Joseph de La Font even issued a new epilogue two months later called “La critique des fêtes de Thalie.” This bonafide baroque clap-back critiqued its critics and challenged audiences to determine if dance, music, or written word was the best of the arts. Three centuries later, Opera Lafayette answers clearly: it’s music, at least in this production.

Thalie begins with Melpomene (Angel Azzarra), the muse of tragedy, listing the merits of theater, which can “soften hearts with tears and sighs.” Styled in the lush violet velvet and dramatic hairstylings of the typical opera diva, Melpomene is a stand-in for the tragédie en musique operas that dominated this era of French opera.

Enter Thalie (Paulina Francisco), muse of comedy, complete with rainbow hair and a studded pink leather jacket. She proclaims, “You offend Love by making him look so furious!” Thalie is the new guard, here to inform the mopey Melpomene that her operas are old-fashioned, irrelevant, unlike Thalie’s opéra-ballet, which emerged as a light-hearted and dance-filled alternative at the end of the 17th century.

Apollo (Jonathan Woody) enters, challenging them to prove or disprove the merits of comedy. Melpomene departs, and Thalie calls her ragtag ensemble of singers and dancers to the stage, as they prepare to tell the three tales of “La Fille” (The Girl), “La Veuve Coquette” (The Coquettish Widow), and “La Femme” (The Wife).

These three stories demonstrate the importance of comedy in opera with varying degrees of success, but the staging is secondary to the music. Conductor Christophe Rousset steals the show with his interpretation of this colorful score, vigorously guiding the Opera Lafayette Orchestra through a work that has rarely been heard since the 18th century. Opera Lafayette is at its best in the orchestra pit: their performance is rich, sumptuous, and bolstered by their use of period instruments, including a harpsichord masterfully commanded by Korneel Bernolet.

“La Fille” received the most laughs of the night. De La Font’s libretto boldly puts contemporary characters onstage, though this production keeps Thalie firmly in the past, first in an On the Town 1940s fever dream. “La Fille” — featuring sailors galore— depicts a daughter who is only convinced to marry her beau after he attempts to woo her mother instead. Hijinks ensue, and though a stereotypical comedy of errors, “La Fille” is a melodically compelling piece grounded by Patrick Kilbride’s turn as the flirtatious mother.

De La Font offers interpreters of his text many chances to take liberties and innuendo, particularly in the standout entrée “La Veuve Coquette.” The curtain opens on Isabel (Pascale Beaudin), a widow, enjoying the “sweet liberty of widowhood” in her 1930s-inspired fitted suit with riding boots and whip, equal parts Rachel Weisz in The Favourite and Katharine Hepburn in anything. This costuming by Marie Anne Chiment suggests this widow may not feel any attraction to men at all, delighting only in the company of her dear friend Doris (Angel Azzarra), but the staging and characterization stop just short of suggesting so despite the clear chemistry between Azzarra and Beaudin. Confusingly, this piece ends with Isabel’s suitors strolling off arm in arm rather than Isabel and Doris.

While “La Veuve Coquette” suffered from a noncommital interpretation of Thalie’s subtextual queerness, the dancing was at its best in this act. Choreographed by Anuradha Nehru and Pragnya Thamire, these five dancers brought much-needed levity and artistry to the piece and captured the best interpretation of opéra-ballet of the night. The direction resisted modernity, but the dancing embraced it, using percussive and expressive Kuchipudi dance to enliven the story.

The rest of the night featured another comedy of errors in “La femme” — this time at a classical era masquerade ball — before another delicious debate among the muses in “La critique.” Punctuated throughout were dances by members of the New York Baroque Dance Company and Kalanhidi Dance. In addition to the arts of music, word, and dance, Opera Lafayette’s meticulous attention to detail in history is worth praising and reading, particularly Rebecca Harris-Warrick’s dramaturgy on Thalie, which can be found here in the program and also on YouTube as part of Opera Lafayette’s salon series.

Thalie is a grand piece that, in another time, would have been performed with the fuller company of dancers and singers that its score and libretto demand, but this ensemble at Opera Lafayette holds its own.

Running Time: Approximately two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission.

Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie played May 3 and 4, 2024, presented by Opera Lafayette at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. Les Fêtes de Thalie has one more performance, in New York City on Tuesday, May 7, at 6:00 pm in El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue. Pre-concert discussion at 5:00pm at El Café. Tickets can be purchased here. Full program here.

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Sting is in the Kennedy Center Opera House this month. Not physically — although the pre-show reminder to turn off the cell phones and devices is his unmistakable voice. The singer/composer/British pop icon’s songbook — and his ethos — serve as the foundation for Message in a Bottle, a feel-good, evening-length portrait of one family’s journey from simple pleasures to dispersion and loss to rebuilding their lives in a diaspora.

British choreographer-director Kate Prince and her company called ZooNation created Message for London’s renowned Sadler’s Wells organization, where her company is in residence. It was broadcast on PBS last year — but, as with most dance on TV or film, there’s nothing better than experiencing the performance live in the moment — feeling the kinesthesia of peak-performance-primed bodies in motion, fully committed to the movement, the story, and the message.

Message is far from a Broadway-style jukebox musical. The dialogue-less drama follows a generic Tolstoyian happy family — mother, father, and three children in a nameless village from a nameless nation. Their lives are bucolic, warm, perfect. Accompanying their joy, Sting’s “Desert Rose” sings “I dream of love as time runs through my hand.” Above, a large sun-like disk is filled with sand, raining down like an hourglass. This nuclear family with three teenage children — Leto, Mati, and Tana, according to the program — is idyllic, expressing their unity with a gestural sign language that speaks of their love and values to “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You.” The oldest son finds his love, inspired by the lyrics from “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” and everyone is happy.

Until they aren’t. The larger world intrudes, in the guise of a war resulting in the death of the mother and the dispersion of the siblings. Set designer Ben Stones’ environment is spare solid walls on three sides of the stage and portable boxes, cages, and other accoutrements that shift as the journey evolves. A video backdrop by Andrzej Goulding that takes us from day to night, from desert to ocean, to city streets, to encampments, feels suggestively imagistic rather than literal — filled with starry nights and foreboding urban corners, prison bars, and by Act Two new landscapes for new experiences. Anna Fleischle’s Boho-chic costumes build on simple components and colors that can change on stage as necessary following the landscape of the story. Natasha Chivers’ lighting design serves as an integral demarcator throughout, enhancing the story with mood-shifting color saturation, while sound designer David McEwan’s industrial and natural sounds interspersed with Sting’s score are integral to the arc of the evening’s journey.

While the performers remain wordless, Sting’s 20 recorded songs become the libretto, with dramaturgy by Lolita Chakrabarti, as well as the score. For Sting fans — and novices alike — aside from the title track “Message in a Bottle,” hits like “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” “Roxanne,” “Walking on the Moon,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Spirits of the Material World” will bring you back to his Police days of the late 20th century when those songs reigned in dance clubs and on radio. Less well-known — at least for me — “Love Is the Seventh Wave,” “Englishman in New York,” and “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” — flesh out the story.

Prince’s tour-de-force dancers are as adept in lyrical, balletic pirouettes and pas de deux as they are in urban dance genres like top rock, breaking, floor work, and other forms that fall under the generic hip-hop category. Thus, the centerpiece of Message, of course, is the unforgettable dancing. A 21st-century choreographer, Prince melds genres infusing her movement language with a multilingual diversity that elevates both street and urban forms with high-level contemporary concert dance. The company of 21 dancers attacks the demanding choreography with ease and precision and undeniable forcefulness. Complex and fast-paced mimetic-like gestures become seamless conversations. The chaos of hurling bodies and masses of people illustrate battles in a civil war. An undulating clump of dancers rocking in sea-like waves becomes human cargo on a refugee boat. Regimented, militaristic rows and columns of masked dancers illustrate capture and incarceration, while women displaying their bodies in suggestive poses beneath red lights tell the story of forced prostitution.

While there are frequent requirements for synchronization and precision, this is not a cookie-cutter company of corps de ballet uniformity; each dancer is allowed — demanded, even — to put their whole being, personality, emotions, and context into their performance. The result is a living, breathing portrait of humanity, and the underlying message this approach relays: We are all individuals … but we are in this together.

Prince’s choreography captures and celebrates the toll and toil of the human story of the dispersion and migration with vivid, beautifully fleshed-out movement in partnership with Sting’s socio-political, message-driven music. A hitmaker, Sting’s music, like the title track, is undeniably message-driven. Message in a Bottle gives voice and meaning to the millions of small individual stories that contribute to our globalized story: Our lives are interconnected, whether we realize it or not. Chakrabarti, the dramaturg, noted in the program: “In 2022, statistics show that over 100 million people around the globe had been forced from their homes. More than 32 million of those people are refugees.” At the dawn of this new millennium, Sting’s message elevates the human story above the politics of nations, tribes, and factions.

Running Time: Approximately one hour and 45 minutes, including one intermission.

Message in a Bottle plays through April 21, 2024, in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($35–$115) online, at the box office, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or toll-free at (800) 444-1324.

The program for Message in a Bottle is online here.

COVID safety: Masks are optional in all Kennedy Center spaces for visitors and staff. Read more about the Kennedy Center’s mask policy here.

Message in a Bottle
A Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music UK Production. With ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company Co-produced with Birmingham Hippodrome and The Lowry. Research and Development for the production is supported by The Movement

CREATIVES
Director and Choreographer: Kate Prince
Music and Lyrics: Sting
Music Supervisor and New Arrangements: Alex Lacamoire
Music Producer and Arranger: Martin Terefe
Set Designer: Ben Stones
Video Designer: Andrzej Goulding
Costume Designer: Anna Fleischle
Lighting Designer: Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer: David McEwan
Music Co-Producer and Mixer: Oskar Winberg
Dramaturg Lolita Chakrabarti
Associate Choreographer: Lukas McFarlane
Music Associate and Additional Arrangements: DJ Walde
Assistant Choreographers: Tommy Franzen and Lizzie Gough

DANCERS
Oliver Andrews, Nafisah Baba, Lindon Barr, Deavion Brown, David Cottle, Harrison Dowzell, Nestor Garcia Gonzalez, Natasha Gooden, Lizzie Gough, Anna Holström, Megan Ingram, Ajani Johnson-Goffe, Charlotte Lee, Daniella May, Dylan Mayoral, Lukas McFarlane, Robbie Ordona, Lara Renaud, Hannah Sandilands, Jessey Stol, Steven Thompson, Gavin Vincent, Malachi Welsh

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As The Other Side returns to the Kennedy Center Family Theater from January 13 to 14, 2024, we republish Sarah Shah’s glowing review of the world premiere.

Originally published April 26, 2022

It’s not often you see a children’s book transformed into a contemporary dance piece, but that’s exactly what Choreographer Hope Boykin has done with The Other Side written by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E. B. Lewis. The result for the Family Theater audience at Kennedy Center is an intriguing and uplifting experience.

The Other Side defies categorization. The work feels like a modern dance performance, but there are bits of dialogue. It is not a play, but there is narration by a youthful voice (Lay’la K. Rogers).

The story centers on two young girls, Clover (Dejah Poole) and Annie Paul (Tara Bellardini), who live on opposite sides of a fence, the focal point of Joseph Gaito’s set design. Both have mothers who have warned them not to go to the other side, and the girls, the epitome of innocence and naivete, do not understand why. The reason is implied: Clover is Black and Annie Paul is white, and they live in a segregated community.

We as audience members are asked to glean some of the narrative details by interpreting the unique, rhythmic, gorgeous movements of the dancers. Some of the choreography is literal, where the dancers are playing hand-clapping games or skipping rope, but much of it is abstract, which was entrancing to watch but may have gone over the heads of the youngest audience members. The program says The Other Side is recommended for ages five and up, but I’d say eight and up is a more appropriate age to enjoy and appreciate this show.

The technique of all five dancers is strong, and the ensemble dancers — Kendall Dennis, Deirdre Dunkin, and Cameron Harris — provide laughs as their sass radiates strongly from the stage. There are movement motifs that recur throughout the show, and I suspect some young audience members might attempt to replicate them in their living rooms when they return home, or perhaps on their way to the parking lot.

The music, an original score by Ali Jackson, is a mixture of instrumentals and rhythmic beats and allows the dancing to remain the focus. Boykin is a dancer and choreographer with Alvin Ailey, along with Philadanco and her own Hope Boykin Dance, and there are many beautiful jumps, turns, contractions, and hand motions synonymous with this distinctive, precise, and exuberant dance style.

The Other Side comes especially alive when Clover and her friends eventually (after some disagreement on whether or not to) allow Annie to come join them. The five young women electrify the stage as they dance together; it is impossible not to feel called to join in on their fun and games. And that, perhaps, is a part of the message of The Other Side: we are all better when we find ways to come together and learn from one another.

Running Time: 45 minutes, no intermission.

Most enjoyed by ages 5+.

The Other Side plays from January 13 to 14, 2024, at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater – 2700 F St. NW in Washington, DC. For tickets ($20), call the box office at 202-467-4600, or purchase them online.

The program for The Other Side is online here.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional in all Kennedy Center spaces for visitors and staff. If you prefer to wear a mask, you are welcome to do so. See Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan here.

Lighting Design by Al Crawford; Assistant Choreography by Amina Lydia Vargas; Costume Design by Mark Eric.

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Surely, Hugo Medrano, whose passing early this past summer was a great blow to the entire theater community and especially his extended familia — lovers of all things GALA —was smiling down Friday night from the rafters of GALA Hispanic Theatre. The 19th annual Fuego Flamenco Festival was dedicated this year to his memory and concludes this weekend with Enredo by a favorite home-grown dance troupe, Flamenco Aparicio Dance Co., led by Edwin Aparicio and Aleksey Kulikov. Judging by the shouts and extended applause for this “home team,” Aparicio and Co. handily won the People’s Choice Award this year!

If last weekend’s festival entry experimented with how far can one push the boundaries of what is flamenco and featured a star turn of visionary soloist Rafael Ramirez, then Aparicio is all about company, an ensemble’s give and take, and the evening was marked by a generosity of spirit and love-loving fun, the essence of familia.

Partners in life as in art, Aparicio and Kulikov collaborated on the conception and the direction of Enredo, premiering the work at this festival as a thematic whole. The theme of intertwining was fully integrated into every aspect of the program: in the rope that binds ensemble members in the first number, in the many images of woven fibers and entwined grasses projected on a giant screen behind the dancers, and in what first looks like a morass of cable some “techie” had forgotten to clear as it snaked around the floor of the stage but when “turned on” lit up and seemed to come to life as its own physical and spiritual entity. I took away a powerful statement about our interconnectedness — the company, this community, people throughout the world, and even people in and with nature.

The first number, titled “Enredo” like the entire program, features the ensemble emerging from the darkness, tethered together by a giant rope, and their convoluted negotiations with this rope as they pull apart and come back together. It’s a spellbinding piece.

“Pétalos” follows, a classic-styled dance where women wear floor-length slinky-tight dresses with trailing, deeply ruffled trains, which they flip and maneuver as they spin, arch, and bend then strike poses and show off the essential beauty of liquid wrist and arm movements essential especially to the feminine form of flamenco. Aparicio choreographed this piece to feature company members Cosima Amelang, Mariana Gatto Durán, and Kyoko Terada. Guitarist Ricardo Marlow both composed and accompanied the dancers.

The ensemble also can boast of two fine singers. The male Francisco Orozco “Yiyi” doubles as the percussionist, and in both roles he excels. “Yiyi,” a performer much in demand worldwide, shapes vocal sound with more nuance than many flamenco singers and shows great musicality. Amparo Heredia hails originally from Málaga and is also a world-class singer. Last year, she won the prestigious Cante de las Minas Festival in Spain. Her vocal style is rougher, more “street,” with greater pressured attack than Orozco’s, and the contrast is strikingly used as they alternate throughout the evening.

“Balancín,” a duet co-choreographed and danced between Edwin Aparicio and Norberto Chamizo Garrido, shows off the sparks that can fly in friendly “dueling” competition. Chamizo has great flair and sharp, strong upper-body movements filled with the requisite tension of the style as he circles or pushes forward with his chest or arms, while no one can match Aparicio for tight, bullet-fast zapateado (foot stomping.) At the end, the two drop the poseur attitude and go off, arms around each other, laughing. I’m loving the affection in this male duet.

The last dance in the first half of the program, “Refugio,” was choreographed and danced by Gloria del Rosario. Sadly, most of it was lost on me because of a light placed on an up-stage right diagonal. It’s the kind of technical mistake that needs to be fixed, as several sitting around me had similar difficulty.

However, del Rosario more than made up for it in Part 2 in a stunning duet with Iván Orellana that brought me to tears. Choreographed by Orellana, it seemed to tell the story of a relationship, whether about a relationship that has always been sour or has degenerated over time because of infirmities of old age. The two stiffly shuffle across the stage, as if impaired, breaking all the rules of the flamenco style. As they further interact, their movements change, and they taunt, confront, and try to leave each other. Twice Orellano tosses del Rosario over his head in a most unromantic manner, more apache than flamenco perhaps, but why not! I believe we were beholding something about aging in relationship that was heartbreaking because so truthful in its humanity.

Orellana also choreographed and danced his own “Redención.” It’s a showstopper, using technical dazzlement to show us a badass character of mythic proportions, who surely is in need of redemption. He struts, slides his hand over and over the brim of his hat before cockily setting it on his head. While playing some kind of gangster, or so it seemed to me, Orellano also drops his jacket off one shoulder provocatively, even sneaks in a tush wag and pelvic thrust or two just to tease us. He picks up and drops such “slips,” all this in a flawless three-part flamenco dance.

The last two numbers return us to the pure classical flamenco aesthetic. In “Soledades,” led by Aparicio, three dancers explore rhythmic patterns in the contemplation of the very roots of flamenco, steeped in solitude and pain. Who are we, after all? The finale brings everyone coming together “Juntos.” Now we see joy breaking through where everyone gets a quick solo, but it’s all about celebrating a love for flamenco and familia.

Viva Aparicio! Viva Hugo!

Fuego Flamenco Festival XIX – Enredo plays once more on Sunday, November 19, 2023, at 2:00 pm at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. Single tickets are $25–$48. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org.

COVID Safety:  Wearing masks is optional.

SEE ALSO:
Rafael Ramírez breaks the macho mold in GALA’s Fuego Flamenco Festival XIX (review by Susan Galbraith, November 11, 2023)

The post Flamenco Aparicio Dance Co. feels family ties in GALA’s Fuego Flamenco Festival XIX appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Long-stemmed red carnations tossed from the audience carpeted the front of the stage at Capital One Hall this past Saturday evening in celebration of Gin Dance Company founder Shu-Chen Cuff’s retirement from performing. The Taiwanese American dancer and choreographer founded Gin Dance 13 years ago as a means to express and share her dual identity through the language of dance. Offering bouquets and tossing flowers is a long-held tradition in the ballet world and fitting for Cuff, who, while her choreography draws on contemporary elements, is firmly rooted in the ballet aesthetic and its traditions.

In fact, in “I Am Here,” which collects spoken excerpts of local immigrants’ stories to accompany the musical score from composers Ceeys and Philip Glass, we hear Cuff describe her dream to dance in the United States. The piece also portrays the immigrant experience in dance and in a kinetic sculpture by Kevin Reese. This oversized Calder-like mobile features white graphic elements replicating a house, sun, and swoops and circles, which Cuff takes off and packs up in a suitcase. She describes in voiceover her journey to the U.S., from seeing American ballet dancers pictured in Dance magazine to the sacrifices her working-class parents made to send her abroad. Scenes include Cuff at home in Taiwan with her dance friends and family; navigating the immigration line, along with strangers also waiting to get that prized stamp on their passport; and, ultimately, a celebratory dance sequence with the company clad in red, white, and blue.

Cuff’s movement language draws from her ballet training, and graceful fluidity is her signature style, although in “I Am Here” she plays with American jazz dance idioms in the finale, including kick-ball-changes, fan kicks, and bright smiles.

The program opened with “A Cup of Tea,” firmly ensconced in Cuff’s Taiwanese roots. The tea ceremony is as much a spiritual experience as it is a cultural one, and this piece features Cuff at the heart of the ceremony, first at a table resolutely presiding over the care-filled and specific steps of tea service, preparing the leaves, preparing the pot, pouring, and serving — each meted out with flowing, careful precision.

Both the accompanying dancers and Cuff embody the tea, the steam, and the drinkers, through their languid, snaking arms and stretching and curving torsos. Their pale silky chemises and flowing pants suggest the wafting steam rising to the heavens as Asian flute accompanies this ceremonial reflection.

Cuff is leaving the stage but will continue to teach, choreograph, and direct her company. She crafted a new work, “Insight,” that celebrated the experience and wisdom of elders while including her young dancers. Inspired by the African proverb “When an old person dies, a library burns down,” the work included eight dancers of a “certain age” — all over 50 — accompanied by the younger Gin Dance Company members. The choreographer strives to surpass cliches, but it begins with a single older dancer alone on stage. Are all of us oldster Boomers lonely and sad sitting on park benches? Do we need a 20-something dancer to come lift our spirits as we share memories of a time gone by? I hope not, but that’s what much of this piece felt like, with mimetic sequences and danced sequences toggling back and forth. While the young dancers trod through sharper choreography to Max Richter, sections with older dancers or flashbacks featured Felix Mendelssohn. In the end the goal of creating a multigenerational cast and community attempted to overcome the cliches with feel-good moments.

And who can fault Cuff for taking on issues of aging and wisdom-sharing at her own moment of transition? A dancer’s career is short. That Cuff is making her final bows at 47 is the exception rather than the rule. Many dancers, especially those working in ballet, leave the stage in their 30s.

As the dancers bowed, Cuff was the last to return to the stage. The red flowers rained down from her fans and friends in the front rows of Capital One Hall in Tysons. She sunk low in a curtsy expressing gratitude to the audience, to her supportive family and colleagues, and to the fortuitous events that brought her to this moment.

Running Time: 80 minutes, one intermission.

Insight played November 11, 2023, performed by Gin Dance Company in the Main Theater at Capital One Hall – 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, VA. For information on the company, visit gindance.org.

Company members: Kaiti Bachman, Rachel Bozalis, Michala Conroy, Thomas Downey, Michelle Geoghegan, Julia Hellmich, Morgan Lamarre, Yun Liang, Tristen Matthews, Micah McKee

Guest performers: Abbi Brees, Douglas Galbi, Dana Gattuso, Kathy Haffey, Patricia Langan, Frankie Park-Stryk, Peg Schaefer, Len Wojcik

SEE ALSO:
Gin Dance Company’s artistic director Shu-Chen Cuff to retire from the stage (news story, October 18, 2023)

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In its 19th Fuego Flamenco Festival, GALA Hispanic Theatre has once again assembled in Washington companies and programs of high-definition artistry to demonstrate the breadth and variety that make up both traditional and boundary-shattering contemporary flamenco. The second program in this fall’s lineup, Lo preciso, features multi-award-winning dancer Rafael Ramírez, and the program, only 70 minutes in length, is stunning.

What made his artistry so exceptional? In Ramírez we get a dancer, choreographer, and stage director who is at once both bold and pure, who wastes not a single gesture or percussive footwork as exclamation points, and whose vision never waivers from delivering human emotions in the stories and relationships with his fellow artists on stage.

It began with the piece “Origen” in silence. Ramírez enters in darkness, but for a rectangular shaft of light. His upper torso is bare, a black hat pulled at such a rakish angle his face is totally eclipsed. He lifts a leg and slowly, slowly plants one foot, followed by the other, like a long-legged bird picking its way along a water’s edge. The suspension. The control. Four other bodies stand stark still on stage. He moves to each one and slowly animates them. Perhaps this is the dawn of creation, and we are witnessing the artist-as-god in the process of conjuring exactness. He seems to invite us into his quest for what is essential in his storytelling through dance.

I watch the man’s technical use of extensions, going much further than the lifted chest and high-aloft arms we associate with flamenco dancing. Borrowing from modern dance, he incorporates elongated low diagonals in his choreography and then keeps the energy moving in oppositional suspension, and, just when one thinks he can’t extricate himself, he releases and arcs his arm or torques his body.

Perhaps more than anything, for me Ramírez breaks the mold of the macho pride and whiff of arrogance I so often associate with male flamenco. In one of the dances, I watch the man in what seems an existential crisis. “Which way to turn? What choices do I even have?” His face is pitiable, his expression vulnerable. He performs near-impossibly low lunges, pulls up taut, lunges again, then retreats covering the stage in a long diagonal, his feet sliding along the floor, specifically not stomping. He reaches to the sky, poised in some kind of cry of silent communion. In most un-flamenco style, his body contracts and collapses. ¡Guapo!

Don’t misunderstand, when the feet need to rat-a-tat-tat clatter, he has all the technique and fire one expects. But he doesn’t make that the focus of his choreography. Rather, he gives his all in the sharp focus shifts, the wrist and arm rotations, the exquisite hanging suspension in a pose on an inhalation. And all in the service of sharing the exacting effort needed to attain perfection that is the quest of the human spirit.

The four others in the ensemble most ably add to the evening, changing the tone, adding song and instrumental music, and even taking on dramatic characters.

Singers Rosa Linero and Fabiola Santiago are delightfully giddy and soulful by turns. Their throaty voices convey the passion and sustained hiccoughing vocalise runs of the style. In one whole number, they speak rhythmically, freshening the ancient genre with a contemporary pulse. There’s even a most comical girl “dissing” scene, where, with much fanning business and flouncing, they sit, stand, turn their backs on each other, and then wheel around to dish it to each other again, including hurling comparisons about their breasts. Hilarious. It’s lovely to see the range and theatrical capacity of these two singers.

There is more than one magical moment, defined by simple choreographed means. I recall one where Ramírez holds up what looks like a solid backdrop behind a singer with her wild long red hair, standing as if for a portrait. He folds the “backdrop’ so it becomes a tunnel and, dominating her, draws the woman inside upstage. But then he appears behind her and the cloth is revealed as a classic tablao or manton (the large square fringed shawl used in flamenco.) She takes the lead, floating her arms up and down, and he as partner follows, his arms flicking in response to hers, unfurling, so that the long fringes flutter like feathers of a single bird taking wing.

Isaac Muñoz plays flamenco-style guitar beautifully. In solos, this fine musician captured the hearts of everyone in the room. Similarly, percussionist Alex Otero added much to the spare style of the choreography. He and Ramírez conveyed a special bond, listening closely to each other and complementing each one’s intricate rhythmic patterns, fusing in Ramírez’s desired preciso to distill into true collaborative perfection.

There might be just one element missing. In any full traditional tablao experience, the audience participation is integral. While we had a few scattered flamenco aficionados in the theater opening night, most Americans are woefully unprepared to leap in and interact. My friend Cecília and I have wondered how to assist the audience to participate and if GALA and its presenting collaborators might offer a short pre-show “workshop” to introduce the audience to the clapping rhythms. It would serve as cultural education and enliven the evening further.

There are two performances left, November 11 at 8 p.m. and November 12 at 2 p.m. Starting November 16 as part of the festival, Edwin Aparicio and his local Flamenco Aparicio Dance Co. will be presenting a new work entitled Enredo.

Flamenco is a treasure and available to us all in DC, thanks in great part to GALA’s commitment to revel in the art form presented festival style.

Running Time: 70 minutes, no intermission.

Fuego Flamenco Festival XIX – Lo preciso plays Saturday, November 11, 2023, at 8:00 pm and Sunday, November 12 at 2:00 pm at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. Single tickets are $25–$48. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org.

COVID Safety:  Wearing masks is optional.

SEE ALSO:
Flamenco Aparicio Dance Co. feels family ties in GALA’s Fuego Flamenco Festival XIX (review by Susan Galbraith, November 19, 2023)

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