Oviedo-based Flamenco del Sol considers its upcoming Aire y Tierra extravaganza to be a showcase of dancing for dancing’s sake—especially compared to some of the company’s more theatrical outings of the past few years, such as Dracula and La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
The show, in the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater at Dr. Phillips Center, will feature 18 company members and a smattering of invited guests who’ll don hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of lavish costumes to demonstrate the enduring influence of the four schools of Spanish dance, according to director and choreographer Tammy Weber-Millar.
In keeping with the, shall we say, elemental nature of its title, Aire y Tierra will look to the natural world to assign each of those four schools its own thematic counterpart: fire (flamenco), earth (folkloric), air (escuela bolera) and water (danza estilizada).
But Aire y Tierra, which will begin at 8 p.m., could also be viewed as something of a combined world travelogue and history lesson. The first of its two acts will be structured to symbolize flamenco’s evolution from an intimate and direct storytelling medium into a more presentational hybrid of other rhythms and cultural influences.
As the second act commences, the other three schools (and their corresponding elements) will take center stage. That’s when the spectacle quotient will rise even higher with the determined stomping of flamenco’s foot percussion giving way to the constant clicking of castanets.
Music will range from classical to contemporary, reinforced by a live percussionist who will play instruments as unexpected as the anvil. Such a retrospective, Weber-Millar admits, is by definition an international affair. And while she has seen “globalist” become something of a pejorative lately, it’s a descriptor that she happily welcomes about herself.
“What gets me really excited about this show is that we can still take the space to honor something that’s specifically not from here,” she says. “Flamenco comes from all over the world. The castanets come from the Phoenicians. The Flamencos, the original Roma peoples, come from India. This is a world culture.”
Dr. Phillips Center is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando. For more information, call or visit the website.
