Skip to content

Rikomatic

Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff

Menu
  • Follow Me on Instagram
  • My Professional Site RangerRik.com
  • Every Roller Rink in California (Map)
Menu

Flamenco photos and performance at Aperture Gallery

Posted on February 6, 2010 by

This week, I got an invite from my friend Leslie to the Aperture Gallery for the opening of flamenco photo exhibit called "No Singing Allowed." It's a really impressive retrospective of photography of the Spanish artform, told from both the outsider's eye and by Spaniards themselves.  I found it very telling how this vernacular dance was represented and interpreted by foreign photographers as something "exotic" and strange.  

At the opening on Friday, the visitors were treated to a performance by Pastora Galván, a powerful flamenco performer who demonstrated how this art is alive and well. Above you can see her opening piece, deftly incorporating singing, clapping, tap, and movement of the enormous train on her dress.  So amazing.

More performance by Galván after the jump…

Here Galván sheds her red train and does a powerful percussive piece.  Here you see the emotional and improvisational quality of the dance, which stands alone even without the Spanish guitar traditionally associated with flamenco performance.

Galván is no spring chicken, and yet she tirelessly performed for nearly 20 minutes without break.  Apparently flamenco is a danceform that doesn't privilege the young.  In Spanish culture, you aren't considered to have enough "duende" (soul) until their 30s and often perform well into their 50s.  As a middle-aged dancer, I gotta appreciate this.

In Galván's finale, she powers through a tap oriented piece.  I love how the lighting made her just a sillouette against the white background. 

In related news, February 11-21 is the 2010 Flamenco Festival in New York! So go out and catch yourself some of this rarely-seen-in-New York artform. You'll thank me.

1 thought on “Flamenco photos and performance at Aperture Gallery”

  1. lesley says:
    February 7, 2010 at 8:13 pm

    Thanks for the shout out, Rick!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Freestyle to “Booty Swing” by Parov Stelar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3pMWtX0DdE

Recent Posts

  • There is no such thing as a “safe space” (poem)
  • Poor and Alone in Geneva
  • I Bought the 1982 EPCOT Map (print)
  • Yummiest Things I Ate in 2022
  • The Way to Prevent Alzheimer’s Is Right in Front of Us

Categories

  • Books
  • Cats
  • Civil Society
  • Creative Writing
  • Current Affairs
  • Dancing / Music
  • Education
  • Family
  • Film
  • Food and Drink
  • Frankie Manning
  • Games
  • General
  • Health
  • Information Society
  • Machinima
  • Media Reform
  • Music
  • New York
  • Politics
  • Real World Places in SL
  • Religion
  • Science
  • SF Bay Area
  • Television
  • The Spirit
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • Virtual Worlds
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Tags

b-boy (75) breakdance (50) breaking (26) brooklyn (36) charleston (11) competition (11) coney island (10) dance (17) dancing (30) documentary (15) education (21) festival (12) frankie95 (16) frankie manning (52) frim fram (10) global kids (70) hip-hop (31) human rights (11) inaug09 (11) jazz (12) lindyhop (17) lindy hop (141) lowcarb (18) lxd (11) macarthur foundation (12) machinima (22) memorial (14) mermaidparade (22) mtv (13) performance (16) pmt (10) popping (11) quaker (27) recipe (38) rockclimbing (16) second life (81) shim sham (15) skating (40) soul music (14) swing (51) swing dance (45) united nations (10) virtual world (19) virtual worlds (29) yehoodi (38)
© 2023 Rikomatic | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme